Yochanan Ben Zakkai Quotes

In my tradition, God revealed Himself in words and lives in stories and, no, you cannot touch or even see Him. The Word, in Judaism, was never made flesh. The closest God came to embodiment was in the Temple in Jerusalem...But the Temple was destroyed. In Judaism, the flesh became words. Words were the traditional refuge of the Jewish people - Yochanan ben Zakkai led a yeshiva, my father became a professor. And little boys, in the Middle Ages, ate cakes with verses inscribed on them, an image I find deeply moving and, somehow, deeply depressing. This might help explain a certain melancholy quality books in general, for all their bright allure, have always had for me. As many times as I went down to my parents' library for comfort, I would find myself standing in front of the books and could almost feel them turning back into trees, failing me somehow.

This did not prevent him from going to print shop every morning and working as conscientiously as ever, following the advice of Yochanan ben Zakkai: 'If you are planting an olive tree when you learn that the Messiah has come, finish planting the olive tree and then go to greet the messiah.

If people think you are wise, do not think that you are special. Wisdom comes from knowing Reality, and knowing Reality is the purpose for which you were created.

YOCHANAN BEN ZAKKAI, A great Talmudic Sage and leader, once sent his students out into the world to ascertain the best advice for living a righteous and fulfilling life. When his student R. Eliezer ben Horkenus returned from his travels, he reported: “I have searched, and I have found that the best advice is to develop an ayin tov, a good eye.”116 When your eye, your lens on life, is good, what you see will be good, no matter what.