Rabbi

🇺🇸Norman Solomon

Journalism

b. 1951

"Biden’s fealty to corporate power has been only one aspect of his many-faceted record that progressives will widely find repugnant to the extent they learn about it..."

🇵🇱Abraham Joshua Heschel

Philosophy

1907–1972

"In my youth, growing up in a Jewish milieu, there was one thing we did not have to look for and that was exaltation. Every moment is great, we were taught, every moment is unique."

🇫🇷Rashi

Religion

1040–1105

"from this that we tell only part of a man's qualities in his presence, and all of them when he is not present." Genesis 7,1"

🇮🇱Menachem Elon

Politics

1923–2013

"The body of the legal system needs a soul and sometimes even an additional soul"

Solomon ibn Gabirol

Philosophy

1020–1057

"In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence; the second, listening; the third, remembering; the fourth practicing; the fifth, teaching others"

🇺🇸Abby Stein

Religion

b. 1991

"I loved the way Judaism does life cycle events. I loved the idea of having one day of the week off. . I related to Jewish music, to the food, and even the spirituality part, I’ll admit it."

🇬🇧Abraham Isaac Kook

Religion

1865–1935

"The good will is all — and all the talents are ways to fulfill it."

Regina Jonas

Religion

1902–1944

"In spite of everything, in dealing with the theme at hand, one must, as is often repeated here, take both the changing times and the sensibilities of earlier times into account."

Nachman of Breslov

Religion

1772–1810

"If you believe that it is possible to break, believe it is also possible to fix."

"The God of the sages does not merely ordain; God also listens."

🇬🇧Jonathan Sacks

Religion

1948–2020

"A society, or for that matter, a political party, that tolerates antisemitism, that tolerates any hate, has forfeited all moral credibility."

🇺🇸Irving Greenberg

Religion

b. 1933

"I don't care what denomination you belong to, as long as you're embarrassed by it."

🇱🇹Shneur Zalman of Liadi

Religion

1745–1812

"Tachlis Brias Olam Hazeh, Hu she'nisaivah Hakadosh Ba-ruch Hu Le'hios Lo Dirah B'tachtonim."-'The ultimate purpose of the creation of this physical world, is that G-d Desired to have a dwelling-place in the lower world.'"

🇩🇪Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Philosophy

1903–1993

"Great philosophical systems are never produced in a scientific vacuum but usually follow the formation and completion of a scientific world-perspective."

"Countless generations of students and general readers have been intrigued by this deeply human book, which half reveals and half conceals the fascinating yet enigmatic personality of its author."

Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

Religion

1787–1859

"If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. But if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you!"

🇺🇸Harold S. Kushner

Religion

1935–2023

"I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense."

Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

Philosophy

1707–1746

"Man was created for the sole purpose of rejoicing in God and deriving pleasure from the splendor of His Presence; for this is true joy and the greatest pleasure that can be found."

🇬🇧Immanuel Jakobovits

Ethics

1921–1999

"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."

🇺🇸Norman Lamm

Politics

1927–2020

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

🇺🇸Jackie Mason

Entertainment

1928–2021

"Eighty percent of married men cheat in America. The rest cheat in Europe."

🇫🇷Elie Munk

Religion

1900–1981

"A ladder is the instrument of ascent; it symbolises intensity rising to a climax. this, too, is the meaning of prayer."

"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."

🇺🇸Meir Kahane

Politics

1932–1990

"Every Arab is a proud Arab, a good nationalist. And because of this, he is opposed to the existence of the state of Israel."

🇺🇸Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Religion

1924–2014

"I realized that all forms of religion are masks that the divine wears to communicate with us. Behind all religions there’s a reality, and this reality wears whatever clothes it needs to speak to a particular people."

🇺🇸Manis Friedman

Literature

b. 1946

"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."

🇺🇸Maurice Davis

Politics

1921–1993

"Brotherhood Postponed" The March from Selma, Alabama — sermon on the march with Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."