"Your life has a limit, but knowledge has none. If you use what is limited to pursue what has no limit, you will be in danger."

- Zhuangzi

I remember when I was studying, one of my professors was a leading Rabbi in the world of midrash. I was raised on midrash without even knowing it, in some of my favorite children's books.

I was so delighted to finally be studying the great stories of our people seriously, but also a little overwhelmed. There were so many collections of midrash, different manuscripts, commentaries, translations... And the same is true of every area of Judaism — liturgy, halakha, history, philosophy, etc.

It felt like moving backwards; the more I learned, the more I discovered new volumes that I had yet to study.

So I asked my teacher, “when does this get better? When do you basically know what is out there to study, and begin making progress toward learning it?”

He replied quickly. “Oh, never. You just get more comfortable with the not knowing.”

“Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up, and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he were Zhuang Zhou who had dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou.”

- Zhuangzi

"Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!”

- Zhuangzi

“Suppose you and I have had an argument. If you have beaten me instead of my beating you, then are you necessarily right, and am I necessarily wrong? If I have beaten you instead of your beating me, then am I necessarily right, and are you necessarily wrong? Is one of us right and the other wrong? Are both of us right, or are both of us wrong? If you and I don’t know the answer, then other people are bound to be even more in the dark. Whom shall we get to decide what is right?”

- Zhuangzi

"He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; he who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is dreaming, he does not know it is a dream, and in his dream, he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know it was a dream.

"And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman—how dense! Confucius and you both are dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too."

- Zhuangzi

"He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes."

- Zhuangzi

“
When the monkey trainer was handing out acorns, he said, “You get three in the morning and four at night.” This made all the monkeys furious. “Well, then,” he said, “you get four in the morning and three at night.” The monkeys all were delighted. There was no change in the reality behind the words, and yet the monkeys responded with joy and anger. Let them, if they want to.
”

- Zhuangzi

Where Judaism meets Middle Earth:

https://universeodon.com/@MiriamAnzovin/115991830596418318