Mean­ing comes not from sys­tems of thought but from sto­ries, and the Jew­ish story is among the most un­usual of all. It tells us that God sought to make us His part­ners in the work of cre­ation, but we re­peat­edly dis­ap­pointed Him. Yet He never gives up. He for­gives us time and again. The real re­li­gious mys­tery for Ju­daism is not our faith in God but God’s faith in us.