“The Holy WordThat walk'd among the ancient trees,Calling the lapsèd soul,And weeping in the evening dew;That might controlThe starry pole,And fallen, fallen light renew!”

“We say that flowers return every spring, but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested. The flower that wilted last year is gone. Petals once fallen are fallen forever. Flowers do not return in the spring, rather they are replaced. It is in this difference between returned and replaced that the price of renewal is paid. And as it is for spring flowers, so it is for us.”

“Fairness is a myth among a fallen humankind, but equality of struggle can be maintained, even if it is only a pale ghost of true”

“The call of repentance is for the righteous and the unrighteous, the godly and the ungodly alike. If the righteous had been the lights they were called to be, the nation would never have fallen as it did.”

“You cannot mend the chromosome, quell the earthquake, or stanch the flood. You cannot atone for the dead tyrants’ murders and you alone cannot stop living tyrants. As Martin Buber saw it, the world of ordinary days “affords” us that precise association with god that redeems both us and our speck of world. God entrusts and allots to everyone an area to redeem: this creased and feeble life, “the world in which you live, just as it is, and not otherwise.” “Insofar as he cultivates and enjoys them in holiness, he frees their souls…he who prays and sings in holiness, eats and speaks in holiness…through him the sparks which have fallen will be uplifted, and the worlds which have fallen will be delivered and renewed.”

“He had fallen out of the ugly tree, and hit every branch.”