Angela Buchdahl > Quotes

“The biblical prophets weren’t popular in their time, but it was their blunt rebukes—Isaiah’s admonitions and Jeremiah’s warnings—that forced society to reckon with its moral failings and try to do better.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“They say that it takes a village to raise a child. But it took a village to make me a mother. I was shaped by a sisterhood who had trudged the path before me and lived to tell the tale, sharing their tips and war stories.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“The mark of Lailah is a reminder that the depth of our entire life experience and the world’s secrets are already inside us, waiting to be restored. Which means we spend our entire lifetime relearning a wisdom we always had.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“We are in control of our fear. Fear is a choice.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“M’chayei metim, “you give life to the dead,” is actually the traditional blessing you say upon seeing a friend you have not seen for more than a year. Even dormant friendships can be revived.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“After plenty of tears in Israel and a true sense of futility and loneliness, I had my mother’s voice in my head, telling me to dust myself off. I realized, after all that, I was still Jewish.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“You will ultimately succeed if you tune into your people, help them sing their song. But be aware of what you are actually needing when you do. Everyone wants affirmation. But if we rely on approval from the people we serve, we fail at leadership; we will make decisions based on whether or not we’ll be popular and loved.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“He responded that my lens on conversion reflected the Christian understanding, which stems from the Latin conversio, meaning “a turning around” or “complete change.” It is true that the Western view of conversion is seen as a total transformation, or repudiation of what has come before. But Rabbi Dorff said that Judaism sees giyur differently: not as a total transformation but as an acknowledgment and embrace of the Jewish soul that has always been in you.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“Without a Jewish mother, the majority of Jews did not see me as “legally” Jewish.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you." Adrienne Rich”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“When I was eleven, my mother put kimchi on our ritual Passover plate. She thought it was a reasonable substitution for the horseradish “bitter herbs,” since both elicit a similar sting in the mouth, the same clearing of the nostrils.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“Sejong’s ancestors”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“Psalmist "I cried out to you from a narrow place, and you answered me from a wide open space.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging

“Welcoming the stranger means not just attending to their needs but honoring their dignity as well.”
― Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging