One rabbi compared wise men studying the law to children tossing a ball to one another: a first sage said the meaning was this, another said the meaning was that, one gave his opinion, another begged to differ.
The suggestion that Jews were selected from among all nations of the earth to be God's chosen people suggested a kind of group arrogance, especially … - Israel Shenker
The suggestion that Jews were selected from among all nations of the earth to be God's chosen people suggested a kind of group arrogance, especially …
- Israel Shenker
A [Jewish] woman could not divorce her husband, but she could petition for divorce, and the religious courts could force him to grant the divorce on … - Israel Shenker
A [Jewish] woman could not divorce her husband, but she could petition for divorce, and the religious courts could force him to grant the divorce on …
The unlettered man who prayed to his maker would be heard; the pedant reciting a faultless invocation would be ignored. - Israel Shenker
The unlettered man who prayed to his maker would be heard; the pedant reciting a faultless invocation would be ignored.
God's greatest blessing is children. The only problem is that you have to support them. It's a problem, not a disadvantage. - Israel Shenker
God's greatest blessing is children. The only problem is that you have to support them. It's a problem, not a disadvantage.
At first sin was as fragile as a spiders thread, and finally as stout as a ship's hawser; sin arrived as a passerby, next lingered for a moment, then… - Israel Shenker
At first sin was as fragile as a spiders thread, and finally as stout as a ship's hawser; sin arrived as a passerby, next lingered for a moment, then…
In Jewish tradition, death-defying devotion to scholarship was the stuff of saintliness. - Israel Shenker
In Jewish tradition, death-defying devotion to scholarship was the stuff of saintliness.
Yiddish has a down-to-earth quality that makes it remote from high-flown rhetoric, and it has a catch-as-catch-can charm derived from its stunning va… - Israel Shenker
Yiddish has a down-to-earth quality that makes it remote from high-flown rhetoric, and it has a catch-as-catch-can charm derived from its stunning va…
Theology emerged not as a course of knowledge but as a feast of homily and imagination and exaggeration in which every man could find his image and h… - Israel Shenker
Theology emerged not as a course of knowledge but as a feast of homily and imagination and exaggeration in which every man could find his image and h…
Monotheism owes its existence not to philosophic speculation about the nature of reality or knowledge or virtue, but to acceptance of reality identif… - Israel Shenker
Monotheism owes its existence not to philosophic speculation about the nature of reality or knowledge or virtue, but to acceptance of reality identif…
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