Quotes About Judaism

Christianity—and Judaism, and Islam, which were also religions of The Book—required

Turning the synagogue inside out, into a community institution, means that it has to become a recognizable presence. The building used to be the vehicle to make its presence known. Now the building is taken for granted, even if people are able to discern what takes place inside it. This model depends on a different approach. By turning inside out, the synagogue will make its presence known in two ways: by implementing Public Space Judaism

Lessons Learned about Public Space Judaism Events 1. Some affiliated people—who may not be part of the target audience—will undoubtedly attend Public Space Judaism events. But the focus of recruitment efforts should be on those previously unaffiliated—that's the target population. 2. Only about a third of the people encountered from the target audience

Ten Things about Judaism and the Marketplace of Ideas 1. Jewish thought can enrich the lives of people, whether or not the people are Jewish. 2. There are many access points to Jewish

Synagogue Leaders 1. If people are attracted to Judaism and want to convert to Judaism, are we willing to make conversion more accessible? If so, how would we do so? 2. How can we allow people who are attracted to Jewish ideas to engage our community institutions even if they don't want to convert to Judaism? 3. What program changes need to happen for our institutions to effectively share Jewish thought in the marketplace?

Opening the book is a quotation from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops that sums up the Prager-Telushkin view: "It was Judaism that brought the concept of a God-given universal moral law into the world. . . . The Jew carries the burden of God in history [and] for this has never been forgiven.

From the beginning, Scholem made clear that Kabbalah is a writer's mysticism.

A Jewish man with parents alive is a 15-year-old boy, and will remain a 15-year-old boy until they die.

Jews refuse to apply Kant's categorical imperative and be limited by universal rules. We might attempt a definition of a Jew as someone unable to make an objective moral judgement. His arguments will forever vary according to whether the subject is good for Jews or bad for Jews. WMD are bad in gentile hands but good in Jewish ones. Gentile nationalism is bad, devotion to the Jewish cause is good. Equal rights for Jews and non-Jews is good in Europe but bad in Palestine.

The Church squashed in blood Albigensian and Arian heresies, destroyed Druids and other non-Christian cults in Europe, baptized Slavs and Balts by fire and sword; do you think it wouldn't have been able to eliminate the Jews if it had wished to? The concept of 'racial segregation' was totally foreign to Christianity

To the Christian Church, the destruction of the Temple served as an ultimate sign that the Jews were no longer God's chosen people, divine favor having now been transferred to a newer and better Israel.

Traditional Judaism has always embraced the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the ultimate resurrection of the dead.

In Mesopotamia or Egypt, for example, the monarch had a god-like religious status. But this is not the case in Judaism. So that notion that religion can go on, when all the markers of power and trappings of monarchy disappear, ultimately serves the endurance of Judaism very well.

The wedding of Christianity or Judaism with nationalism is lethal.

Other Tatar and Mongoloid tribes settled in southern and eastern Russia. Chief among these were the Mongol Chazars, who founded an extensive and powerful empire in southern and southeastern Russia as early as the eighth century. It is interesting to note that they accepted Judaism and became the ancestors of the majority of the Jews of eastern Europe, the round-skulled Ashkenazim. Into

The greatest affirmation in Judaism is the statement, Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohienu, Adonai Echad—Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is One! Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, chief rabbi of Palestine from 1920 until his death in 1935, wrote that this sentence contains the most powerful thought a person can think. If

The greatest affirmation in Judaism is the statement, Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohienu, Adonai Echad—Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is One! Rabbi

Judaism has always insisted on understanding God in a personal way. It does not mean that every time something bad happens, God is punishing someone. Rather

The appearance of Kabbalah in public means that Jewish mysticism has something unique to offer, a power for healing the spirit as we move into a radically new future.

Commerce is a noble profession, and Jews should get over any self-hatred they might harbor from contemplating the capitalist spirit of diaspora Judaism.

Spiritually, I'm Jewish.

Indeed if we Christians so tell our story that Judaism is silenced, then we have not spoken rightly of Christ.

The Sadducees were materialists." "Meaning what? They drove BMWs?

Qu'est-ce qu'une religion, en effet, sinon une secte qui a réussi ? Inversement, une secte est une religion qui a raté. Originellement, le bouddhisme est une secte du brahmanisme et le christianisme est une secte du judaïsme – leur triomphe final en a fait des religions.