Yeshayahu Leibowitz Quotes

16 Sourced Quotes

The formulation "ways to faith" could be interpreted as implying that faith is a conclusion a person may come to after pondering certain facts about the world-facts about history, nature, or consciousness. If that were the case, one could lead a person to this conclusion by presenting these facts to him and pointing out their implications. I, however, do not regard religious faith as a conclusion. It is rather an evaluative decision that one makes, and, like all evaluations, it does not result from any information one has acquired, but is a commitment to which one binds himself. In other words, faith is not a form of cognition; it is a conative element of consciousness.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Religious nationalism is to religion what national socialism is to socialism.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
The essence of Jewish faith is consistent with no embodiment other than the system of halakhic praxis.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
The religion of halakhic practice is the religion of life itself.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Our real problem is not the territory but rather the population of about a million and a half Arabs who live in it and over whom we must rule. Inclusion of these Arabs (in addition to the half a million who are citizens of the state) in the area under our rule will effect the liquidation of the state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and bring about catastrophe for the Jewish people as a whole; it will undermine the social structure that we have created in the state and cause the corruption of individuals, both Jew and Arab.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Without an agreement imposed from the outside, our situation will deteriorate to that of a second Vietnam, to a war in constant escalation without the prospect of ultimate resolution.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Most characteristic of the Halakhah is its lack of pathos.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Only the prayer which one prays as the observance of a Mitzvah is religiously significant. The spontaneous prayer ("when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before God") a man prays of his own accord is, of course, halakhically permissible, but, like the performance of any act which has not been prescribed, its religious value is limited. As a religious act it is even faulty, since he who prays to satisfy his needs sets himself up as an end, as though God were a means for promotion of his welfare.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
As for the "religious" arguments for the annexation of the territories—these are only an expression, subconsciously or perhaps even overtly hypocritical, of the transformation of the Jewish religion into a camouflage for Israeli nationalism. Counterfeit religion identifies national interests with the service of God and imputes to the state—which is only an instrument serving human needs—supreme value from a religious standpoint.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Our security has been diminished rather than enhanced as a result of the conquests in this war.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Emancipation from the bondage of nature can only be brought about by the religion of Mitzvoth

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Only a religion addressed to life's prose, a religion of the dull routine of daily activity, is worthy of the name.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
The rites at this Western Wall are revolting. This lighting of candles, the notes...It is a farce that they go up there and blow shofars. The greatest dramatist of all, Shakespeare, understood the trick. In the most horrifying and dramatic moments of his works - in Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, the buffoon appears. Apparently in the most dramatic moment in the history of the Jewish people, the buffoon must also enter, blowing the shofar and making these tasteless and demeaning gestures.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
From a religious point of view the triadic classification of being as nature, spirit, and God has no validity. There is only the dyad: nature, which includes the human spirit, and God. The only way man can break the bonds of nature is by cleaving to God; by acting in compliance with the divine will rather than in accordance with the human will.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Not every "return to Zion" is a religiously significant achievement: one sort of return which may be described in the words of the prophet: "When you returned you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination" (Jeremiah 2:7).

Yeshayahu Leibowitz
"Security" is a reality only where there is true peace between neighbors, as in the case of Holland/Belgium, Sweden/Norway, the United States/Canada. In the absence of peace there is no security, and no geographic-strategic settlement on the land can change this. There is no direct link between security and the territories.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz