Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > Judaism > Status Update

The miracle of the exodus from Egypt is an event which Judaism has never ceased to remember. References to it pervade the prayer book. God Himself, personally and not through the agency of an angel, redeemed His people from bondage" (123).

"The meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space. Six days a week we live under the tyranny of things of space; on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to holiness in time" (119).

"In three respects lovingkindness is superior to giving charity. Charity entails the giving of one's property, while the practice of lovingkindness entails the giving of one's self. Charity is given only to the poor, while lovingkindness may be shown both the poor and the rich. Charity can be given only to the living, while lovingkindness can be shown to both the living and the dead" (110).

"It is already clear that Judaism does not regard sexual union as a concession to the flesh but as a proper and sacred act. The flesh need not be the enemy of the spiritual life; true spirituality raises the flesh to make it, too, a servant of God" (91).

"Examine once the precepts and ordinances of the Law from beginning to end and tell me what legitimate desire it forbids to gratify, what natural impulse it would destroy or extirpate. On the contrary, it purifies and sanctifies even our lower impulses and desires by applying them with wise limitation to the purposes designated by the Creator" (81).

"To love God is to passionately desire His nearness, praised be He, and to pursue His holiness, as one pursues something he strongly desires, until mentioning His name, praised be He, or speaking His praise, or studying His Torah or His divine nature becomes a source of pleasure and delight as real as that of one who strongly loves the wife of his youth, or his only son" (69).

"God fills the universe just as the soul fills the body of man. An emperor said to Rabbi Joshua ben Hananya: 'I want to see your God'...'The sun is but one of the servants who stand in the presence of the Holy One, praised be He, and you cannot look at the sun. Is it not truer still that you cannot see God's Presence?'" (49).