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Cover your bookcases with rugs and linens of fine quality; preserve them from dampness and mice and
injury; for it is your books that are your true treasure.
~ Ibn Tibbon 1120-1190? Spanish Jewish Scholar
Never refuse to lend books to anyone who cannot afford to purchase them, but lend books only to those
who can be trusted to return them.
~ Ibn Tibbon 1120-1190? Spanish Jewish Scholar
If you have one child who does not like to lend books, and another child who does, leave your library to
the second, even if that child is younger.
~ Judah of Regensburg, Sefer Hasidim13th century, work on ethics
Books should be placed in stately array near the dead, so that the souls of the righteous may in death
study as they did on earth.
~ Judah of Regensburg, Sefer Hasidim13th century, work on ethics
If you drop gold and books, pick up the books first, then the gold.
~ Anonymous
My pen is my harp and my lyre; my library is my garden and my orchard.
~ Judah Ha-LeviSpanish Poet, Physician
Make books your companions; let your bookshelves be your gardens: bask in their beauty, gather their
fruit, pluck their roses, take their spices and myrrh. And when your soul be weary, change from garden to
garden, and from prospect to prospect.
~ Ibn Tibbon, c. 1120-1190 ? Spanish Jewish scholar
Three possessions should you prize: a field, a friend, and a book.
~ Hai Gaon, Head of Bet Din in 998; Wrote commentaries on Torah and Talmud until his death at age 99.
None is poor save him that lacks knowledge.
~ The Talmud
Books lead us into the society of those great men with whom we could not otherwise come into personal
contact. They bring us near to the geniuses of the remotest lands and times. A good library is a place, a
palace, where the lofty spirits of all nations and generations meet.
~ Samuel Niger, Gathered Works 1928
My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were
constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this
access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free.
~ Actor Kirk Douglas (did you know he's Jewish?)
The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great
man.
Louis Farrakhan
Brunettes are troublemakers. They're worse than the Jews.
Charlie Chaplin
The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed
blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument
for civilizing the nations.
John Adams
A lot of black people believe that Jews in this country have become white. They behave like white people
rather than Jewish people.
Toni Morrison
Anti-Semitism is the rumour about the Jews.
Theodor Adorno
Throughout my ministry, I have sought to build bridges between Jews and Christians.
Billy Graham
A lot of Jews are great friends of mine.
Billy Graham
That the Jews assumed a right exclusively to the benefits of God will be a lasting witness against them
and the same will it be against Christians.
William Blake
I'm a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural
Muslims.
Richard Dawkins
I never knew any Jews until I got into show business. I've found them to be real smart and good workers.
Loretta Lynn
The Bible is the great family chronicle of the Jews.
Heinrich Heine
Why don't Jews drink? It interferes with their suffering.
Henny Youngman
Many of the Jews who owned the homes, the apartments in the black community, we considered them
bloodsuckers because they took from our community and built their community but didn't offer anything
back to our community.
Louis Farrakhan
Among them, there were Muslims, Christians, and Jews living together. But then violent organizations
came, bringing with them many large groups of people from various parts of the world to Palestine.
Hassan Nasrallah
Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.
Brendan Behan
We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age
was obligatory.
Theodore Bikel
We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.
Golda Meir
An aged rabbi, crazed with liberalism, once said to me, We Jews are just ordinary human beings. Only a
bit more so!
Lionel Blue
Discrimination against Jews can be read in Thomas Aquinas, and insults against Jews in Martin Luther.
Lionel Blue
God's love doesn't leave out Jews or Muslims or anyone.
Dyan Cannon
The Jews have opened fire, and they are unready to begin a war.
Moshe Dayan
Jews have suffered persecution from misguided Christians who tortured the Jews for their part in killing
Christ. These Christians forgot that Christ died because of the sins of all men.
Sargent Shriver
My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But
now my kingdom is from another place.
Jesus Christ
The privilege of ruling would be in the hands of the skilled and the learned, with a wide scope left for
profitable crooked deals carried on by the Jews, who would be attracted by the enormous extension of the
international speculations of the national banks.
Mikhail Bakunin
We have a president who stole the presidency through family ties, arrogance and intimidation, employing
Republican operatives to exercise the tactics of voter fraud by disenfranchising thousands of blacks,
elderly Jews and other minorities.
Barbra Streisand
Both Christians and religious Jews are finding it increasingly difficult to practice their faiths through
college groups on so-called mainline campuses in the United States.
Paul Weyrich
Many of the Europeans who want Israel to go away don't even know why they do. Nearly a third of those
interviewed concede they have no idea what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about. It's enough to
know that Israelis are Jews.
Suzanne Fields
Surely it is time for Jews, worried over the huge growth of Arabs in Israel, to consider finishing the
exchange of populations that began 35 years ago.
Meir Kahane
But the Jews will also be believers, so you can say that all the saints, both gentiles and Jews, will go into
the millennial kingdom and populate the earth.
Tim LaHaye
The Ten Commandments are the most visible symbol because these commandments are recognized by
Christians and Jews alike as being the foundation of our system of public morality.
Pat Robertson
My life's mission is to unmask the Jews.
Julius Streicher
Jewish people have put the interests of race over the interests of the American people... Jews are filled
with more hatred and rage for our race, for our heritage, for our blood than perhaps you can imagine.
David Duke
They may not use the word better. But they certainly believe that they'll go to heaven and Jews will not.
Neale Donald Walsch
When the civil rights battle was won, all the Jews and hippies and artists were middle class white people
and all the blacks were still poor. Materially, not much changed.
Jonathan Lethem
We found nothing grand in the history of the Jews nor in the morals inculcated in the Pentateuch. I know
of no other books that so fully teach the subjection and degradation of woman.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Today the eyes of orthodox Jews of earth are fixed upon Palestine.
Joseph Franklin Rutherford
As we learn from the New Testament, the Jews and the Samaritans in the days of Jesus were not agreed
on the question which was the proper place of worship, but that there could be only one was taken to be
as certain as the unity of God Himself.
Julius Wellhausen
Not just Christians and Jews, but also Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and the followers of many other
religions believe in values like peace, respect, tolerance and dignity. These are values that bring people
together and enable us to build responsible and solid communities.
Alcee Hastings
In early church polemics, Jews are deemed no longer worthy of their own Scriptures because they have
failed to accept Christ as the Messiah.
Jack Schwartz
Islam has shown two faces to the Jews, one benevolent, one less so.
Jack Schwartz
In the Middle Ages and beyond, the target was the Court Jew who had the ear of the ruler; during the
Inquisition it was the Spanish Jews who thrived after their conversion to Christianity.
Jack Schwartz
The evidence of a Jewish civilization going back more than two millennia is overwhelmingly borne out in
the archaeology of the region. The heritage of the Jews in Palestine is documented.
Jack Schwartz
Jews are not part of a European ruling class imposed on helpless natives, but are caught up in a tragedy in
which two peoples are struggling for the same piece of land.
Jack Schwartz
The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-
Semite simply has to make them.
Jack Schwartz
Aside from rabid Islamists, no one who wishes to be taken seriously can publicly say anything bad about
the old Jews of Europe without sounding like reactionary troglodytes.
Jack Schwartz
The metaphor of Exodus is one that has dogged the Jews from the outset. Their very success attracts
resentment.
Jack Schwartz
It's not the Jews that killed Christ. It was a political situation, and it was the Romans who killed Jesus.
They put Jesus on the cross, not the Jews.
Monica Bellucci
But as my brother was doing his research for a book about my father, it became his opinion that the most
influential anti-semitism my father encountered when he was growing up was from Jews, because his
relatives were German Jews, and doctors.
Tobias Wolff
But I am convinced that those Jews who stand aside today with a malicious smile and with their hands in
their trousers' pockets will also want to dwell in our beautiful home.
Theodor Herzl
But we wish to give the Jews a Homeland. Not by dragging them ruthlessly out of their sustaining soil,
but rather by removing them carefully, roots and all, to a better terrain.
Theodor Herzl
Economic distress, political pressure, and social obloquy already drive us from our homes and from our
graves. The Jews are already constantly shifting from place to place.
Theodor Herzl
If anyone thinks that Jews can steal into the land of their fathers, he is deceiving either himself or others.
Nowhere is the coming of Jews so promptly noted as in the historic home of the Jews, for the very reason
that it is the historic home.
Theodor Herzl
The Jews had, as a matter of fact, long been all along the most ingenious entrepreneurs. It was only our
own future that we had never built upon a business basis.
Theodor Herzl
The land which the Society of Jews will have secured by international law must naturally be privately
owned.
Theodor Herzl
Fear is the main factor in Arab politics... There is no Arab who is not harmed by Jews' entry into
Palestine.
Moshe Sharett
We are very anxious to bring the Jews of Morocco over and we are doing all we can to achieve this. But
we cannot count on the Jews of Morocco alone to build the country, because they have not been educated
for this.
Moshe Sharett
I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That's like accusing America of Americanizing
Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we're called 'Jews'? Because we come
from Judea.
Benjamin Netanyahu
The reason the Jews hate Nazis is primarily because they didn't come up with the idea first.
Tom Metzger
Yes the Jews do many foul things and they distort our foreign policy but not everything that goes bad can
be blamed on the Jews.
Tom Metzger
Moslems are no less an enemy than the Jews.
Tom Metzger
I interviewed survivors, I went to Poland, saw the cities and spent time with the people and spoke to the
Jews who had come back to Poland after the war and talked about why they had come back.
Steven Spielberg
The data, however, do indicate that Christians who see Jews through a 17th-century lens, believing that
most are thoroughly religious, are thoroughly wrong.
Marvin Olasky
I see all this and know that if we are to save the Jewish state and its three-and-a-half million Jews from
terrible horrors, we must rise up and demand a fundamental change in the very system of government.
Meir Kahane
The fact is, that with the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews fled Arab
countries, almost all of whom left behind all their property for which compensation was never paid.
Meir Kahane
Jews have been in Egypt since Biblical times, and Alexandria had once been, at least partially, a Jewish
city.
Meir Kahane
Not only are Christians writing about Jesus, but also Communists, Jews, atheists and agnostics are taking
up their pens to paint a portrait of Jesus.
John Clayton
Democracy means that people can say what they want to. All the people. It means that they can vote as
they wish. All the people. It means that they can worship God in any way they feel right, and that includes
Christians and Jews and voodoo doctors as well.
Dalton Trumbo
We have no problems with Jews and highly respect Judaism as a holy religion.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
In America and in most of the industrialized world, men are coming to be thought of by feminists in very
much the same way that Jews were thought of by early Nazis. The comparison is overwhelmingly scary.
Warren Farrell
The Jews must realize that their influence in Germany has disappeared for all time.
Hjalmar Schacht
My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and
she can't.
Joseph Epstein
It is an open secret that Jews do not work, but rather let others work for them.
Julius Streicher
It was the same in World War I, when Woodrow Wilson, also a tool of the Jews, maneuvered it into the
war.
Julius Streicher
The descendants of European immigrants do not govern the United States of America today. The foreign
and domestic policies of the country are made by the Jews and their lackeys.
Julius Streicher
The diplomatic representatives of the United States of America to other nations are almost entirely Jews.
Julius Streicher
The Jews are a race and not a religion. My goal was not to persecute the Jews but to enlighten Gentiles to
put them on guard.
Julius Streicher
The victory will be only entirely and finally achieved when the whole world is free of Jews.
Julius Streicher
There must be a punitive expedition against the Jews in Russia, a punitive expedition which will expect:
death sentence and execution. Then the world will see the end of the Jews is also the end of Bolshevism.
Julius Streicher
There was reference made to a book written in Greek by a former Rabbi who had been converted to
Christianity. There was reference to a publication of a high clergyman of Milan. Not even did Jews raise
objections to that book.
Julius Streicher
When the Jews speak of humanity, they mean only the totality of Jews.
Julius Streicher
On this land, Muslims, Christians and Jews can coexist together, as they have - as they had for the - for
hundreds of years in the framework of a democratic state.
Hassan Nasrallah
Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God
how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.
Joseph Ratzinger
The United Nations was founded in the aftermath of World War II, just as the world was beginning to
learn the full horrors of history's worst genocide, the Holocaust that consumed 6 million Jews and 3
million others in Europe.
Linda Chavez
I'm from the Midwest, and I loved my family. I had a very good time as a child, but I was also - I have a
theory about Jews growing up in the Midwest, that there is an ultimately sort of wonderful avoidance of a
lot of things, and a great acceptance of whatever is happening.
Bob Balaban
Following the Second World War, we are a country of one ethnicity. After the moving of the borders, after
the tragedy of the Holocaust and the murder of Polish Jews, we don't have large minority groups.
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Someone asked me years ago if it were true that I disliked Jews, and I replied that it was certainly true,
not at all because they are Jews but because they are folks, and I don't like folks.
Albert J. Nock
Israel of the coastal plain, where eight out of ten Israeli Jews live far removed from the occupied
territories, from the fiery Jerusalem, from the religious and nationalistic conflicts, is unknown to the
outside world, almost unknown to itself.
Amos Oz
And we've also had now the speaker of the Parliament in Iraq using blatantly anti-Semitic remarks, saying
the Jews and sons of Jews are the problem of all the violence that's in Iraq.
Jan Schakowsky
This is always a pain because it's injustice too and so my response to it, I tell you what I am more
surprised or horrified at Jews who forget to be humanists than I am at anybody else.
Janet Suzman
Jews have had to carry around their own sense of self in a carpet bag and I think perhaps too much
emphasis might be being put on nationality and on the other hand patriotism, that sort of thing.
Janet Suzman
It is only in the fundamentalist religions that women are relegated to second class. Radical Evangelicals,
Muslims, and Jews all have the same view of women.
Sally Quinn
Well, if you look at the whole story, I mean there's only Jews and Romans in the story. I mean I just
wanted to flesh that character out and make that a drama about the people around Christ when he was
going through this passion.
Mel Gibson
I think Jews are the smartest people in the world.
Rob Reiner
Jews have God's promise and if we Christians have it, too, then it is only as those chosen with them, as
guests in their house, that we are new wood grafted onto their tree.
Karl Barth
It seems, though, that historically we have now reached a position in which Jews cannot legitimately be
understood always and only as presumptive victims.
Judith Butler
For your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It is not a written law that the next victims must be Jews. It can
also be other people.
Simon Wiesenthal
My mom always said that if the Protestants catch a Catholic in their church, they feed them to the Jews.
Kate O'Brien
The Jews have never been ashamed of being Jews, whereas homosexuals have been stupid enough to be
ashamed of their homosexuality.
Rainer W. Fassbinder
As Jews, their families left Russia to escape the poverty and the antisemitism.
Martin Lewis Perl
When Hegel later became a man of influence' he insisted that the Jews should be granted equal rights
because civic rights belong to man because he is a man and not on account of his ethnic origins or his
religion.
Walter Kaufmann
Not all Modern Orthodox Jews, at the present juncture, identify with what the Israeli government does. In
Israel many religious Zionists strongly oppose the government because of the disengagement.
Norman Lamm
Jews do not have to be Christians. Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, but too utopian, too hopeful, too
unrealistic a turn.
Michael Novak
Christians must be Jews. The truth of what we believe depends on the truth of Judaism, depends on the
first covenant.
Michael Novak
I know I am not only the bad conscience of the Nazis. I am also the bad conscience of the Jews. Because
what I have taken up as my duty was everybody's duty.
Simon Wiesenthal
I'm playing a very strong character, it's the story of the woman Polish Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto. I've
just begun my weapons training and the SAS type training that's getting me fit.
Sadie Frost
The Holocaust committed by the Nazis turned this country, where most of the European Jews used to live
and where their culture used to flourish, into a massive grave. This is why initiatives to revive Jewish
culture in Poland is so important.
Marek Belka
Everybody says it: black, white; everybody calls me a legend. Italians, Jews. Everybody.
Roberto Duran
The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe
their minorities, whoever they might be.
Abba Eban
My purpose is to have American Jews look away from the success story with which they've cheered
themselves up, and to have them remember the classical tradition, whatever it is.
Arthur Hertzberg
Most American Jews came from the lower middle classes, and therefore they brought with them not a lot
of Jewish culture. The American Jewish story starts with Ellis Island, and the candy store in the Bronx.
Arthur Hertzberg
Jewish fundamentalism is teaching that Jews can fight with guns and with civil war, against being
relocated off the West Bank, and disobey the orders of their government. That is the call to jihad, to
several kinds of jihad.
Arthur Hertzberg
There is something very very special, universal and easily identifiable among all Jews; it is beyond
territory, it is something we all have in common.
Ted Koppel
Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God
how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.
Pope Benedict XVI
Without Hitler, the State of Israel probably would not exist today. To that extent he was probably the
Jews' greatest friend.
David Irving
Ours is a country built more on people than on territory. The Jews will come from everywhere: from
France, from Russia, from America, from Yemen... Their faith is their passport.
David Ben-Gurion
There are eleven million Jews in the world. I don't say that all of them will come here, but I expect several
million, and with natural increase I can quite imagine a Jewish state of ten million.
David Ben-Gurion
The Jews who have arrived would nearly all like to remain here.
Peter Stuyvesant
Jews were asked when life begins. For them it's when they finally graduate medical school.
Evan Sayet
Jews don't care about ancient rivalries. We worry about humidity in Miami.
Evan Sayet
My dad was such a bigot. He was a horrible, self-centred person. He was really racist and he'd talk about
the Jews and blacks and Catholics even.
Cindy Sherman
The Jews are trying to destroy all other cultures - as a survival mechanism - the only Nazi country in the
world is Israel.
David Duke
We're Jews, my family, and Jews break down into two distinct subcultures: book Jews and money Jews.
We were money Jews.
Ira Glass
A Jew without Jews, without Judaism, without Zionism, without Jewishness, without a temple or an army
or even a pistol, a Jew clearly without a home, just the object itself, like a glass or an apple.
Philip Roth
In this part of the world, Jews and Arabs will live together forever.
Yitzhak Shamir
Spring and summer 1942 was probably the worst period of internal terror in Slovakia. It was also the time
of mass deportation of Slovak Jews to the extermination camps in Poland.
Alexander Dubcek
The question of boundaries is a major question of the Jewish people because the Jews are the great
experts of crossing boundaries. They have a sense of identity inside themselves that doesn't permit them
to cross boundaries with other people.
A. B. Yehoshua
Jews have a tendency to become comedians.
Sacha Baron Cohen
Art thou the King of the Jews?
Pontius Pilate
Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Pontius Pilate
What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?
Pontius Pilate
It was both Abraham's and the Jews' privilege also that they should have this promise to all generations.
Thomas Goodwin
In 1933, the Nazis came to power and the more systematic persecution of the Jews followed quickly.
Laws were enacted which excluded Jewish children from higher education in public schools.
Jack Steinberger
In taking action we must remember that the things which are happening to the Jews today are but a part of
the general disintegration anticipated by philosophers and historians of different schools for almost half a
century.
Louis Finkelstein
For as Jews, the problem happens to be more urgent and vital than for others; because the destruction of
religion on America will involve the destruction also of the religious training of freedom; and with that
our civil liberties.
Louis Finkelstein
Well, I play Jews and parrots. Parrots are how I've branched out.
Gilbert Gottfried
For many years, our Messianic Jewish brothers and sisters have paid a great price. Other Jews have
rejected them, and the Christian church would require they walk away from their traditions to fit into the
Gentile culture. We must face these past wrongs.
Bill McCartney
Jews talk a lot about God. But actually their god, just like Marx said, is money. Cash!
George Lincoln Rockwell
Jews are the intensive form of any nationality whose language and customs they adopt.
Emma Lazarus
The Lord Jesus will be revealed mightily, and will make bare his holy Arm, as well in the confusion of
Antichrist, as in the conversion of the Jews, before the last judgment, and the end of all things.
George Gillespie
The most important sign in Matthew has to be the restoration of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of
Israel.
Hal Lindsey
America is totally under control of the Jews, you know. I mean, look what they're doing in Yugoslavia.
Bobby Fischer
I enjoy being Jewish, but I'm an atheist... I hate fundamentalism in all its forms. Jews, Catholics, Baptists,
I think they are all potty and capable of destroying the world.
Warren Mitchell
The poet laureate of England talked about murdering Jews on the West Bank.
Steven T. Katz
The notion that Jews are mythic creatures is well circulating in our culture.
Steven T. Katz
The Jews are the enemy of National Socialism.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
We will smite the Jews where we meet them and whoever goes along with them must take the
consequences.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart
Some ticket buyers think they don't like Jews.
Jack L. Warner
Well, who better to play Nazis than we Jews?
John Banner
Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me a Christian, Christians a Jew.
Anton Rubinstein
It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its
purest state.
Bronislaw Geremek
The Jews and the Arabs should settle their dispute in the true spirit of Christian charity.
Alexander Wiley
The Jews deserved to die. I have no regrets. If I had the chance I would do it again.
Alois Brunner
"There is a future for the man of peace." ~~ Psalms (Tehillim) 37:37
"I have set you for a light of the nations. " ~~ Isaiah (Yesha"yahu) 42:6
"It is not good for a man to be dependent on others' opinions." ~~ Mokher Sefarim Mendele
"None should stand up to pray save in sober mood; the pious men of old used to wait an hour before they
said their prayer, that they might direct their heart toward God." ~~ Berakhot 5:1
"If God favors a man, even his enemy will run to his rescue." ~~ Naftali Hertz Weisel
"All education starts with forbidding." ~~ Rabbi Leo Baeck
"A man's honor is his garment. " ~~ Exodus (Shmot) R.
"To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be. " ~~ Golda Meir
"All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last. " ~~ Marcel Proust
"As the stars do not quarrel among themselves, so,too, with the righteous. " ~~ Numbers (Bamidbar) R.
"There is one thing one cannot buy---one's parents." ~~ Traditional Proverb
"We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative. " ~~ Golda
Meir
"Live well. It is the greatest revenge." ~~ Traditional Proverb
"Happy is the man who devotes his time to study, and he who resists temptation." ~~ The Slonimer Rabbi
"A man remembers better the good deeds and favors he did others than those that others did him."
~~ Obsy
"The most important purpose of the precept is to straighten the heart." ~~Moshe Ben Ezra
"The really great deeds are done in secret. " ~~ Chaim Nachman Bialik
"A time to keep silence and a time to silence others." ~~ Reuven Alcalay
"A man should always be happy in his lot, then will he be pleasant and so all his deeds." ~~ Midrash
Le'Olam
"Do not take by force what will be given you willingly! " ~~ Chaim Nachman Bialik
G-d enabled the Jewish people to live as sovereigns in the Holy land, the place of our forefathers - the
land promised to the Jews by G-d. This reality places a special burden and privilege upon Israel's citizens
and its government, to preserve the Jewish integrity of the country. Its educational system must be
founded and inspired by Jewish values and the Jewish tradition so that its citizens grow to be proud
keepers of their Jewish heritage." ~~ Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, Israel, Rebbe Menachem
Schneerson
"The wise man says: I will eat to live, and the fool says: I will live to eat." ~~ Orchot Tsadikim
"The Ingathering of Exiles will be one of the greatest marvels." ~~ Isaac Abravanel
"To hate Israel is to hate God...To rise against Israel is to rise against God...To help Israel is to help God."
~~ Sifre Num., #84
"Independence is never given to a people, it has to be earned; and, once earned, must be defended."
~~ Chaim Weizmann, Government, Israel
"The gates of prayer are sometimes closed, but the gates of repentance are forever open." ~~ Midrash
Deuteronomy R. 2:7
"Friendship is like a treasury: you cannot take from it more than you put into it." ~~ Benjamin
Mandelstamm
By the time you're eighty years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it. " ~~ George
Burns
"There are people whose fame goes before them - - - and others that follow their fame." ~~ Reuven
Alcalay, Wisdom
"Depend not on dreams." ~~ Sefer Hasidim
"Gladness of the heart is the life of man, and his joyfulness lengthens his days." ~~ Ben Sira 30:12
"Rather death than dishonor." ~~ Toldot Yitzchak, Toldot Yitzchak, Wisdom
"Never enter a neighbor's house unwarned." ~~ Derekh Eretz R.
"Who is a thief? Not the one who knows how to steal, but the one who steals. Who is a learner? Not the
one who knows how to learn, but the one who learns." ~~ Midor Ledor
"The work of righteousness shall be peace." ~~ Isaiah (Yesha'yahu) 32:17
Hold your tongue as you would hold your money! " ~~ Mivchar Hapeninim
"A kind word is no substitute for a piece of herring or a bag of oats." ~~Shalom Aleichem
"I became wiser from every teacher." ~~ Psalms (Tehillim) 119:99
"The soul is the Lord's candle." ~~ Proverbs (Mishle) 20:27
"We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next
twelve telling them to sit down and shut up. " ~~ Phyllis Diller
"God appeared unto Abram and said: "Unto thy seed will I give this land." " ~~ Genesis (Bereshit) 12:7
"As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger unsated or a thirsty man dreams
he is drinking and wakes faint, with his thirst unquenched. " ~~ Isaiah (Yesha"yahu) 29:8
"A hero is only revealed in combat." ~~ Musar Hapilosofim
"Walls have ears! " ~~ Leviticus (Vayikra) R.
"All the care in the world will not help you or save you from death." ~~Tachkemoni
"Hatred of the Jew is not the outcome of anti-Semitic lie and calumny. The contrary is true: the lie and
calumny are the outcome of anti-Semitic sentiments." ~~ Max Nordau
"When a friend changes, regard him as an enemy." ~~ Joseph Caspi
Patience can and will always be based on reciprocity." ~~ Theodor Herzl
this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character. " ~~ Oscar Levant
"The bachelor has no nest and the benedict no rest." ~~ Reuven Alcalay, Reuven
"If a student crams, his learning diminishes; and if he "gathers little by little, it shall increase." "
~~ Proverbs (Mishle) 13:11
"Never assume the obvious is true. " ~~ William Safire
"Words that do not come from the heart will not enter the ear." ~~ Moshe Ben Ezra
"From the morning one can judge how the whole day will be. " ~~ Ladino Proverb
A person should give pleasantly, joyously, with a good heart, showing sympathy for the poor, sharing in
his sense of pain and sorrow.(Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249 :3)
If a person convinces others to give, his reward is even greater than when simply giving by himself. -
(Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249:5)
One should not be arrogant when giving.- (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 249:13)
Anyone who runs to do tzedakah will find the necessary funds....and the proper recipients for his tzedakah
work. - (Baba Batra 9b)
Tzedakah is the tree of life. - (Zohar, Leviticus 111)
CONJUGALITY ****
Man has a small organ; the more he feeds it the more it needs – and vice versa.- Talmud: Sukkah 52
Lust is pursued by foolish men because of the immediacy of its delight . . . they ignore the suffering and
wretchedness that follow in its train.- Ibn Gabriol
Lust and reason are enemies.- Ibn Gabriol
Rav Kahana once went in and hid under Rav's bed to see how his teacher conducted himself. He heard
him chatting [with his wife] and joking and doing what he required. Said Rav Kahana, `It is as if the
mouth of Father had never tasted such food before!'
Said Rav, `Kahana, are you here? Go out, for it is not good manners.'
Said he to him, `It is Torah, and I have to learn.'- Talmud: Berakhot 62a
Rabbi Eliezer said, He who does not engage in the propogation of the human race is like one who sheds
blood.'
Rabbi Jacob said, `It is as if he diminished the Divine Image. For the Torah says "...in the image of G-d
He made man" [Genesis 9:6], and then immediately afterwards comes "Be fruitful and multiply".'
Ben Azzai said, `It is as if he sheds blood, and as if he diminishes the Divine Image.'
Ben Azzai himself, however, was not married.
They said to Ben Azzai,`Some preach well and act well, others act well but do not preach well. You
come into a different category: you preach well, but do not act well.'
Said Ben Azzai, `What can I do? My soul is in love with the Torah.
Let the world be carried on by others.'- Talmud: Yevamot 63b
The Onah [duty of regular intercourse with ones wife] mentioned in the Torah [Exodus 21:10] is as
follows: people who do not need to work for a living - every day;
labourers - twice a week;
ass-drivers - once a week;
camel drivers - once every thirty days;
sailors - once every six months.
The words of Rabbi Eliezer.- Mishnah: Ketuvot 5:6
CONTEMPLATION
Contemplate three things and you will not come into the power of transgression; know what is above
thee - an eye that sees, and a hearing ear and all your deeds are written in a book.- Pirkei Avoth 2:1
- Pirkei Avoth 3:1 ****
While I was musing, the fire was kindled.(Bible: Psalms 39:4)
He who mediates over words of Torah, finds ever new meanings in them.(Rashi, commentary to Cant.
5.15)
CONTENTMENT
Who is rich? He who rejoices with his portion.- Ben Zoma, Mishna: Pirkei Avot 4:1
If a man is asked for a big item and he has it, it seems like a small item to him; If a man is asked for a
small item and he does not possess it, it seems like a big item to him.- Berakhot 33b
CONTRAST
The Holy One created light out of darkness.- Berekia. Leviticus Rabbah 31:8
There is no true good except it proceed from evil.- Zohar, Exodus 184a
If there was no folly there would be no wisdom....White is known and valued only by contrast to
black....A man does not know what sweet is untill he tastes bitter.- Zohar, Leviticus 47b
CONTROVERSY
- Pirkei Avoth 5:17 ***
For three years there was a dispute between the Schools of Shamai and of Hillel. Then a Heavenly voice
proclaimed: "You are both correct."
EVIL
First learn evil, to shun it; then learn good, to do it.- Bahya, Hobot HaLebabot, 1040, 5.5
All evils are negations.- Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed 1190, 3.10
EVIL INCLINATION
Torah, prayer and the contemplation of death will help you in your struggle against the Evil Inclination.
- Simeon ben Lakish, Talmud: Berakot 5a
A person's (evil) inclination gains strength against him day by day and seeks to kill him . . . If G-d did not
help him, man could not prevail against it.- Rabbi Shimon ben Levi, Talmud: Kiddushin 30b
G-d created the Evil Will, but He also created its antidote, the Torah.- Talmud: Kiddushin 30b
He who obeys his inclination is like an idolater. "There shall be no strange gods in thee" (Psalm 81:10)
means, Make not the stranger in you your ruler!- Yannai, Jerusalem Talmud: Nedarim 9.1
The man makes a harness for his beast; all the more he should make one for the beast within himself, his
Evil Will.
- Hama ben Hanina, Jerusalem Talmud: Sanhedrin 10.1
The Evil Will lures a man in this world, then testifies against him
in the world to come.
- Jonathan ben Elazar, Talmud: Sukka 52a
Without the Evil Inclination, no man would build a house, take a wife
beget a family and engage in work.
- Samuel ben Nahman, Genesis Rabbah 9.7
The Evil Urge begins like a guest and proceeds like the host.
- Isaac Nappaha, Genesis Rabbah 22.6
Israel complained: "If a potter leaves a pebble in the clay, and the
jar leaks, is not the potter responsible? Thou has left in us the
Evil Urge. Remove it and we will do thy will!" G-d replied, "This I
will do in time to come."
- Exodus Rabbah 46.4
FAMILY
------
Honor your Father and Mother.
- Exodus 20:12, Deut 5:16
Honor your Father and Mother, and include your oldest brother.
- Talmud: Ketuboth 103a
Rabbi Tarfon used to show honor for his mother by bending down to let
her step on him when she ascended or descended from her bed. One day
he boasted to his collegues in the academy about this. They said to
him `you have not yet reached half the honor due to a mother.'
Rabbi Joseph, when he heard his mother approaching, used to say,
`Let me rise up before the approaching Presence of G-d.'
- Talmud: Kiddushin 31b
House and riches are inherited from our fathers; and a prudent wife is from
the L-rd.
- Bible: Proverbs 19:14
A father's love is for his children; but their love is for their
children.
- Talmud: Sotah 49a
Anyone who does not teach his son a skill or profession may be
regarded as if he is teaching him to rob.
- Talmud: Kiddushin 29a
A man appreciates the love of his grandchildren more than the love of
his own children.
- Zohar
FOOD
----
Thou shalt not seeth a kid in it's mothers milk.
- Bible: Exodus 23:19, 34.26, Deuteronomy 14:21
When barley is gone from the jar, strife comes knocking at the door.
- Proverb. q Papa, Talmud: Baba Metzia 59a
FOOLS
-----
Fools hate knowledge.
- Bible: Proverbs 1:22
A bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
- Bible: Proverbs 26:3
FREEDOM
-------
Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
- Bible: Leviticus 25:10
The man alone that is free who has G-d for his leader.
- ibid., 3
FREE WILL
---------
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse;
therefore choose life.
- Bible: Deuteronomy 30:19
FRIENDS
-------
There are friend that one has to his own hurt; but there is a friend
that sticks closer than a brother.
- Bible: Proverbs 18:24
The meek is known in anger, the hero in war, and a friend in time of
need.
- Ibn Gabriol, Choice of Pearls
There are three types of friends: those like food, without which you
can't live; those like medicine, which you need occasionally; and
those like an illness, which you never want.
- Ibn Gabriol
A man has three friends: his sons, his wealth, and his good deeds.
- Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 34
GOD
---
Hear, O Israel, The Lord Is Our G-d, The Lord Is One.
- Deuteronomy 6
The Talmud (Pesachim 118a) calls Psalm 126 Hallel Hagadol, the Great
Hallel, because it points to G-d's most enduring accomplishment -
Notein Lechem L'chol Basar, the sustenance of every living thing.
GOOD
----
Do not withhold the good from them to whom it is due, when it is in
the power of thine hand to do it.
- Bible: Proverbs 3:27
Depart from evil and do good; seek peace, and persue it.
- Bible: Psalm 34:15
Happy is he who performs a good deed: for he may tip the scales for
himself and the world.
- Talmud: Kiddushin 40a
GREED
-----
Thou shalt not covet.
- Bible: Exodus 20:14
What you have is not yours, why want what you have not?
- Talmud: Derech Eretz 1:24
When the camel demanded horns, they cut off his ears.
- Proverb. q Rab, Talmud: Sanhedrin 106a
Who sets his eyes on what is not his, loses also what is his.
- Talmud: Sota 9a
GREETING
--------
Meet everyone with a freindly greeting.
- Mathia ben Heresh. Mishna: Avot 4:15
If you greet someone only because you owe him money, you violate the
law against "usury of the word" [Deuteronomy 23:20]
- Simeon ben Yohai, Talmud: Baba Metzia 75b
On the Sabbath, the outgoing Temple watch would greet the incoming
watch: May He who put His Name on this house, put among you love,
brotherhood peace and freindship!
- Helbo. Talmud: Berakot 12a
HEALTH
------
Drink plenty of water with your meals.
- Talmud: Berakot 40a
Too much sitting aggravates hemorrhoids; too much standing injures the
heart; too much walking hurts the eyes. Hence divide your time between
the three.
- Talmud: Ketubot 111b
Cold water for the eyes in the morning and hot water for the limbs at
night are better than all the salves in the world.
- Samuel, Talmud: Shabbat 108b
The well-being of the soul can be obtained only after that of the
body has been secured.
- Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 1190, 3.27
HEART
-----
G-d gave Solomon wisdom . . . and largeness of the heart.
- Bible: Kings I 5.9
HOLIDAY
-------
This day is holy . . . .mourn not, nor weep.
-(Bible: Nehemiah 8:9)
The Sabbath and holidays are the primary reason for Jewish endurance
and glory.
-(Judah Halevi, Cuzari,c. 1135, 3.10)
Festivals promote the good feeling that men should have to each other
in their social and political relations.
-(Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 1190, 3.43)
The Sabbaths are for rest and the festivals for joy, not for fasting
and weeping and crying.
-(Maimonides, Responsa, ed Freimann, #41, pg. 40)
Israel had no greater days of joy than Av Fifteenth and the Day of
Atonement, when Jerusalem's maidens danced in the vineyards, in
borrowed white dresses, so as not to embarrass those who had none of
their own.
-(Simeon ben Gamliel II, Mishna: Taanit 4.8)
HOLINESS
--------
Ye shall be holy men onto Me.
-(Bible: Exodus 22:30)
None can be called a saint before death, for none can be trusted to
win agains the Evil Urge till the end of life.
-(Midrash Tehillim 16.2)
When the Bible says "be holy," it means exactly the same as if it
said, "do My commandments."
-(Maimonides, Sefer HaMitzvot iv)
ISRAEL
------
Residence in Israel is equivalent to the observance of all the
biblical precepts.
-(Elazar ben Shammua, Sifre #80 to Deuteronomy 13:29)
Said the Alm-ghty: "A small group in the Land of Israel is dearer to
me than a full Sanhedrin outside the Land."
-(Yerushalmi:Sanhedrin 86)
Who walks four cubits in Israel is assured a place in the world to come.
-(Johanan, Talmud: Ketubot 111a)
A man or woman may compel the members of his or her family to move to
Israel, but none may be compelled to leave it.
-(Mishna: Ketubot13.11)
Each Land has some unique property, but the Land of Israel is endowed
with all of these, lacking none.
-(Simeon bar Yohai, Sifre' #37 to Deuteronomy 11.10)
Abraham did not enter into a covenant with G-d till after he entered
the Holy Land.
-(Zohar: Genesis 79b)
For all the land that you see, to you will I give it, and your
descendants forever.
- (BIble: Genesis 13:15)
For a small moment I have forsaken you, but with great compassion
will I gather you.
-(Bible: Isaiah 54.7)
He that scattered Israel wil gather and gaurd him as a shepherd his flock.
-(Bible: Jeremiah 31.9)
All nations shall call you happy, for ye shall be a delightsome land.
-(Bible: Malachim 3.12)
JEALOUSY
--------
Jealousy is as cruel as the grave.
-(Bible: Cant. 8.6)
The jealousy of scribes increases wisdom.
-(Proverb. q Dimi of Nehardea, Talmud Baba Batra: 21a)
JERUSALEM
---------
Jerusalem: She shall be built
-(Bible: Isaiah 44.28)
JEWS
----
A Jew who sinned is still a Jew.
-(Abba ben Zabdai, Talmud: Sanhedrin 44a)
The community of Israel is that which keeps "the covenant and the
kindness." [Deuteronomy 7.9]
-(Zohar, Genesis 47b)
Israel promised "we shall do" before "we shall hear" [Exodus 24.7].
-(Hama ben Hanina. Talmud: Shabbat 88a)
The Torah was given to Israel because they are impetuous [and need
discipline].
- Meir, Talmud: Betza 25b)
JUDGES
------
A judge should always visualize a sword suspended over him, and
Gehennna [Hell] gaping under him.
-(Jonathan ben Elazar. Talmud: Yebamot 109b)
JUSTICE
-------
Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? . . .
. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?
-(Bible: Genesis 18.23,25)
Woe to him who builds his house by . . . injustice, who uses his
neighbor's services without wages.
-(Bible: Jeremiah 22.13)
KINDNESS
--------
Let not kindness and truth forsake you.
-(Bible: Prov. 3.3)
The Torah begins and ends with kindness: G-d clothing Adam and Eve,
and burying Moses [Genesis 3.21, Deuteronomy 34.6].
-(Simlai. Talmud: Sota 14a)
- pirk ***
KING
----
Judah's royal throne had six steps leading to the seat, which were to
remind the king as he ascended, of the six commandments for rulers:
not to multiply horses, wives and gold [Deut. 17.7f], and not to
wrest judgement, respect persons or accept bribes [Deut. 16.19].
Above the throne was a sign: Know before Whom you sit!
-(Huna. Esther Rabbah 1.2)
If a king says, I will uproot mountains, he will uproot them, and not
go back on his word.
-(Samuel. Talmud: Baba Batra 3b)
KNOWLEDGE
---------
He that increases knowledge increases sorrow.
-(Bible: Ecclesiatics 1.18)
If you lack knowlege, what do you have? If you have knowledge, what do
you lack?
-(Proverb (Palestine). q Levi Ecclesiastics Rabbah to 7.23)
One loves G-d only by dint of knowledge, and the degree of love
corresponds to the degree of knowledge.
-(Maimonides, Yad: Teshuba, 1180, 10.6)
The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the L-rd as the waters
cover the sea.
-(Bible: Isaiah 11.9)
Know before Whom you labor and by Whom you are employed!
-(Elazar ben Arak. Mishna: Avot 2.14)
Woe to them that see and know not what they see, that stand and know
not whereon they stand.
-(Jose ben Halafta. Talmud: Hagiga 12a)
Seven things are concealed: the day of death, the day of confort, the
depth of judgement, what's in another's heart, what may prove to be
profitable, when David's dynasty will be restored, and when tyranny
will end.
-(Talmud: Pesahim 54b)
LABOR
-----
In toil you shall eat . . . all the days of your life.
-(Bible: Genesis 3.17)
When you eat the labor of your hands, happy shall you be.
-(Bible: Psalms 128.2)
See how the Torah values labor: who steals and kills a sheep pays
fourfold; but for an ox, a work animal, fivefold.
-(Meir. Tosefta: Baba Kamma 7.10)
If need be, hire yourself out to flay carcasses in the market place,
and say not: "I am a preist, a great man, and this thing is
detestable to me."
-(Rab. Talmud: Pesahim 113)
Labor enobles.
-(Simeon bar Yohai. Talmud: Nedarim 49b)
Only he who has labored before the Sabbath can eat on the Sabbath.
-(Talmud: Avodah Zara 3a)
A laborer may withdray from his job even in the middle of the day.
-(Rab. Talmud: Baba Kamma 116b)
LIFE
----
Who wants life? *******
Choose life ****
Nothing but idolatry, incest and bloodshed must stand in the way of
saving a life.
-(Talmud: Yoma 82a)
What profit has man of all his labor . . . under the sun?
-(Bible: Ecclesiatics 1.3, 2.22)
It were better if man had not been created; but inasmuch as he has
been created, let him examine his works.
-(Hillel School. Talmud: Erubim 13b)
"His days are as a passing shadow" [Psalm 144.4]. Not as the shadow
of a wall or tree, but as that of a flitting bird.
-(Aha. Ecclesiastics Rabbah 1.2)
Man worries over the loss of his treasure, but not over his days'
diminishing measure.
-(Bedersi, Behinat HaOlam, C. 1310)
Though a man live a thousand years, yet at his demise it seems to him
as though he had lived but an hour.
-(Zohar, Genesis 223b)
Know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the L-rd doth man live.
- (Bible: Deuteronomy 8:3)
I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore
choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
- (Bible: Deuteronomy 30:19)
As for man, his days are as grass. . . The wind passes over him and
he is gone, and his place knows him no more.
-(Bible: Psalms 102.12)
Man's years are dreams; death alone can tell their meaning.
-(M. Ibn Ezra, Selected Poems, 126)
The day is short, the labor long, the workers are idle, the reward is
great, and the Master is urgent.
-(Tarfon. Mishna: Avot 2.15)
All creatures pass over a frail bridge, connecting life and death:
life is its entrance, death its exit.
-(Bahya, Hobot HaLebabot, 1040, Tokeha)
Plan for this world as if you were to live forever; plan for the
hereafter as if you were to die tommmorow.
-(Ibn Gabriol, Mibhar HaPeninim, c. 1050, #512)
Die that you may not die; live not that you may live. Die here where
you must die, not hereafter where you need not die.
-(Judah HaNasi. Abot de Rabbi Nathan, B, ch.32)
The righteous are called alive even in death; the wicked are called
dead when alive.
-(Hiyya Rabba. Talmud: Berakot 18b)
Rabbi [Judah ha-Nasi] said, "Which is the right path that a man
should choose for himself? Any that is an honor to those who persue
it, and brings him honor from mankind."
- (Talmud: Avot 2:1)
A man should so live that at the close of every day he can repeat
"I have not wasted my day."
- Zohar
LIVING
------
Said Samuel to Rav Judah: `Shinena, hurry up and eat hurry up and
drink, for the world from which we must go is like a wedding feast.'
- Talmud: Eruvin 54a
Said Rav: `On Judgement Day, a man will have to give account for
every good thing which his eye saw and he did not enjoy.'
- Palestinian Talmud: Kiddushin, end
LOVE
----
A needle's eye is not too narrow for two lovers, but the whole world
is not wide enough for two enemies.
-(Ibn Gabirol, Mibhar HaPeninim, c.1050, #281)
Love which is physical, like that of Amnon and Tamar, vanishes with
the object; love which is not physical, like that of David and
Jonathan, is imperishable.
-(Mishna: Avot 5:16)
Thou shalt love the L-rd thy G-d with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy might.
-(Bible:Deuteronomy 6:5)
"Love the L-rd . . . with all thy heart"- with both your good and
evil inclinations; "with all thy soul"- even when He takes your life;
"with all thy might"- with all your possesions.
-(Mishna: Berakot 9.5)
MARRIAGE
--------
Fourty days before the creation of a child, a voice proclaims in
heaven: "So-and-so's daughter for so-and-so's son!"
- Talmud: Sotah 29b
When a soul is sent down from heaven, it contains both male and
female characteristics; the male elements enter the boy baby, the
female the girl baby; and if they be worthy, G-d reunites them in
marriage.
- Zohar
It was the custom [in ancient Judea] to plant a ceder tree when a boy
was born, and to plant a pine when a girl was born; and when they
were married, the canopy was made of branches woven from both trees.
-Talmud: Gittin 57a
The female [child] should be married first, for the shame of the
woman is greater than the shame of a man.
- Talmud: Ketuboth 67b
When a young man's wife dies, the alter of G-d is draped in mourning.
-Talmud: Sanhedrin 22a
There is a substitute for for everything except the wife of your youth.
- Talmud: Sanhedrin 22a
Be careful to honor your wife, for blessing enters the house only
because of the wife.
- Talmud: Baba Metzia 59a
A man should always take care not to distress his wife, for women's
tears are close to the heart of G-d.
- Talmud: Bava Metzia 59a
A beautiful wife makes for happiness and her husband's days are doubled.
- Talmud: Tebamoth 63b
When a man marries, his sins decrease.
- Talmud: Kiddushin 29b
Honor your wife more than yourself. Love her like yourself.
Lavish money on her according to your means. Don't make her
afraid of you. Speak gently to her. Don't be sad or cross.
- RAMBAM (Rabbi Moshe Maimonides) Hilchot Ishut 15:19
Rabbi Yehudah Bar Ilai would take a myrtle branch in his hand,
dance before the bride and say "A lovely and gracious bride."
- Talmud: Ketubth 17b
A man should not marry a woman with the mental reservation that,
after all, he can divorce her.
- Talmud: Yebamoth 37b
If husband and wife are worthy, the Holy Presence abides with them;
if not, fire consumes them.
- Rabbi Akiba in Talmud: Sotah 17a
A good wife is a crown to her husband; but one who acts shamefully is
like rot in his bones.
- Book of Proverbs 12:4
A bad wife is like a wolf: she may change her hair but not her nature.
- Ibn Gabriol
Hell awits the man who always follows the advice of his wife.
- Talmud: Baba Metzia 59a
MERCY
-----
A throne is established through mercy.
-(Bible: Isaiah 16.5)
He who asks for mercy for another while he himself is in the same
need, will be answered first.
-(Talmud: Baba Kamma 92a)
MESSIAH
-------
Jews have no Messiah to expect, for they already had him at the time
of Hezekiah.
-(Hillel ben Gamaliel III. Talmud: Sanhedrin 99a)
Israel's last redeemer [Messiah] was born before its first enslaver
[Pharaoh].
-(Genesis Rabbah 85.1)
Messiah's name was one of seven things created before the creation of
the earth.
-(Talmud: Pesahim 54)
The son of David will come when all souls destined for earthly bodies
will have been born.
-(Assi. Talmud: Yebamot 62a)
When you see the Powers fighting, look for King Messiah.
-(Elazar ben Abina. Genesis Rabbah 42.2)
Just before the Messiah's advent, insolence will increase and honor
dwindle . . . the government will turn to heresy . . . academies will
become bawdy houses . . . scholorship will degenerate, piety will be
scorned, truth will cease, youths will be impudent . . . and man's
enemies will be members of his own household.
-(Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Mishna: Sota 9.15)
All these matters of the Messiah's advent will not be known to anyone
until they happen.
-(Maimonides, Yad: Melakim, 1180, 12.2)
MONEY
-----
Money answers alll things.
-(Bible: Ecclesiatics 10.19)
All the organs depend on the heart, and the heart depends on the
purse.
-(Johanan ben Nappaha. Jerusalem Talmud: Terumot 8.4)
When a man marries for money, a month comes and a month goes, and the
dowry is no more.
-(Nahman ben Isaac. Talmud: Kiddushin 70a)
NAME
----
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.
-(Bible: Proverbs 22.1)
A good name is better than a precious ointment.
-(Bible: Ecclesiastics 7.1)
Every man has three names: one his father and mother gave him, one
others call him, and one he acquires himself.
-(Ecclesiastics Rabbah 7.1.3)
Happy is he who grew up with a good name, and departed this world
with a good name.
-(Johanan. Talmud: Berakot 17a)
The earned name is worth much more than the given name.
-(Phineas ben Hama. Ecclesistics Rabbah 7.4)
PEACE
-----
The work of righteousness shall be peace.
-(Bible: Isaiah 32.17)
Rabbi Shimon the son of Gamliel said: The world rests on three
things, on law on truth and on peace, as it is said execute the
judgement of truth and peace in your gates.
-(Pirkei Avot 1:18)
Be of the disciples of Aaron, one who loves peace and persues it, who
loves all men and brings them near to the Torah.
-(Hillel. Mishna: Avot 1.12)
Those who lived in the Holy Land - when they saw which of two
people engaged in a quarrel stopped first, used to say: "this one
is of finer Jewish stock."
-(Kiddushin 71)
G-d is peace, His name is peace and all is bound together in peace.
-(Zohar: Leviticus 10b)
POVERTY
-------
If your brother becomes poor, . . . uphold him.
-(Bible: Leviticus 25.35)
I know that the L-rd will maintain the cause of the poor.
-(Bible: Psalms 140.13)
The poor man's wisdom is despised, his words are not heard.
-(Bible: Ecclesisatic 9.16)
Neglect not the children of the poor, for from them will go forth the
law.
-(Eleazar ben Pedat. Talmud: Nedarim 81a)
PRAYER
------
Only that man's prayer is answered who lifts his hands with his heart
in them.
- Ta'anit 8a
From the depths I called You, Hashem (Psalm 130:1). From this verse
the sages derive that one should not pray from a high place, only from
a low place, for there must never be haughtiness before Hashem.
- Berachot 10B
RIGHTEOUS
---------
Glory to the righteous.
-(Bible: Isaiah 24.16)
They sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes.
-(Bible: Amos 2.6)
The path of the righteous is as the light of dawn, that shines more
and more to the perfect day.
-(Bible: Proverbs 4.18)
Is it any advantage to the almighty that you are righteous?
-(Bible: Job 22.3)
G-d said: I rule man; who rules Me? The righteous: for I issue a
decree, and he may annul.
-(Abbahu. Talmud: Moed Katan 16b)
The world would have been created even for one righteous man.
-(Eleazar ben Pedat. Talmud: Yoma 38b)
One righteous man does not die till another, equally righteous, is
born.
-(Johana ben Napaha. Talmud: Yoma 38b)
There are always 36 righteous men among the nations, by whose virtue
those nations abide.
-(Judah ben Ilai. Talmud: Hullin 92a)
The righteous men of all nations are priests of the Holy One.
-(Seder Eliahu Zuta ch.20)
The world must have no less than 36 righteous men in each generation
who are privaleged to view the Shekhina.
-(Abaye'. Talmud: Sanhedrin 97b)
SCHOLARS
--------
Scholars promote peace in the world.
- Hanina. Talmud: Yebamot 122b
A student who permits everybody to tread over him will retain his
learning.
- Mathna. Talmud: Erubim 54a
You will find no Torah in one who, because of some knowledge, exalts
himself to the sky.
- Raba. Talmud: Erubim 55a
"Bring the precious out of the vile" [Jeremiah 15.19]. Even a vile
person may be a source of knowledge.
- Meir. Midrash Mishle' 2.6
A student who did not wait on scholars remains a boor.
- Samuel ben Nahman. Talmud: Sota 22a
SCHOOL
------
Jerusalem was destroyed because it's children were in the streets
[Jeremiah 6.11] not in schools.
- Hamnuna. Talmud: Shabbat 119b
The studies of school children may not be interrupted even for the
building of the Temple.
- Judah HaNasi. Talmud: Shabbat 119b
Better expel one annoying pupil than ruin a whole class.
- Sefer Hasidim, 13C, #184, p. 72
SHABBAT
-------
G-d blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. -(Genesis 2:3)
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy. Six days thou shalt labor, and
do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the L-rd, thy G-d.
-(Exodus 20:8-10)
Observe the Sabbath day and keep it Holy, as the L-rd your G-d has
commanded you. -(Deuteronomy 5:12)
What was created on the Sabbath day after G-d rested? Peace of mind, rest,
contentment and quiet. -(Genesis Rabbah; Chapter 10,end)
The Sabbath is an incomplete form of the world to come. -(Hanina ben Isaac,
Genesis Rabbah 17:5)
The Holy One lends man an extra soul on the eve of the Sabbath, and
withdraws it at the close of the Sabbath.
-(Simeon ben Lakish. Talmud: Betza 16a)
The Sabbath was given for the study of Torah. -(Talmud: Pesikta Rabbati 22)
No Sabbath laws apply where life is in danger. -(Mathia ben Heresh, Mishna:
Yoma 8:6)
"It is a sign between Me and you" and not between Me and the other nation
of the world. -(Mechilta Ki Tissa, (on Exodus 31:17))
When the Sabbbath day complained , "All the days of the week are
paired, I alone am an odd number, without a mate," the Holy One
replied, "The congregation of Israel is your mate!"
- Pesikta Rabbati, ch. 23, ed. Freidman, 117b
Sanctify the Sabbath with food, drink, clean garments and pleasure,
and G-d will reward you for it!
- Hiyya ben Abba. Deuteronomy Rabbah 3.1
Devote part of the Sabbath to Torah and part to feasting.
- Jerusalem Talmud: Shabbat 15.3
If Israel kept properly one Sabbath, the Son of David would come, for
Sabbath is equivalent to all other commandments.
- Levi. Exodus Rabbah 25.12
The Sabbath is the choicest fruit and flower of the week, the Queen
whose coming changes the humblest home into a palace.
- Judah Halevi. Cuzari, c. 1135, 3.5
TORAH
-----
Upon three things the world stands upon; upon Torah, upon worship
and upon the showing of kindness.
- Pirkei Avot
Turn it and turn it [the Torah] for all is in it, and look in it
and grow grey and old in it and turn not away from it for there
is no better rule than it.
- Ben Bag Bag - Pirkei Avot
Shammai said: Make thy [study of the] Law a fixed duty, say
little and do much and receive every man with a cheerful countenance.
- Pirkei Avot 1:15
WISDOM
------
Happy is the man who finds wisdom . . . Her ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to
them that lay hold on her.
- Bible: Proverbs 3.13, 17f
A short life with much wisdom is better than a long life with little
wisdom.
- M. Ibn Ezra. Shirat Yisrael, (12C) 1924, p. 37
A king said to his favorite councilor, "Ask what you will and I shall
grant it." The councilor asked for his daughter in marriage, knowing
that thus all else will be his. Similarly, G-d asked Solomon [Kings I
3.5] what he would have, and Solomon asked for - Wisdom.
- Simeon ben Halafta. Ecclesiastics Rabbah 1.1.1
A sage who was asked, "Why are you wiser than your friends," said,
"Because I spent more on oil than on wine."
[oil for light to read by, rather than wine for drinking]
- Ibn Gabriol, Mibhar HaPeninim, c. 1050, #16
Let your house be a meeting place for the wise and sit amidst the
dust of their feet and drink in their words with thirst.
- Jose ben Joezer. Mishna: Avot 1.4
One man among a thousand have I found; but a women among all those
have I not found.
- Bible: Ecclesistics 7.28
Why is a man more easily pasified than a woman? Because a man was
made out of soft earth, and a woman out of a hard rib.
- Dosetai ben Yannai. Talmud: Niddah 31b
Rav Hisda said: "G-d endowed women with more understanding than men."
- Talmud: Niddah 45b
When G-d was about to create Eve, He considered well from what part
of Adam to create her. Said He: "I will not use the head, lest she
be swell-headed; not the eye, lest she be a coquette; not the ear,
lest she be an eavesdropper; not the mouth, lest she be a gossip; not
the heart, lest she be prone to jealousy; not the hand, lest she be
light-fingered; not the foot, lest she be a gadabout; I shall make
her from a hidden part of man, that she be modest." Yet in spite of
all the precautions, she is subjected to all these faults.
- Levi. Genesis Rabbah 18.2
Rav Hisda said, "If a women marries before the age of twenty, she can
bear children until sixty. If she marries after twenty, she can bear
children until forty. But when she marries after forty, she can no
longer bear children."
- Baba Bathra 119b
YIDDISH QUOTES
--------------
The man who takes care of himself as he does his livestock, won't get sick.
Some medicine does in a whole week what no medicine does in seven days.
Passion is a master.