Jewish Tradition Quotes

• The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence -- these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.

  Albert Einstein

  Stars, Justice, Independence

  Albert Einstein (2007). “The World As I See It”, p.90, Book Tree

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• The greatest Jewish tradition is to laugh. The cornerstone of Jewish survival has always been to find humor in life and in ourselves.

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Laughing, Survival, Life Humor

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• I come from a tradition - from the Jewish tradition, which believes in words, in language, in communication.

  Elie Wiesel

  Believe, Communication, Language

  Source: www.npr.org

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• What are you going to do to preserve a tradition that is the peculiar and unique culture that Judaism inculcates? The American Jewish community is not going to survive by lining up against its common enemy.

  Arthur Hertzberg

  Unique, Community, Enemy

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• I grew up in a Jewish family, and we have raised our children in a Jewish tradition. Religion gives a framework for moral enquiry in young minds and points us to questions beyond the material.

  Michael Sandel

  Children, Giving, Mind

  "Michael Sandel: This much I know". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. April 27, 2013.

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• The Jewish tradition of learning-is learning. Adam chose knowledge instead of immortality.

  Elie Wiesel

  Learning, Immortality, Adam

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.31, Schocken

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• There are some religious traditions that view human beings as participants in creation. This is true of the Jewish tradition, from which I come.

  Michael Sandel

  Religious, Views, Creation

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory.

  Elie Wiesel

  Children, Memories, War

  Elie Wiesel (2012). “Night”, p.5, Macmillan

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• We in the Jewish community are comparatively lucky. All of traditions have anti-gay pieces but the Jewish tradition doesn't have as many anti-sexuality and anti-body teachings. It's a lot easier to fit affirmation of sexuality and gender.

  Jay Michaelson

  Teaching, Gay, Community

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• The concept known as bal tashchit--'Do no destroy'--has a special significance in Jewish tradition...We are constantly being warned in our faith that the capricious, thoughtless, wasteful destruction of the elements and creatures of the earth is wrong...We should remind ourselves daily of our responsibility to all aspects of creation.

  David Geffen

  Nature, Responsibility, Animal

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• In Jewish tradition, death-defying devotion to scholarship was the stuff of saintliness.

  Israel Shenker

  Stuff, Devotion, Defying

  Israel Shenker (1985). “Coat of Many Colors: Pages from Jewish Life”, Doubleday Books

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• I felt there's a wealth in Jewish tradition, a great inheritance. I'd be a jerk not to take advantage of it.

  Herman Wouk

  Inheritance, Wealth, Jerk

  Time Magazine, September 05, 1955.

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• I am a judge born, raised, and proud of being a Jew. The demand for justice runs through the entirety of the Jewish tradition. I hope, in my years on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, I will have the strength and the courage to remain constant in the service of that demand.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Running, Years, Justice

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• In Jewish tradition the Talmud is said to have been given on Sinai.

  Elie Wiesel

  Sinai, Said, Given

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

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• In the Jewish tradition of the Bible it says, "Speak to her softly, so that she will want to engage in sexual activity." In today's world, there's a little bit of a danger in that people don't really talk to each other. You see couples walking in the street, each one of them texting someone else. That worries me.

  Ruth Westheimer

  Couple, Worry, People

  "Ruth Westheimer: What I've Learned" by Cal Fussman, www.esquire.com. December 21, 2010.

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• It is true that the Jewish tradition emphasizes the moral mandate to save life. It also has a different position from the Catholic Church on the moral status of the embryo. It has a more developmental view of when human life, in the sense of personhood, begins than does the Catholic Church.

  Michael Sandel

  Views, Catholic, Church

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• God is not good, or wise, or intelligent anyway that we know. So, people like Maimonides in the Jewish tradition, Eboncina in the Muslim tradition, Thomas Aquinas in the Christian tradition, insisted that we couldn't even say that God existed because our concept of existence is far too limited and they would have been horrified by the ease with which we talk about God today.

  Karen Armstrong

  Christian, Wise, Intelligent

  Interview with Austin Allen, bigthink.com. November 16, 2009.

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• There is a Jewish tradition of family, too, but then not all Italian or Jewish families are close.

  Richard Rogers

  Italian, Tradition, Jewish Family

  "Building civilisation". Interview with Geraldine Bedell, www.theguardian.com. February 12, 2006.

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• Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war.

  Yitzhak Shamir

  War, Mean, Morality

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• Following the Rumanian tradition, garlic is used in excess to keep the vampires away... Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires heartburn if they get through the garlic defense.

  Calvin Trillin

  Giving, Vampire, Defense

  Calvin Trillin (2009). “Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater”, p.64, Random House

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• I was raised in the Jewish tradition, taught never to marry a Gentile woman, shave on a Saturday night and, most especially, never to shave a Gentile woman on a Saturday night.

  Woody Allen

  Night, Taught, Shaving

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• I have a broad but not an expert or scholarly background in the Jewish tradition. I've tried to learn what I can from childhood, but I am not an expert on Jewish teachings.

  Michael Sandel

  Teaching, Childhood, Experts

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I don't really know of the Jewish tradition of comedy, only the Jewish tradition of not keeping your mouth shut. Complaining about all that is hard, unfair or ridiculous in life-having strong feelings, and not being able to suppress them. That, to me, is Jewish.

  Fred Melamed

  Strong, Keeping Your Mouth Shut, Feelings

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