The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
Creating the state meant that Jews took on major responsibility for saving their own lives.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
One might add that the decision to create the state and take power also constitutes a commitment to end the martyrdom tradition of Jewish history. Since martyrdom means the risk of total annihilation, it is no longer acceptable.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
Jewish powerlessness had to be ended at once, or it would end the Jewish people.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
The Torah is no easy, ironclad guarantee against fate or suffering, yet it has outlasted empires.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
The Rabbis (and almost all existing Jews) are the descendants of the Pharisees.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
By living everyday life with a dimension of depth, people become at once more human and more holy.
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
is the mark of freedom that one can have a family, enjoy a meal with its members, look out for it, and protect it. A
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
“The Sabbath is the day of peace between man and nature”; work “is any kind of disturbance of the man/nature equilibrium.”* In
Irving Greenberg • The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
Any covenant that respects freedom must allow for process.