JEWISH QUOTES TO PONDER AS WE BEGIN A NEW YEAR–PART 2
(A community study period led by Rabbi J.B. Sacks on January 7, 2023)
At our first Shabbat services after Yom Kippur Wednesday and before Sukkot began, we took time together to ponder various quotes that could help us to set the tone for the New Year 5783 that had just begun. We all agreed that we would continue this. Now that we have begun the calendar new year, 2023, I’d like us to continue that today. Please refer to your handout.
Today we’ll focus on page 2. I will read each quote aloud slowly, since we sometimes hear things differently than when we read them to ourselves. As I read them, you are welcome to follow along on your handout, or just close your eyes and take these quotes in. Moreover, as I read them, please listen for what’s resonating for you right now or as you face what may lie ahead in 2023. In these quotes, try to be in touch with what’s speaking to you, challenging you, guiding you, calling you. After I have read them all, I will invite you to react to one quote only, and explain how it speaks to you today.
Please listen with open hearts!
Rabbi Lewis E. Bogage
The upshot of the prophetic message is that hope is a duty.
- Dr. Ludwig Geiger (1848-1919)
The old conceptions of religion can be overcome only through more religion,
not by irreligion.
- Dr. Felix Adler (1851-1933)
An ideal is a port toward which we resolve to steer.
- David Ben Gurion (1886-1973)
A Jew who doesn’t believe in miracles is not a realist.
- Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)
Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.
- Rabbi Benzion Klatzko (b. 1968)
Judaism is not a religion, it’s a relationship.
- Golda Meir (1898-1978)
Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility
into flames of achievement.
- Elie Wiesel (1928-2016)
Our lives no longer belong to us alone;
they belong to all those who need us desperately.
- Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav (1772-1810)
If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today,
what need have you for a tomorrow?
- Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski (1930-2021)
In spirituality, the searching is the finding and the pursuit is the achievement.
- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotsk (1787-1859)
There is nothing so whole as a broken heart.
Which quote was most relevant to you or most touched you as I read it? Please do not just give us a quote number or author. Rather, please explain what the quote means to you or how it is speaking to you at this time.
(Full discussion ensued.)
Please use these quotes to have a discussion at your Shabbat tables with family or friends–or any time you gather. This discussion starter can help gather in the wisdom that everyone contains.
Thank you all for your participation.
Shabbat shalom!