Writing for "The BEST" on MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, Zev Eleff suggests: Today, some Orthodox commentators take great pains to argue for the Jewish spark within Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. This impulse reduces the force and meaning of both Jewish and American sources. Instead, we ought to take important texts and materials at fuller depth, appreciating them on their own terms. Like King’s “I Have a Dream,” our traditions—certainly the Jewish ones, but the best of the American canon, too—ought to stand on their own without the support of cultural and political alchemy.

Rene Girard argues that sacrifice channels violence into a sacred moment. A surrogate victim is chosen allowing a moment of deep catharsis. In this week’s “The BEST” Zissy Turner sees in “Violence and the Sacred” a framework within which to guide her student’s response to anti-Semitism.

Rousseau’s “Social Contract” does not alienate the individual’s power of self-government, but preserves it in elevated form. Society forms not to avoid violence, but so that individuals can better meet the challenges of living through collaboration, innovation, and shared knowledge. It’s Rabbi Sacks’ concept of a politics of “We instead of Me” writes Isaac Fried in this week’s The BEST.