"For Instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the L-rd from Jerusalem." -- Isaiah 2:3

Jerusalem

Torah Verses

Excerpt Sources

Complete List of Source Books

Navigate the Excerpts Browser

Before accessing the excerpts, please review a word about copyright.

Are you more of an "I'll dive right in and figure it out" person, or a "Show Me How This Thing Works" person?  If the former, go right ahead and try the excerpts browers on the right side of this page and/or scroll through the excerpts that start below the following information -- although we still suggest reading the information first.  If you are the latter, click here for a video demonstrating the Excerpts Browser. Either way (or both), enjoy! 

This page is recommended for searches limited to specific Torah books, weekly portions (parshiot), chapters, verses, and/or sources (authors). For keyword and/or for exact phrase (including verse and source) searches of the entire excerpts database, we recommend using the Search Engine page.  For broadest results, use both pages and alternative search strategies. 

This page displays the full text of all or "sorted" (filtered) excerpts in the database.  Use the "Torah Verses" and/or "Excerpt Sources" browsers at the right to locate the excerpts associated with your desired Torah book, portion, chapter. verse, or author.  Or, simply scroll through the excerpts, using the "boxes" at the bottom of any page displaying excerpts to "jump" ahead or back. 

Also note that immediately below the chapter, verse, and keyword of each excerpt is a highlighted line comprised of multiple links.  Clicking on any of the links will limit (filter) the excerpts display to the selected category.  

Transcription of excerpts is incomplete.  For current status, please see "Transcribed Sources" on the Search Engine page.  To assist with completion, please see "Contributors" page. 

DEUTERONOMY — 30:14 close

DEUT1598 (Continued from [[GEN132]] Genesis 1:28 blessed LEHRMAN 3) The purpose of this book is to show that, provided the effort is conscientious and unflagging, man can accomplish this perfection. No miracle, no sacrament, no vicarious saviour can achieve for him only what his own efforts in this direction can. It all depends on the manner of his translation of his affirmation into action, a power of which he usually is the master [this verse]. What singles out the Jewish way of life as unique is its sane, balanced approach and outlook on life. Both the Bible and the Talmud – – not to mention our medieval and modern writers and Judaism--lay greater stress on purity of motive and ethical conduct than upon ceremonial practice and ritual observance, essential as these are as aids to and reminders of the higher life upon which they flash a beacon of light.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUTERONOMY — 30:14 close

DEUT1597 … what gives Jewish morality its integrated character is, first, the sense that the ultimate origin of all values is in God, whose essence is morality, and second, the logical connectives that relate principles to rules and rules to moral judgments. The ideal of consistency is rendered attainable in Jewish morality by the presence of a hierarchy of values which offer guidance in cases of conflict. Except for that ultimate test when man must be prepared to give his life for kiddush ha-shem, human life and human dignity set aside ritual obligations, love of God stands higher than fear of God, mercy higher than justice, and peace higher than truth. In terms of comprehensiveness, the material we have presented indicates that the basic reasoning processes employed by the original rabbis in interpreting the talmudic texts are still available to those of us today who would decide the moral issues that confront us by the perceptions of Jewish morality. This, it will be recalled, was the pointed claim of Moses, [this verse and preceding, 11-14]. One of the most important claims of Jewish morality is that it is eminently practicable; that these values can be realized in real life. Judaism believes that the variegated richness and complexity of the real world is penetrable by human reason not only in the domain of pure knowledge but also by practical reason in the domain of morality. Stimulated by his intuitions and guided by the teachings of the Torah, the Jew should be able to work out what is right and good by himself. It is ironic that some of the most attractive moral theories in the general field of ethics exhibit an almost fatal weakness precisely at the point where the individual, in the bewilderment of his concrete situation, is expected to make a moral judgment. Utilitarianism has never been able to provide a formula by which the utility of the various dimensions of pleasure could be transposed into a common factor for purposes of summing and evaluation. ... We are not suggesting that Jewish morality offers a formula for decision procedures that can be mechanically applied to every concrete case and that will always yield a valid judgment or blissful certainty. In difficult cases of conflicting values or duties, the agony of uncertainty and the sense of moral risk will undoubtedly persist. In Judaism one has the further recourse of consulting with the rabbis and teachers, whose knowledge and experience can be helpful, and with whom one can share responsibility for the moral decision. However, the more than three thousand years during which the Jewish people have wrestled with moral issues, and recorded their struggles, have encouraged the development of a Jewish moral system that contains a pool of insightful moral teachings, a ranking of values, and a workable method of moral reasoning. In a sense, the history of Judaism, in its moral as well as its ritual aspects, has successfully carried out the original task given to it by the Torah: "'And these are the judgments that you shall set before them' -- as a set table ready for human use and consumption (See Rashi on Exodus 21:1).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUTERONOMY — 30:14 mouth

DEUT1608 As it is written (Mishlei 20:4): "The lazy man will not plow in the winter." Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: "This refers to one who did not study Torah in his youth and wants to do so in his old age, but is not able, as the first concludes: 'Therefore, he shall ask in the harvest, but have nothing.' Thus far did king Shelomo condemn the lazy man, but Moshe our teacher, may peace be upon him, said something greater than everyone, as it is written [this verse]: 'For this thing is extremely close to you, in your mouth and in your heart to do it' – only take the thing from out of your mouth (Devarim Rabbah 8:6). And there is no laziness greater than that of failing to emit the words from one's mouth.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUTERONOMY — 30:15 life

DEUT1610 Human life, like personality, forms an end in itself and is sacred. Life is an attribute of God, who is visioned as " the source of life" and as "delighting in life." Coming from God, it is man's highest good, which he must cherish as a trust. Life is identified with the good, and death with evil (this verse and Deuteronomy 30:19). Shedding of blood, say the rabbis, defiles the land and causes the Shechinah to depart from Israel. Yoma 85b Preservation of life has recommended itself to the Jew as the supreme duty of man. The laws of Sabbath observance, of fasting on Yom Kippur, of kashrut, etc. are set aside when life is at stake. Even where it is not certain that life can be saved, these laws may be set aside.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

RSS
First578579580581582583584585586588590591592593594595596597Last
Back To Top