Category: Jewish Tradition

Getting to Know New York

Although I was poor, it never bothered me. I went to the library and I could read. I liked to go on the Fifth Avenue bus, which had an upper level, just to sit there…

Today’s One-Liner (#327)

We always love to discuss and reveal character because human character is to us the greatest puzzle. –Isaac Bashevis Singer, in Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer, interviews by Richard Burgin, p. 47

A Brother’s Gift

To the Jews who, in the sixties, envied the Black Power Movement; who in the nineties envied the Palestinians; who weep at Exodus but jeer at the Israel Defense Forces; who nod when Tevye praises…

Today’s One-Liner (#320)

The Jew is not only made and instructed but also commanded to live in the world and to enjoy those things that God permitted him—among the chiefest joys: that of belonging. –David Mamet, The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism,…

Today’s One-Liner (#308)

We boast that we are the descendants of the Prophets, but we are really the descendants of the Jews who stoned the Prophets. –Amos Oz, in Robert Alter, Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon

Riveting

It’s good for me to be the citizen of a state in which there are eight and a half million prime ministers, eight and a half million prophets, and eight and a half million messiahs….

Things Have Changed

The Bible has profound things to tell us, things we clearly ought to know. We now have students in class, even those who have gone to church or synagogue all their lives, who have not…

The Bliss with Books

Back and forth from my desk to my shelves, ten, twenty, thirty times a day. The sources swirl around me. I am  drugged by books. The sweet savor rises from the pages. A delirium of…

Today’s One-Liner (#295)

Studying Torah day and night means positioning oneself at every moment to acquire Torah, which is itself a function of bearing the burden of another. –Ira F. Stone, A Responsible Life: The Spiritual Path of…