The essence of Judaism is the awareness of the reciprocity of God and man, of man’s togetherness with Him who abides in eternal otherness.

Scratch the skin of any person and you come upon sorrow, frustration, unhappiness. People are pretentious. Everybody looks proud; inside he is heartbroken.

Who is a Jew? A person whose integrity decays when unmoved by the knowledge of wrong done to other people.

On Tisha B’av, he said, ver ken essen (who can eat)? On Yom Kippur, he said, since a Jew is like an angel, ver darf essen (who needs to eat)?

Ceremonies end in routine, and routine is the great enemy of the spirit.

Let us beware lest we reduce the Bible to literature, Jewish observance to good manners, the Talmud to Emily Post.

Judaism does not stand on ceremonies … Jewish piety is an answer to God, expressed in the language of mitzvot rather than in the language of “ceremonies.”

We have no answer to ultimate problems. We really don’t know. In this not knowing, in this sense of embarrassment, lies the key to opening the wells of creativity.

We are all failures. At least one day a year we should recognize it.