Gaon Quotes

The famous Dubner maggid, a gaon, was asked by an admiring student: “How is it that you always have the perfect parable for the topic under discussion?” The gaon smiled. “I’ll answer with a parable.” And he told the following story: A lieutenant of the Tsar’s cavalry, riding through a small shtetl, drew his horse up in astonishment, for on the side of a barn he saw a hundred chalked circles—and in the center of each was a bullet hole! The lieutenant excitedly stopped the first passerby, crying, “Who is the astonishing marksman in this place? Look at all those bull’s-eyes!” The passerby sighed. “That’s Shepsel, the shoemaker’s son, who is a little peculiar.” “I don’t care what he is,” said the lieutenant. “Any man who can shoot that well—” “Ah,” the pedestrian said, “you don’t understand. You see, first Shepsel shoots—then he draws the circle.” The gaon smiled. “That’s the way it is with me. I don’t search for a parable to fit the subject. I introduce the subject for which I have a perfect parable.

Marx’s methodology, too, was wholly rabbinical. All his conclusions were derived solely from books. He never set foot in a factory and rejected Engels’ offer to take him to one. Like the gaon of Vilna, he locked himself up with his texts and solved the mysteries of the universe in his study. As he put it, ‘I am a machine condemned to devour books.

Džehenem je ovdje i sad. Džennet je. Prestani razmišljati i brinuti jer oboje su u tebi u ovom trenutku. Kad se zaljubimo uznesemo se u Džennet,kad zamrzimo zavidimo ili prema nekome ružno osjetimom strmoglavljujemo se u džehenemsku vatru. to je 25 pravilo.Ima li gore za čovjeka od svijesti da je učinio nešto pogrešno grozno?Pitajte ga.On će vam reći da je to džehenem. Ima li ljepšeg dženneta od blaženstva koje se spušta na čovjeka u onim rijetkim trenucima kad otpuste stege i osjeća da posjeduje tajne vječnosti potpuno ujedinjen s Bogom? Pitajte ga, on će najbolje reći to je džennet.Zašto brinuti o zamišljenoj budućnosti? Trenutak u kojem jesmo je jedino vrijeme u kojem smo u stanju istinski i potpuno iskusiti prisustvo i odsustvo Boga u našim životima. Derviši Ga vole neukaljano bez ikakvih uslova. Ljubav je cilj. Kad tako i toliko zavolite Boga, kad volite sva i svako od Njegovih stvorenja, zbog Njega zahvaljujući Njemu, sve ostalo topi se u zraku.

One cannot subordinate himself simultaneously to God and to his own idolized self. Thus the Sages say: "Whoever becomes angry, [even if he is a prophet] the Devine Presence leaves him". (Pesachim 66b)

Vilna Gaon was also an expert in nearly all secular wisdom of his time, for he felt that such knowledge enhanced the understanding of many aspects of Torah and Kabbalah; he even left several volumes which deal with mathematics and astronomy (personal testimony of the Vilna Gaon's children in the introduction of the Hebrew text of this book)/

The Gaon explains that the juggler in the first story in this book represents a man who has devoted himself entirely to materialism. Like a juggler who concerns himself with nothing else but throwing one ball after the other, materialistic man lives exclusively to juggle activities which afford him gratification. His life is a constant switch between the pursuit of fleshly pleasure and of status and prestige. The King of the universe observes all this with disappointment, for He created him for nobler ends. Finally, he passes judgement on the juggler's antics.

Nothing demonstrates this more than man's intelligence: it has a capacity far beyond what would have been necessary in animal terms.

The Talmudic sage Rav Amram reached such a high level os spirituality that his evil inclination left him, the Talmud tells us that it did so "like a pillar of fire." (kiddushin 81a)

Lust drives the chariot of the yetzer hara; the seat on which it sits is pride.

The least among you [the Sages] has the capacity to revive the dead (Avodah Zarah 10b)

The Sages promise us that anyone who studies the Torah will derive spiritual purification from his studies (Berachos 16a).

Because anger is the ultimate expression of pride, anger and a feeling of closeness to God are mutually exclusive.

All evil was created by God to block out spirituality from the world so that man would be forced to struggle for it and therefore appreciate it more deeply.

Human endeavour is not competent to obtain success and wealth. "Bread is not the possession of the wise nor wealth the possession of the astute (Kohelet 9:11). No one can be sure that his efforts will succeed as the Torah says many times over, it is God who decides who will be rich and who will be poor (Dvarim 28:12).

In fact the two religions are so close in terms of their structure that the tenth-century rabbinic leader Saadia Gaon would unselfconsciously refer to Jewish law as shar’ia, to the prayer leader in a synagogue as an imam and the direction in which Jews faced when praying as qibla.

It has not only detested beauty when produced at the price of justice; it has rejected the ritual when performed by the morally corrupted. Even religion itself, worship, was not considered to be an absolute. “Your prayers are an abomination,” said Isaiah to the exploiters of the poor. Stay away from the synagogue, wrote the Gaon of Wilna to his household, if you cannot abstain from envy and gossiping about the dresses of your fellow attendants.

Among Bible scholars one of the most common interpretations is that being created in the image of God means being given the special role of “representing . . . God’s rule in the world.”8 The Torah’s view is that people are God’s “vice-regents” and “earthly delegates,”9 appointed by God to rule over the world. One traditional Jewish commentator, R. Saadia Gaon (882–942), anticipated this understanding of Genesis, arguing that being created in the image of God means being assigned to rule over creation (Saadia Gaon, commentary to Gen. 1:26).

Art is man added to nature. ~ Francis Bacon An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. ~ Lord Chesterfield We has met the enemy and he is us. ~ Pogo The best revenge is living well. The goal of human existence is to break our (savage, self-centered, animal) nature. ~ Attributed to the Vilna Gaon 'dum spiro, spero' - Enquanto respiro, tenho esperança. ~ Um lema da Carolina do Sul)

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, vice president of the Rabbinical Court, said in early December, 2015 that the political conflict between Turkey and Russia means that Jews should anticipate the imminent coming of the Messiah. “We have received a direct teaching, passed down from one to another, from the Gaon of Vilna, that when Russia goes and conquers Istanbul...it is time to quickly put on your Shabbat clothes and expect the Messiah,” he said.[56]

Frédéric Dard, Libanius Antiochus, Michael Oakeshott, John Gray, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ibn Battuta, Saadia Gaon, or Joseph de Maistre; he

Maimonides, by contrast, does not try to make reason and Torah compatible. For him, there is no need to harmonize revelation and reason, because revelation reveals reason. One does not have to reconcile the two intermediaries between us and truth, because they are really one. According to Saadia Gaon, Torah exists in harmony with reason; according to Maimonides, Torah is the revelation of reason.

Man (אדם) is meant to be God's garden, his אֲדָמָה, and bring forth a unique fruit. The "fruit" of his labors is a life of unselfish devotion to the service of God.