Torah Quotes

• For many people during many centuries, mankind's history before the coming of Christianity was the history of the Jews and what they recounted of the history of others. Both were written down in the books called the Old Testament, [the Torah] the sacred writings of the Jewish people ... They were the first to arrive at an abstract notion of God and to forbid his representation by images. No other people has produced a greater historical impact from such comparatively insignificant origins and resources.

  John Roberts

  Book, Writing, Impact

  53 Copy quote

• Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God. Beloved are Israel, for they were called children of God. Beloved are Israel, for unto them was given the desirable Torah

  Rabbi Akiva

  Children, Men, Israel

  49 Copy quote

• Golden Rule”: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

  Hillel the Elder

  Golden, Hateful, Explanation

  93 Copy quote

• There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.

  Anne Lamott

  Fall, Reading, Heart

  Anne Lamott (2006). “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”, p.73, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Where there is Torah it sustains the world.

  Ovadia Yosef

  World

  21 Copy quote

• I shall teach you the best way to say Torah. You must cease to be aware of yourselves. You must be nothing but an ear that hears what the universe of the word is constantly saying within you. The moment you start hearing what you yourself are saying, YOU must stop.

  Martin Buber

  Way, Hearing, Ears

  Martin Buber (2002). “Ten Rungs: Collected Hasidic Sayings”, p.52, Psychology Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Spiritual wisdom is now available to everyone, disseminated to the masses as never before in world history.

  Marianne Williamson

  Spiritual, Jesus, Discovery

  "Illuminata: Thoughts, Prayers, Rites of Passage". Book by Marianne Williamson (Part I "Thoughts", Chapter 2 "The Luminous Mind", p. 29), November 1994.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is Scripture? The Hebrew word is torah. Torah means teaching, learning.

  Elie Wiesel

  Teaching, Mean, Scripture

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an is mute; if you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth.

  Conor Oberst

  Together, Blind, Deaf

  7 Copy quote

• Faith is the summit of the Torah.

  Solomon Ibn Gabirol

  Summit

  5 Copy quote

• Both of my parents would say they were atheists, so where I inherited my connection to God I don't know. But it's natural. No Bible, no Torah, just the love religion.

  Lisa Bonet

  Atheist, Parent, Atheism

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is easy for a rabbi to establish prohibitions, but a rabbi's real strength is to teach Torah and rule on lawwith an emphasis on what is permitted.

  Ovadia Yosef

  Real, Easy, Prohibition

  Jewish Chronicle (p. 22), October 11, 2013.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't think you could pull one Bob Marley song that didn't have quotes from the Torah or the Old Testament.

  Matisyahu

  Song, Thinking, Bob

  11 Copy quote

• There is the illusion of the world and the reality of the Torah.

  Meir Kahane

  Reality, World, Illusion

  Meir Kahane (1973). “Meir Kahane--writings (5732-33): Selected Writings by Meir Kahane from the Year 5732-33 (1971-73).”

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have faith in the Torah. I am not afraid of truth.

  Chaim Potok

  Have Faith, Not Afraid, Charlatans

  Chaim Potok (2010). “In the Beginning”, p.391, Ballantine Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There was a tsunami and there are terrible natural disasters, because there isn't enough Torah study.

  Ovadia Yosef

  Littles, Study, Natural

  "Rabbi: Hurricane punishment for pullout" by Zvi Alush, www.ynetnews.com. September 7, 2005.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• My heart can take on any form:
  A meadow for gazelles,
  A cloister for monks,
  For the idols, sacred ground,
  Ka'ba for the circling pilgrim,
  The tables of the Torah,
  The scrolls of the Quran.
  
  My creed is Love;
  Wherever its caravan turns along the way,
  That is my belief,
  My faith.

  Ibn Arabi

  Heart, Idols, Tables

  520 Copy quote

• I will go wherever the truth leads me. It is secular scholarship, Rebbe; it is not the scholarship of tradition. In secular scholarship there are no boundaries and no permanently fixed views.” Lurie, if the Torah cannot go out into your world of scholarship and return stronger, then we are all fools and charlatans. I have faith in the Torah. I am not afraid of truth.

  Chaim Potok

  Views, Stronger, World

  6 Copy quote

• Though my father was poor and had nothing, the Torah, the poetry of prophets, was his daily bread.

  Anzia Yezierska

  Father, Bread, Poor

  Anzia Yezierska (1979). “The open cage: an Anzia Yezierska collection”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The delight of the Torah is ignited by an inner awareness. A man begins to sense the great tapestry of each letter and point. Every concept and content, every notion and idea, of every spiritual movement, of every vibration, intellectual and emotional, from the immediate and general to the distant and detailed, from matters lofty, spiritual, and ethical according to their outward profile, to matters practical, obligatory, seemingly frightening, and forceful, and at the same time complex and full of content and great mental exertion - all together become known by a supernal holy awareness.

  Abraham Isaac Kook

  Spiritual, Men, Emotional

  "XXVIII : The Inner Light of Torah in the Land of Israel". Translation by Rabbi Bezalel Naor, p. 208,

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• The observant Jew has his own sense of values. Torah Judaism is his blueprint for this life, his target for existence.

  Meir Kahane

  Target, This Life, Existence

  Meir Kahane (1973). “Meir Kahane--writings (5732-33): Selected Writings by Meir Kahane from the Year 5732-33 (1971-73).”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Torah itself becomes coarse in the mouth of a man of pride.

  Nachman of Breslov

  Pride, Men, Mouths

  8 Copy quote

• I've studied Kabbalah, as you know, for many years, so there are a lot of things I do that one would associate with practising Judaism. I hear the Torah every Saturday. I observe Shabbat. I say certain prayers. My son was bar mitzvahed. So this appears like I'm Jewish, but these rituals are connected to what I describe as the Tree of Life consciousness and have more to do with the idea of being an Israelite, not Jewish.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Prayer, Son, Years

  Source: www.independent.ie

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Judaism is absolutely incompatible with the abandonment of the Torah.

  Solomon Schechter

  Abandonment, Judaism

  Solomon Schechter (1908). “Inaugural Address of Solomon Schechter as President of the Faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America: Delivered November 20, 1902”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Since I invoke Torah so often, let me state that I don't personally believe in the God it postulates ... I am not religious, nor were the majority of the early builders of Israel believers. Yet their passion for this land stemmed from the Book of Books ... [The Bible is] the single most important book in my life.

  David Ben-Gurion

  Religious, Believe, Book

  104 Copy quote