Tamara Rickman

“Hillel amiably replied, “What is offensive to you do not do to others. That is the core of Judaism. The rest is commentary. Now carry on your studies.” The man became a convert.”
― Herman Wouk, This Is My God

“Take away a man's rights in himself, and he becomes dull and sluggish, wily and evasive, a master of the arts of avoiding responsibility and expending little energy. The whip is no answer to this universal human reaction. There is no answer to it. The lash stings a slave who has halted dumbly, out of indifference and inertia, into resuming the slothful pace of his fellow slaves. It can do no more. The slave's life is a dog's life, degraded, but not wearying, and—for a broken spirit—not unpleasant.”
― Herman Wouk, This Is My God

“If a Jew concludes to enter upon his heritage and make it part of his life, he does an obviously reasonable thing. The chances are that—at least today—he will seem a mighty freakish non-conformist in some neighborhoods; but that is changing too, and anyway, what does it matter? What matters is living with dignity, with decency, and without fear, in the way that best honors one's intelligence and one's birth.”
― Herman Wouk, This Is My God

“The Hebrew people draws its optimism from its idea of the universe. Disaster, protracted poverty, mass murder, have never dissuaded the Jews from the vision caught at Sinai of an unseen God. They believe not only that he exists, but that he is interested in men; that he wants them to become better than they are; and that he gave them a law that points the way to a better world. This is solid ground underfoot for those who find it. If he is indeed in the universe, there is hope.”
― Herman Wouk, This Is My God