To expand on Aravah's excellent answer:
The great Talmudic sage Hillel was born in Babylonia in the first century BCE. As a young man he came to the Holy Land to study Torah at the feet of the sages of Jerusalem. He was initially a very poor, but brilliant student, and became a famous Torah scholar and eventually the Nasi (president) of the Sanhedrin. He is often mentioned together with his colleague, Shammai, with who he often disagreed on the interpretations of Torah law: Shammai often follows the stricter interpretation, whereas Hillel tended toward a more lenient understanding of the law. In the great majority of cases, his opinion prevailed. Hillel encouraged his disciple follow the example of Aaron the High Priest to "love peace and pursue peace, love all God's creations and bring them close to the Torah." Hillel was a very humble and patient man, and there are many stories that illustrate this.
One famous account in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a) tells about a gentile who wanted to convert to Judaism. This happened not infrequently, and this individual stated that he would accept Judaism only if a rabbi would teach him the entire Torah while he, the prospective convert, stood on one foot. First he went to Shammai, who, insulted by this ridiculous request, threw him out of house. The man did not give up and went to Hillel. This gentle sage accepted the challenge, and said:
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary--go and STUDY it!"
Another precept of Torah is to create holiness here on earth, to bring God down among us.
“Each of us can contribute to the creation of holiness in this world by applying our own skills to holy work. And when we do, we, too, have the potential to bring God's presence into our midst, into our ordinary, practical world, and so make it sacred. May we each use our own skills to make our lives, and our world, a little holier.” Rabbi Samuel Cohon
Essence of Judaism: Leviticus 10:10 “…for you must distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the impure and the pure;”
Jews celebrate the separation between the holy and the profane, light and darkness, Israel and the rest of the world, Shabbos and the other six days of the week.
“Torah Today/Exodus” Pinchas Peli -- The task of bringing holiness into the world, which is the main obligation of the Jew, has always been seen in the Hebrew Bible as a partnership, a combined project of humans and God. The Holy, or the Godly, can be manifested in the three dimensions of the real: in space, time and the person (depicted in an ancient Jewish mystical book as olam-space, shana-time and nefesh-person). God desires to encounter human beings by meeting them half-way as partners. In time: the Sabbath, which He sanctified (Genesis 2:3) and commanded them to sanctify (Exodus 20:8); in space: the sanctuary, about which we are told here; and in person: through the mitzvah, the sacred deed, which brings us into His presence every time we perform it.
The in-dwelling of God among the people cannot take place as long as the people are passive and do nothing to help bring the sacred into the world. “And let them make me a sanctuary – that I may dwell among them” (25:8). My dwelling among them is on condition that they make my sanctuary. The same expression used here in the sanctification of space is used elsewhere (Exodus 31:16) in the sanctification of time: “And the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath to make the Sabbath unto their generations.” Man must start out on the path towards God, both in time and in space, in order to God to meet him half-way as his partner in the act of sanctification.
The purpose of religion is not to explain God or to please God, but to help us meet some of our most basic human needs.
Religion helps us not by changing the facts, but by teaching us new ways of looking at those facts.
An important Jewish value is chesed, loving-kindness. This is a rare instance when the English translation accurately expresses the central meaning of the Hebrew. For chesed is more than love and greater than kindness.
To raise your child is an act of love. But to bring a foster child into your home is loving-kindness.
To visit a member of your family who is institutionalized because of chronic illness is an act of kindness. But to visit someone in the same circumstances who is not even remotely related to you is an act of loving-kindness.
Loving-kindness means extending ourselves to become noble. It implies doing what is not required, performing a good deed simply because it is a part of our tradition to live with others in chesed, in loving-kindness. And it is what the world most needs.
The highest form of wisdom is loving-kindness.
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