20th-century Rabbi Quotes

Ovadia Yosef

Jonathan Sacks

Immanuel Jakobovits

Regina Jonas

Shmuley Boteach

Irving Greenberg

Norman Lamm

In Judaism, there are 613 biblical commandments, and the Talmud says that the chief commandment of all is study.

The proper response, as Hanukkah teaches, is not to curse the darkness but to light a candle.

Irving Greenberg

A master of happiness will appreciate what he or she has while they have them and the moment any specific thing is gone or lost, the focus will be on other things to appreciate and be grateful for. At times, this could be gratitude for the memories that remain. Material and physical objects are temporary, memories are forever.

Among the humble and great alike, those who achieve success do so not because fate and circumstance are especially kind to them. Often the reverse is true. They succeed because they do not whine over their fate but take whatever has been given to them and go on to make the most of their best.

Sidney Greenberg

Each person begins life with a head start in some areas and a handicap in other areas.

We don't like children much. We tend to fear our young.

Julia Neuberger

The first mystery is simply that there is a mystery, a mystery that can never be explained or understood, only encountered from time to time. Nothing is obvious. Everything conceals something else.

Lawrence Kushner

A spiritual sensibility encourages us to see ourselves as part of the fundamental unity of all being. If the thrust of the market ethos has been to foster a competitive individualism, a major thrust of many traditional religious and spiritual sensibilities has been to help us see our connection with all other human beings.

Michael Lerner (rabbi)

A religion shapes the world of its believers by identifying questions that need answers and providing answers that people 'know' to be true.

Indeed, Judaism as a way of life, seeks to inculcate in us a consciousness of the Divine Presence in the World and respect for life accordingly. The more we care for life, the closer we are in fact to God. Accordingly, an ethical vegetarian way of life expresses the most noble and sublime values and aspirations of Judaism itself, bringing us closer to its vision for society as a whole.

David Rosen (rabbi)

A major criterion for judging the anxiety level of any society is the loss of its capacity to be playful.

Faith is not knowledge of what the mystery of the universe is, but the conviction that there is a mystery, and that it is greater than us.

They don't observe the Sabbath, they don't observe the Torah, they don't pray, they don't put on phylacteries every day. Is it any wonder that they're killed? It's no wonder. May the Almighty have mercy on them and bring them back to religion.

If you help yourself to the benefits of being married when you are single, you're likely to help yourself to the benefits of being single when you're married.

There are three kinds of forces: the forces of nature, the spiritual and moral ones, and finally those of history and destiny.

The heart opens itself to the hope that the misfortunes of the past will be replaced by fruitful dialogue.

Would the Holy One, Blessed is he, dispense judgment without justice? But we may say that he whom God loves will be chastised. For since the day the Holy Temple was destroyed, the righteous are seized by death for the iniquities of the generation

Even if one is familiar with the precise meaning of everything one recites, the act of worship can hardly have any significance at all unless it registers the overall message each part of our prayers is meant to convey.

Immanuel Jakobovits

I am here to protest against child molesters. For as surely as there are those who lure children with lollypops in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds.

Just as both female doctors and teachers in time have become a necessity from a psychological standpoint, so has the female rabbi.

Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean.

You represent a large nation of believers that knows what the Bible is, and it is your duty to pass on the message that the Jewish people deserve a renaissance, and a little respect - to live in this land.

Proximity to the crowd, to the majority view, spells the death of creativity. For a soul can create only when alone, and some are chosen for the flowering that takes place in the dark avenues of night.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

I do not know what evil is when it comes to art. I only know what is good art and what is bad art.

God is the One who is with us when we have to do something we don't think we are capable of doing.