"The tension goes back to Abraham’s journey—is Abraham selected by God because he is already good and wise, or does Abraham only become good and wise by saying “yes” to God’s invitation to “leave yourself”? Why would God invite Abraham if Abraham were not already good and wise? A moderate answer to this question is that Abraham is not yet good and wise, but he is on the way to being so. He is an aspirer and is rewarded for his aspiration. The perfect reward for an aspirer is a journey to an unknown place, a journey to an achuza."

"My therapist would argue that I am doing better, that in the 50 minutes we have together every week, I make progress towards finding a version of myself that isn’t fixed but at peace. Within that empty space, I am shut off from the noise of the internet. I ignore the current trends and the discourses, and I tell her about my day. And it feels refreshing, she lifts the burden of being self-aware, or post-wounded, instead, I am merely a spectator. Watching myself from afar as I’m allowing someone else to do the thinking for once. In that space, my brain is shut off, and I am enshrouded in silence."