[Avodah] Assorted quotes from RSRH

[Gershon Seif]

I was recently sent these and thought many Avodah members would appreciate this as much as I did. I wish the locations of these quotes were provided along with the quotes.

"We should not wonder at why the Torah does not conform to the times, but rather why the times do not conform to the Torah"

"Never must we think that the Jewish element in us could exist without the human element or vice versa."

"There is one particular danger which is to be feared by a Jewish minority. It is what we would like to call a certain intellectual narrow-mindedness . . . it may easily come to regard all other knowledge in 'outside' domains as unnecessary, or even as utterly worthless. It may reject all intellectual activity in any field outside its own as an offense against its own cause . . . Rather, it has cause to regard all truth, wherever it may be found on the outside, as a firm ally of its own cause, since ALL TRUTH STEMS FROM THE SAME MASTER OF TRUTH."

"But it would be a mistake if . . . we were to educate our children only for isolation and keep them from all contact with the nations. We must teach them to understand and appreciate the genuine values of the nations and not only to fear them. no matter what we do, our children will certainly be thrust upon a life among the nations. We have to prepare them for this test."

"Why should others respect Jews and Judaism if the Jew himself bears his Judaism unwillingly, if the Jew himself does not serve his God with a joyful heart, if the Jew himself is always eager to make comparisons between his own Judaism and non-Jewish values and consistently seeks to infuse his own Judaism with non-Jewish admixtures?"

"I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
"I am thought about, therefore I am - my existence depends upon the thought of a Supreme Being Who thinks me." - Rabbi S.R. Hirsch

"I know my own limitations . . . But I believe that, in a time of such profound significance, and for a cause which is to us the most sacred, it is every man's duty openly and honestly to express what he sees as the truth."

"man can aspire to spiritual-moral greatness which is seldom fully achieved and can easily be lost again. Its fullfilment lies not in the final goal, but in an eternal striving for perfection."

"the Torah is not a mere credo to be satisfied with a few philosophical concepts and declarations of faith . . . Torah is the law for all life; it seeks to embrace man in his entirety. It lays claim to all his inclinations, needs, sensations, and emotions, to all his thoughts and words, his pleasures and his actions at every moment of his life."

"Every transition or change entails pain. For in every change for the better, old ties must be broken so that new ties may be formed. Everything to which we are accustomed is pleasant, but everything new is alien."