Rabbi Quotes

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.

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

Everything really belongs to God, and man has no right to assume that he can, at will, exploit God's bounty.

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.

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.

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

Irving Greenberg

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

What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.

Hillel the Elder

A boor cannot be sin-fearing, an ignoramus cannot be pious, a bashful one cannot learn, a short-tempered person cannot teach, nor does anyone who does much business grow wise.

Hillel the Younger

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

Contemplate the wonders of creation, the Divine dimension of their being, not as a dim configuration that is presented to you from a distance, but as the reality in which you live.

Abraham Isaac Kook

When a man makes a reverent face before a face that is no face — that is idol worship!

Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

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

Erring, I wandered in the wilderness,
In passion's grave nigh sinking, powerless;
Now deeply I repent, in sore distress,
That I kept not the statutes of the King!

When we come to the Babylonian Gemara, we are dealing with what most people understand when they speak or write of the Talmud. Its birthplace, Babylonia, was an autonomous Jewish centre for a longer period than any other land; namely, from soon after 586 before the Christian era to the year 1040 after the Christian era - 1626 years.

We learn from here the humility of the Holy One, Blessed is He. Since man is in the likeness of the angels, and they would be jealous of him, for this reason, He consulted them.

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

Say little and do much. Receive all men with a cheerful countenance.

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

O forgive! Thy sons live from Thee reft;
Praised for grace, Turn thy face to those left,
"Forgiven!"

Yom Tov of Joigny

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.

In the coming world they will not ask me—Why were you not Moses? They will ask me—Why were you not Zusya?

Zusha of Hanipol

Jews will move increasingly to vegetarianism out of their own deepening knowledge of what their tradition commands as they understand it in this age.

Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog

I am as familiar with the paths of heaven as with the streets of Nehardea, with the exception of the comet, about which I am ignorant.

Samuel of Nehardea

You should know, O man, that the greatest enemy you have in the world is your inclination.

Bahya ibn Paquda