One rabbi compared wise men studying the law to children tossing a ball to one another: a first sage said the meaning was this, another said the meaning was that, one gave his opinion, another begged to differ. — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
A second-century rabbi said that if 999 angels gave a bad account of a man and one angel reported favorably, God would hear the one angel; even if 999 parts of that one angel's report were unfavorable, God would hearken… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
Theology emerged not as a course of knowledge but as a feast of homily and imagination and exaggeration in which every man could find… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
Embracing and rejecting tradition, bound and liberated by faith, torn between obscurantism and reason, self-assured and self-critical, they were a kaleidoscope of fragments, positions… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
Monotheism owes its existence not to philosophic speculation about the nature of reality or knowledge or virtue, but to acceptance of reality identified with… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
The unlettered man who prayed to his maker would be heard; the pedant reciting a faultless invocation would be ignored. — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
One rabbi compared wise men studying the law to children tossing a ball to one another: a first sage said the meaning was this,… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
In the Bible, fate was often presented as the handmaiden of morality: sin was succeeded by misfortune, righteousness by prosperity, with reward and punishment… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
It was God who dictated what man should believe and do, leaving man the freedom to accept or scoff, to obey or disregard. — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
The [Jewish] Sabbath was not intended to be simply a desert of prohibitions, but rather an oasis for moral restoration and seemly pleasure-one was… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
The suggestion that Jews were selected from among all nations of the earth to be God's chosen people suggested a kind of group arrogance,… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
Jews are a singular confusion — difficult to define, awkward to describe, impossible to understand. All the virtues, all the vices, every pleasure, every… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
In Jewish tradition, death-defying devotion to scholarship was the stuff of saintliness. — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
A [Jewish] woman could not divorce her husband, but she could petition for divorce, and the religious courts could force him to grant the… — Israel Shenker Copy Share Image
![“The [Jewish] Sabbath was not intended to be simply a desert of prohibitions, but rather an oasis for moral restoration and seemly pleasure-one was to eat, drink, even be merry.” quote by Israel Shenker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/962/israel-shenker-27464_desert_the-jewish-sabbath-was-not-intended-to-b_1241860.jpg)
![“A [Jewish] woman could not divorce her husband, but she could petition for divorce, and the religious courts could force him to grant the divorce on grounds of impotence, denial of conjugal rights, or unreasonable restriction of her freedom-for example, preventing her from attending funerals or…” quote by Israel Shenker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/cae/israel-shenker-27464_attending_a-jewish-woman-could-not-divorce-her-hus_2126756.jpg)