Summary: An Island of Wholeness in a Fractured World. Biblical texts remember a perfect past and dream of a redeemed future. Jewish life offers us glimpses of those idealized moments in the hopes that they will nourish, sustain, and inspire us as we make our way through a far-less-than-perfect present. And yet potent and powerful as they are, dreams of perfection also have their dangers: they can keep us so rooted in a longed-for future that we grow indifferent—or even oblivious—to the blessings and possibilities of the present.
