Rabban Gamliel was moved to tears whenever he read the list of the 11 qualifications specified by the Psalms as a prerequisite for living on God's holy mountain. He would explain his sorrow like this, “Only one who has all these qualifications and does all these things would not be rejected; but one who does only one of them will be rejected.
His colleagues reassured him. “Does the verse say,” they argued, “that one who does all these things will not be rejected? The verse merely states, “One who does these things.” The verse refers not to all of the 11 qualifications, but to any one of them. There are good people, fine leaders, who dwell in the House of the Lord, but among them are few who filled with equal perfection every one of the requirements listed by the Psalms. They fulfill with some distinction and some adequately.
Perfection is not demanded; only that we do our best.
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