Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
This was the purpose of the whole creation, that man should recognize and know Him and give praise to His Name.
Spirituality is like a bird: If you hold it too closely, it chokes, And if you hold it too loosely, it escapes.
For the curse of Cain, the curse of being an outcast and a wanderer over the face of the earth has been removed.
For any of us to come to the understanding that we are common and unlearned is the accomplishment of a lifetime.
. . .We are here to finish God's labors. . .so that we could be His partners in completing the work of creation.
For a Christian, Jesus is the unique and only way that God has fully revealed himself. For a Jew this cannot be.
Our emotions can be either corrupted or elevated. Human love was not created to be without premeditated purpose.
In Judaism, there are 613 biblical commandments, and the Talmud says that the chief commandment of all is study.
Americans consume three quarters of the world's anti-depressants because materialism will never bring happiness.
A broom sweeps clean, and itself becomes soiled; cleanse yourself of those offenses of which you may feel guilty.
The small choices and decisions we make a hundred times a day add up to determining the kind of world we live in.
It was admitted by the early rabbis that the sectarians could be as full of good works as eggs were full of meat.
The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions.
Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man's attitude toward history and nature.
During the Second World War, evacuated to non-Jewish households, I encountered Christianity at home and in school.
The universe is more than mere matter in motion. It and we were brought into being by a Creator who seeks our good.
An aged rabbi, crazed with liberalism, once said to me, We Jews are just ordinary human beings. Only a bit more so!
Love has its place, as does hate. Peace has its place, as does war. Mercy has its place, as do cruelty and revenge.
It is the obligation of each person in Israel to raise up the Fallen Bride from the dust into which She has fallen.
All events are secretly interrelated; the sweep of all we are doing reaches beyond the horizon of our comprehension.
We teach children how to measure and how to weigh. We fail to teach them how to revere, how to sense wonder and awe.
We don't have to be afraid of dying because it's not really death that scares us. We are afraid of not having lived.
This idea of compassion comes to us because we're made in the image of God, who is ultimately the compassionate one.
We can all do our share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and all frustrations and all disappointments.
Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.
You are worried that the religious Right might succeed in forcing their values onto us? I am worried they might fail.
We are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great breakthrough.
There are some things we should feel guilty about, but the guilt feelings should attach to the deed, not to the doer.
Every breath drawn by an individual who truly serves God will elicit a responsive chord from the universe around him.
No statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children.
Our tolerance for forms of religious expression we disagree with is a precise barometer of our own spiritual security.
I was certainly open for something being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, perplexed by my own sexuality. I was gay.
It is incumbent upon us to understand our greatness and believe in it so that we do not cheapen and profane ourselves.
The observant Jew has his own sense of values. Torah Judaism is his blueprint for this life, his target for existence.
No religious position is loyally served by refusing to consider annoying theories which may well turn out to be facts.
God knew where he was, but he asked so as to start a conversation with Adam and avoid startling him too much to reply.
Only those will apprehend religion who can probe its depth, who can combine intuition and love with the rigor of method
The only thing truly within our power, may be whether or not we will behave in each moment with arrogance or reverence.
While we can remember the past, we cannot write the future. Only our children, the future of our community, can do that.
In our interconnected world, we must learn to feel enlarged, not threatened, by difference - that is what I have argued.
To my surprise, my 70s are nicer than my 60s and my 60s than my 50s, and I wouldn't wish my teens and 20s on my enemies.
Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
Sabbath rest is more than mere abstention from physical work; and, therefore, must include worship and Scripture-reading.
In speaking of Jesus, I must speak about Christianity because I do not think it possible or profitable to divide the two.
Someone gave me a New Testament. I had never before read it systematically. Some parts made sense, some parts shocked me.
The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).
The believer in God has to account for the existence of unjust suffering; the atheist has to account for everything else.
(People) can never attain fulfillment, or sense of meaning, unless it is shared, unless it pertains to other human beings.
Never attribute to malice or other deliberate decision what can be explained by human frailty, imperfection, or ignorance.
There is a Jewish notion that holiness is found with other people. To understand what life really is, one has to share it.