Love and Loyalty

“The covenant bestows an unrivaled dignity on humans. Judaism acknowledges, as do most faiths, that God is infinite and we infinitesimal, God is eternal and we ephemeral, God is everything and we next to nothing. But Judaism makes the momentous claim in the opposite direction, that we are “God’s partners in the work of creation” (Shabbat 10a and 119b). We are not tainted by original sin; we are not incapable of greatness; we are God’s stake in the world. Tanach tells an astonishing love story: about God’s love for a people to whom He binds Himself in covenant, a covenant He never breaks, rescinds or changes however many times we betray it and Him. The covenant is law as love and loyalty.”

Ceremony & Celebration, p. 70