Margins

And maybe more important; maybe the white space is more important. And if you ever look at a traditional page of an old Jewish text, like an old Hebrew bible with commentaries or an old edition of the Talmud, which is the classic rabbinic work of the oral tradition, there’s text in the middle, and then there are commentaries around the sides, and then there’s space around the edges. And I really believe that — in some ways, of course, the text is most authoritative and most important; it’s closest to Sinai, is what we say. It’s closest to Mount Sinai. It’s closest to the origin. But it’s really the white space around the edges that ultimately is most important, because that’s where we get to write our questions, and we get to expand and grow and evolve a tradition that, without us, would have long since become either dormant and rigid, or would’ve disappeared entirely.

(Ariel Burger, On Being interview)