rabbis

"God deliberated from what member (of Adam's body) He should create a woman, and He reasoned with Himself thus: I must not create her from Adam's head, for she would be a proud person and hold her head high. If I create her from the eye, then she will wish to pry into all things; if from the ear, she will wish to hear all things; if from the mouth, she will talk much; if from the heart, she will envy all people; if from the hand, she will desire to take to herself all things; if from the feet, she will be a gadabout. Therefore will I create her from the member which is hid, that is the rib, which is not seen even when man is naked. Yet for all these (careful precautions) she has all these faults. I have not created her from the head, yet she holds her head high, as Scripture says: "The daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks;" nor from the eye, yet she wishes to see all things, as the same Scripture says: "And wanton eyes." I have not created her from the ear, yet she hears what she ought not to hear; nor from the heart, yet she envies all people. I have not created her from the hand, yet she loves to take all things; nor from the feet, yet she gads about."

"By three things is the world sustained: by judgment, by truth, and by peace."

"All my life have I been reared among the Sages, but I have found nothing better for the body than silence; 'Tis not the conveyance of teachings which is the principal [aim], but rather the discharge of one's duty (i.e. action). Whosoever is verbose brings on sin."

"Tracht gut, vet zein gut"

"I will tell you what the game of checkers teaches us. We learn the following rules: 1. You give up one piece to save two. 2. You cannot make two moves at once. 3. You are not allowed to have regrets. 4. You only go ahead, you do not retreat. 5. Once you go up, the way is open on all sides."

"A clear and concise definition of Judaism is very difficult to give, for the reason that it is not a religion pure and simple based upon accepted creeds, like Christianity or Buddhism, but is one inseparably connected with the Jewish nation as the depository and guardian of the truths held by it for mankind. Furthermore, it is as a law, or system of laws, given by God on Sinai that Judaism is chiefly represented in Scripture and tradition, the religious doctrines being only implicitly or occasionally stated."

"It may be affirmed without exaggeration that a just and unprejudiced estimate of Judaism is found nowhere in modern Christian writings."

"Judaism, parent of both Christianity and Islam, holds forth the pledge and promise of the unity of the two."

"At any rate, Judaism, while insisting upon the unity of God and His government of the world, recognizes alongside of God no principle of evil in creation. God has no counterpart either in the powers of darkness, as the deities of Egypt and Babylon had, or in the power of evil, such as Ahriman in the Zoroastrian religion is, whose demoniacal nature was transferred by the Gnostic and Christian systems to Satan. In the Jewish Scriptures Satan has his place among the angels of heaven, and is bound to execute the will of God, his master."

"Personally, I do not know at all what is the meaning of the word "religious" [frum]; also my father did not mention such a word to me. But it appears to me that it is a type of garment whose outward cover is pride, whose lining is anger, and which is sewn with the black of depression."

"If we could hang all our sorrows on pegs and we were allowed to choose those we liked best, every one of us would take back his own, for all the rest would seem even more difficult to bear."

"Without the Talmud, we would not be able to understand passages in the Bible ... God has handed this authority to the sages and tradition is a necessity as well as scripture ... Anyone who does not study the Talmud cannot understand Scripture."

"During the subsequent three decades of his life until his death, Rabbi Schneerson remained consistent; he did not change any of the opinions. What Rabbi Scheerson taught either was or immediately became official, Lubavitch, Hassidic belief."

"It's the small acts that you do on a daily basis that turn two people from a 'you and I' into an 'us.'"

"Education, in general, should not be limited to the acquisition of knowledge and preparation for a career or in common parlance, "to make a better living." We must think in terms of a "better life," not only for the individual, but also for society as a whole. The educational system must, therefore, pay more attention, indeed the main attention, to the building of character, with emphasis on moral and ethical values."

"The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person stems from the common expression: "Let us differentiate." Thus, we do not have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior level. Rather, we have a case of "let us differentiate" between totally different species. This is what needs to be said about the body: the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world. … The difference of the inner quality, however, is so great that the bodies should be considered as completely different species. This is the reason why the Talmud states that there is a halachic difference in attitude about the bodies of non-Jews: "their bodies are in vain." … An even greater difference exists in regard to the soul. Two contrary types of soul exist, a non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness. … A Jew was not created as a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is the purpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanations was created only to serve the Jews. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" [Genesis 1:1] means that [the heavens and the earth] were created for the sake of the Jews, who are called the "beginning.""

"God gave each of us a soul, which is a candle that He gives us to illuminate our surroundings with His light. We must not only illuminate the inside of homes, but also the outside, and the world at large."

"If you see what needs to be repaired and how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that G-d has left for you to perfect."

"Moshiach is ready to come now, we all must only do something additional in the realm of goodness and kindness."

"Activism on behalf of the ways of Chassidus means that even when a Chassid is in the marketplace, deeply involved in his business, he still thinks about what he can do for Chassidic concerns and the welfare of Chassidim. Activism on behalf of the ways of Chassidus is a personal obligation, regardless whether one is great or limited in knowledge of Chassidus."

"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."

"It is nothing special to see women, it is a matter of being accustomed, it does not excite the fantasies of a man."

"How beneficial it could be to have a woman in the rabbinic role to reclaim the lost meaning of tsni’ut by example and through teaching."

"It is written that “one relies upon women,” so it is not foreign to Judaism if this “support” is broadened from the narrow, permitted range into a larger one of pasken, to which in principle there is no objection."

"Just as both female doctors and teachers in time have become a necessity from a psychological standpoint, so has the female rabbi."

"I must fight for God."

"If I confess what motivated me, a woman, to become a rabbi, two things come to mind. My belief in God’s calling and my love of humans. God planted in our heart skills and a vocation without asking about gender. Therefore, it is the duty of men and women alike to work and create according to the skills given by God."

"Their entire work as household “supervisor” is pasken. This is possible for in this area she knows something: no one else can represent her and therefore she had the chance to demonstrate in practice that she can summon the requisite understanding and seriousness for such matters."

"But when it comes to a relaxing of the religious ban in the loosest sense of the word, in which the justification of restricted women from certain religious responsibilities and actions, were quite fitting and earn the highest respect – however, today, where woman is clearly present in public life and accomplishes practical tasks in cooperation with men, contact has become casual."

"Many decrees of our sages were withdrawn, as we earlier have seen; particularly concerning this kind of tsni’ut, they lose much of their severity."

"Our way is to honor every religion and every nation according to their paths, as it is written in the book of prophets: 'because every nation will go in the name of its lord.'"

"There is no such thin as having understanding or tolerance for this. ... When I have spoken about this in the past, secular people called to thank me. People don't want it. They want their children to get married and have children."

"Rabbi Amar can hide behind the Torah as much as he wants, but we hear his darkness, not the Torah. The time has come to stop funding his salary. Rabbi Amar receives money from the . Is he claiming that we need to execute homosexuals? Does he also recommend stoning, as the Torah instructs?"

"Once again, Rabbi Amar proves that he is not worthy of his title as . His comments, which are nothing more than baseless hatred peppered with ignorance, harm Israelis and Jews who pay his state salary. Rabbi Amar has fouled his mouth ahead of the holy Sabbath. His comments distance communities further and further away from the dark Judaism that he represents."

"Even when there is a struggle between nations it cannot be turned into a war of religions."

"You represent a large nation of believers that knows what the Bible is, and it is your duty to pass on the message that the Jewish people deserve a renaissance, and a little respect - to live in this land."

"We know... that the war between the Jews and the Muslims is the work of the cursed devil. We know that Islam is named after peace."

"I am saying cult. It is a cult of abomination. It is clear that it is abomination. The Torah punishes it with death. This is in the first line of serious sins. They say 'tendency,' 'perversion' -- nonsense. There is lust, and a person can overcome it if he wants, as with any other kind of lust. This is one of the most forbidden types of lust. The most grave."

"[A Jew] should make Torah his principal occupation and his work his casual one. He should minimize his business pursuits and occupy himself with Torah. And he should remove fleeting pleasures from his heart, and work each day enough to maintain himself. ... The rest of the day and night, he should occupy himself with Torah."

"The principal safeguard is seclusion, that you should not, God forbid, leave the house, save for some exceedingly great need. ... And even in the synagogue you should be very short and leave quickly. It is better to pray at home, for in the synagogue it is impossible to be saved from envy, and from hearing vain talk and gossip, and one is punished for this."

"A man of valor is one who is mighty of heart with perfect trust to perform mitzvot at all times and to meditate upon the Torah day and night, even though there is no food or clothing in his house, and his children and the members of his household cry out to him: Provide us with our support and maintenance. And he does not heed them at all, or listen to their cries."

"There is also no lack of deterrents which keep saintliness at a distance from a person, but then again there is no lack of devices by which these deterrents may be held afar."

"Whatever tends to lighten one's burden must be examined carefully. For although such alleviation is sometimes justified and reasonable, it is most often a deceitful prescription of the evil inclination, and must, therefore, be subjected to much analysis and investigation."

"Those with wholeness of understanding will be primarily motivated towards Watchfulness by their coming to see clearly that only perfection and nothing else is worthy of their desire and that there is no worse evil than the lack of and removal from perfection. For after this has become clear to them, as well as the fact that the means to this end are virtuous deeds and traits, they will certainly never permit themselves to diminish these means; nor will they ever fail to make use of their full potential. For it would already have become clear to them that if these means were reduced in number or not employed with complete effectiveness, with all of the energy that they called for, true perfection would not be attained through them, but would be lacked to the extent that sufficient exertion was lacking in relation to them."

"Saintliness does not hinge upon those things which are put at a premium by the foolishly "saintly," but upon true perfection and great wisdom."

"All of the character traits, which are in such great need of correction and cultivation—who will cultivate and correct them if we do not give heart to them and subject them to exacting scrutiny?"

"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."

"There are few, however, who devote thought and study to perfection of Divine service—to love, fear, communion and all of the other aspects of saintliness. It is not that they consider this knowledge unessential; if questioned each one will maintain that it is of paramount importance and that one who is not clearly versed in it cannot be deemed truly wise. Their failure to devote more attention to it stems rather from its being so manifest and so obvious to them that they see no need for spending much time upon it. Consequently, this study and the reading of works of this kind have been left to those of a not too sensitive, almost dull intelligence. These you will see immersed in the study of saintliness, not stirring from it. It has reached the stage that when one sees another engaging in saintly conduct, he cannot help but suspect him of dullwittedness."

"I have written this work not to teach men what they do not know, but to remind them of what they already know and is very evident to them, for you will find in most of my words only things which most people know, and concerning which they entertain no doubts. But to the extent that they are well known and their truths revealed to all, so is forgetfulness in relation to them extremely prevalent. ... It is possible that the reader will find that he has learned little after having read it that he did not know before. Its benefit is to be derived, rather, through review and persistent study, by which one is reminded of those things which, by nature, he is prone to forget and through which he is caused to take to heart the duty that he tends to overlook."

"If we do not look into and analyze the question of what constitutes true fear of God and what its ramifications are, how will we acquire it and how will we escape wordly vanity which renders our hearts forgetful of it? Will it not be forgotten and go lost even though we recognize its necessity? Love of God, too—if we do not make an effort to implant it in our hearts, utilizing all of the means which direct us towards it, how will it exist within us?"