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Hagigah 6a-b
Talmud Bavli Hagigah 6a-b
R. Yishmael and R. Akiva on Successive Revelation

Ha-Kohen, Rabbi Zadok, of Lublin (1823-1900), was a prolific and influential Hasidic master and author. Though raised and schooled in a Lithuanian rabbinic family, he became a disciple of the Hasidic sage Rabbi Mordekhai Yoseph Leiner of Izbicha, author of Mei Shiloah. In books such as Zidkat ha-Zaddik (1902), Mahashavot Haruz (1912), Resisei Lailah (1913), his five-volume collection of sermons Peri Zaddik, and others, Rabbi Zadok's writings are centrally concerned with thinking, specifically, self-consciousness as a process for reaching unity with God. Understanding God's presence and word to be continuously and imperceptibly flowing into the human mind, R. Zadok stressed the importance of channeling one's thoughts to knowing God, a knowledge path that will necessarily be different for each person, but that, for everyone, requires emotional and intellectual integration and conscious response to one's own failures as a source for growth and learning.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is a prominent Israeli-American Modern Orthodox rabbi. He was the founding rabbi of the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan and since the early 1980s has served as the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, in Israel. He is also the Dean of Ohr Torah Institutions, an umbrella including Midreshet Lindenbaum, Yeshivat Hamivtar, and several high schools and other Israeli educational institutions.

His comments on Ya‘aqov and Lavan can be found in his Haggadah Commentary: The Passover Haggadah: With a Traditional and Contemporary Commentary. New York: Ktav, 1983, pp. 73-75. There, Rabbi Riskin eloquently develops the idea regarding Lavan's role in the Haggadah.

HaZaL (חז"ל): is an acronym for Hakhameinu Zikhronam Livrakhah (חכמינו זכרונם לברכה), which means, "Our Sages, may their memory be for a blessing". It is a common term to refer to the rabbis of the Mishnah, Talmud and Midrashic literature.

Herzl, Theodor (1860-1904, central Europe) was the father of political Zionism. Raised in a secular Jewish Hungarian home, he was an author with a keen sensitivity to social issues who became concerned with "the Jewish problem" upon he witnessing growing anti-Semitism in France, where he lived as the Paris correspondent for a Viennese newspaper. The scene of the riots shouting "Death to the Jews" after the sham 1895 treason trial of Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus convinced Herzl that the only solution was a mass Jewish exodus and establishment of a Jewish state, ideally in the Land of Israel. He spent the remaining nine years of his life engaged in a vigorous effort to realize this dream. He met extensively with leading Jewish philanthropists, such as the Rothschilds, conducted diplomatic negotiations to procure support of European, Turkish, and Egyptian governments, lobbied Jewish communal leaders throughout Europe, and published polemical works such as The Jewish State and Old-New Land aimed at rallying Jewish support. Though slowed by numerous setbacks, including questions of his sanity, Herzl achieved true progress, convening several Zionist Congresses, spearheading the formation of a political body (the World Zionist Organization) to direct political and financial negotiations and Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, and chartering of a Zionist bank, which became the precursor to Bank Leumi. Despite great opposition from all sides, Herzl's plan for a modern, technologically advanced, European-style, largely cooperative society came to fruition less than 50 years after his death, with the establishment of the State of Israel. The motto of Old-New Land, "If you will it, it is no dream" reflected his prophetic vision and intense dedication and came to be the slogan of the Zionist movement that he built from an insignificant fringe into a political force that came to represent the Jewish people.

Heschel, Abraham Joshua (1907-1972) was one of the most prominent religious theologians and ethical models of the 20th Century. A scion of Hasidic dynasties, he was a direct descendent of sages such as The Maggid of Mezeritch and Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel of Apt (the "Ohev Yisroel) and was himself a prodigy, showing Talmudic mastery as a child in Warsaw. His prolific career began in pre-war Europe and then in America, where he taught at Hebrew Union College, which saved him from the Holocaust, and at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was Professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism from 1945 to 1972. In his scholarly work, Heschel demonstrated an astonishing breadth, writing works in lyrically beautiful prose in four different languages that were scholarly breakthroughs in virtually every area of Jewish studies: Bible (The Prophets, in German); Talmud/Midrash (his three-volume Hebrew opus, Torah Min Ha-Shamayim ba-Aspaqlaria Shel ha-Dorot); medieval philosophy (Maimonides); Hasidut (his two-volume Yiddish opus, Kotzk, and the English A Passion for Truth); theology (Man is Not Alone and God in Search of Man); prayer (Man's Quest for God). Running through these diverse works, though, are consistent themes of God's divine pathos for human beings; the importance of human beings feeling radical amazement at the mystery of God's presence in the world; and the imperative of sincerity-living a life that reflects the holiness of creation. In that light, his religious model was not only in scholarship, but perhaps even more through his social and political activism, through which he was at the forefront of American clerical opposition to the Vietnam War, for the release of Soviet Jews, and for the eradication of bigotry against African-Americans. In this, his scholarship, worship, and activism were one, as he commented on his participation in the Alabama bus boycott: "For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was both protest and prayer. Legs are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying."

Hirsch, Rabbi Samson Raphael (1808-1888), was a leading molder of neo-Orthodox Judaism in Germany and the figure most strongly associated with its flourishing. Steeped in Talmudic learning and university-educated, Hirsch advocated a worldview under the banner of Torah ‘im Derekh Eretz - Torah with "worldliness" (Pirqei Avot 2:2) - i.e., secular education. In this way, he advocated that Jews be culturally enlightened while observing the mitzvot, and admitted cosmetic or aesthetic modernization in ritual, such as synagogue choir singing and preaching in German, while vigorously opposing any reform to Judaism's faith principles, mitzvah observance, or the use of Hebrew in prayer and study. Despite deep disputes with leaders of Reform, he resisted official schism until an 1844 Reform synod decided to annul several mitzvot, especially regarding kashrut and marriage; thereafter, Hirsch became a leader of the Orthodox secessionist camp. Among his prolific literary output, most prominent are his Nineteen Letters on Judaism, addressing the relationship of Judaism to world culture; Horeb, a treatise on symbolic meanings of the mitzvot; and commentaries on the Bible and the siddur. All of these works have been translated from German into English. He insisted on the eternal and inviolable nature of the Torah and its laws, comparing the Torah to nature, whose facts are absolute regardless of one's ability to comprehend them. It is essential to pursue such understanding, but the mitzvot remain true and static, independent of changes in individuals, cultures, or historical processes.

Hutner, Rav Yitzchak 1906-1980, was born in Poland, studied in the illustrious Lithuanian yeshivah of Slobodka and its spin-off in Hevron, Israel, wrote and studied in Kovno and the University of Berlin, before settling in New York in 1934, where he headed the Chaim Berlin Yeshivah for four decades, turning it into one of the leading "Lithuanian" yeshivot in the world. His lasting literary legacy is the Pachad Yitzchak, his eight volumes of Hebrew essays organized around the Jewish holidays and based on oral derashot delivered in Yiddish in the yeshivah. Master of a broad range of eclectic disciples, from rigorous Talmudism to Hasidic wisdom to poetry and philosophy, he was known for his enigmatic personality, independent thought, dominating persona, and a sui generis unification of the many apparent contradictions he embodied into a unique and recognizable style. He died in Israel, where he lived the last years of his life.

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Ibn Ezra, Rav Avraham, 1089-c. 1164, Spain, was a Bible commentator, Hebrew grammarian, and paytan (author of liturgical poems). Steeped in the Spanish rationalist traditions of philosophy and mathematics, Ibn Ezra interpreted the Bible according to its plain, contextual meaning (peshat), and rigorous, grammatical analysis. His comments frequently include ascerbic rejections of interpretations he deemed incorrect, as well as of their authors. He lived most of his life in abject poverty and wandered throughout Europe. Perhaps his most famous piyyut is the shabbat song "צמאה נפשי".

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