Eish Quotes

Sometimes we build such high walls for protection that we forget that our greatest enemy can grow from within.

When I think of how many people in this world have it worse than I do, I realize just how blessed I really am... ... and I have to give thanks ...

Can the dead hear our prayers? When the words come floating up, do they go straight to God's sacred domain, or does all of heaven know our desperation?

Sa‘sa was attacked at midnight – all the villages attacked under the ‘Lamed-Heh’ order were assaulted around midnight, recalled Moshe Kalman. The New York Times (16 April 1948) reported that the large unit of Jewish troops encountered no resistance from the residents as they entered the village and began attaching TNT to the houses. ‘We ran into an Arab guard,’ Kalman recounted later. ‘He was so surprised that he did not ask “min hada?”, “who is it?”, but “eish hada?”, “what is it?” One of our troops who knew Arabic responded humorously [sic] “hada esh!” (“this is [in Arabic] fire [in Hebrew]”) and shot a volley into him.’ Kalman’s troops took the main street of the village and systematically blew up one house after another while families were still sleeping inside. ‘In the end the sky prised open,’ recalled Kalman poetically, as a third of the village was blasted into the air. ‘We left behind 35 demolished houses and 60–80 dead bodies’ (quite a few of them were children).73 He commended the British army for helping the troops to transfer the two wounded soldiers – hurt by debris flying through the air – to the Safad hospital.74

We combed through Macy’s, cleared out Lord & Taylor, and began exploring Bloomingdale’s. We made long lists of items needed, stores to check out, and hints to convey to the in-laws. There was the Wedding Night Itself, The Day After, and Life in General, which required an exhaustive investigative committee of experienced wedding people that included my aunt – who married off five, my second cousin – seven; and my mother’s former classmate Mrs. Frish and her eleven daughters. Shoes, clothes, lingerie, head coverings, linen – all this needed expert advice on what to buy where, and for how much, and most important of all, how long it would last. Elegant’s linen lasted until at least the third child’s bed-wetting. We weren’t to bother with cheaper brands; they could barely absorb one child’s vomit.

We built walls and we built them high...The walls would protect us and shelter us - and as we built them higher, thicker, wider, we forgot to look inside. We forgot that the greatest enemies always grow from within.

And it taught me all I needed to know about right and wrong. If a man was wearing that hat he was right; if he wasn’t, he was wrong.

Someone who dressed in an immodest fashion was trying to be like the goyim, who cared only for their bodies and neglected their souls.

Fashion is created to bring attention to your body and to disguise what is really important about you.

Children come from love.” “They come from Hashem’s commandment. He said to produce and multiply.

Then he’d tell me all about his first year of marriage with my mother, and how they didn’t get along all at once, but eventually they ran out of things to fight about, and look, today they were the best of friends.

We built walls, and built them high. The walls would keep the gentiles and their terrifying world far away. The walls would protect us and shelter us—and as we built them higher, thicker, wider, we forgot to look inside. We forgot that the greatest enemies always grow from within.

We will lie talking and talking forever because dreams don’t need to end.