You would be amazed at the number of doors a Nobel Prize opens.
A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent.
Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.
What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.
I never felt any attraction towards violence. I never tried to express myself through violence. Violence is a language.
Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz; I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.
Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.
In the concentration camps, we discovered this whole universe where everyone had his place. The killer came to kill, and the victims came to die.
I wanted to write a commentary on the Bible, to write about the Talmud, about celebration, about the great eternal subjects: love and happiness.
Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.
Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world.
I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.
Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart. And it simply says, look, people have learned from history.
Historically, I come from Jewish history. I had the classic upbringing in the Yeshiva, learning, learning, and more learning.
I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason.
In my tradition, one must wait until one has learned a lot of Bible and Talmud and the Prophets to handle mysticism. This isn't instant coffee. There is no instant mysticism.
In Jewish history there are no coincidences.
No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.
Moses was the greatest legislator and the commander in chief of perhaps the first liberation army.
