sefarim (books) and
rebbaim (rabbis/teachers) who remain closed off to me for years, but suddenly they come alive and shimmer with the brightest light I can imagine. When this happens, I feel a sense of real urgency to understand what messages they have for me, what lessons I surely was not ready for in the past, but suddenly find so important. It literally took decades of urging by one friend until
Rav Kook began to shine so brightly to me. Another is
Mei HaShiloach by the
Ishbitzer, advocated to me by another friend and teacher. If there is a common thread between the two, it’s that they don’t ask simple questions designed to elicit a predictable, preprogrammed response. Rather the questions they ask force me to think, to confront eveything I thought I already knew, to challenge my long-accepted frames of reference. A reminder that Judaism isn’t a catechism religion.