Halakha As a Coral Reef

Halakhah as a Coral Reef

Halakhah is a coral reef.  
It is fragile-- care must be taken not to break it, but, more, it is alive, ever-growing, and responsive to its environment. 
Its growth pattern is measured in generations upon generations. 
It is its nature to become ever more intricate, more convoluted, more beautiful. 
Sometimes the most vibrant, dynamic, and important center of earlier eon will become quiet and overshadowed in its turn.
Minhagim are the ever-changing sealife that live amongst the coral.  
Sometimes they even become enmeshed in it.  
Sometimes they even break part of it. 
Yet, the reef is unimaginable without them, and all the more beautiful for them.
Halakhah is a coral reef.