Judaism, I would argue, does demand love for our fellow human beings, but only to an extent. ‘Hate’ is not always synonymous with the terribly sinful. – Meir Soloveichik
Ours is decidedly not an age of Abrahams, Jacobs, or of youthful Elazars proud to be regarded as men of seventy. On the contrary, it is one in which the external signs of aging are avoided at all costs, youth is worshipped, and immortality is sought not in children but in Botox. – Meir Soloveichik
Religious relativism is not the answer to disagreement between faiths; yet relativism, and a blurring of religious distinctions, all too often result when two deeply believing faith communities engage each other in the public arena on theological issues. – Meir Soloveichik
God can desire to enter into a relationship with us; he can be drawn to some aspect of our identity. – Meir Soloveichik
If God loves human beings and seeks to relate to them because he is drawn to something unique about them, then his love must be exclusive and cannot be universal. – Meir Soloveichik
Throughout its history, the members of Shearith Israel have observed Thanksgiving by reciting in synagogue the same psalms of praise and gratitude sung by Jews all over the world on festive days like Hanukkah. – Meir Soloveichik
The eternal link between Lincoln’s life and Passover – the fact that Lincoln’s death, marked in the Hebrew calendar, coincides with Passover every year – is certainly fitting, and perhaps even part of the providence that Lincoln began to see in his own life and the life of his nation. – Meir Soloveichik
Rather than forgive, we can wish ill; rather than hope for repentance, we can instead hope that our enemies experience the wrath of God. – Meir Soloveichik
The election of the Jewish people is the result of God’s falling in love with Abraham and founding a family with him. – Meir Soloveichik
Marriage is about love, but it is not first and foremost about love. First and foremost, marriage is about continuity and transmission. – Meir Soloveichik
There is, of course, only one chosen nation. But Abraham Lincoln would call America ‘an almost chosen nation’ because he believed that America had a providential role to play in history, inspired by the example of God’s ancient covenant people. – Meir Soloveichik
A society that is all self-interest and no comradeship is not a society at all. But a society that is all comradeship and no self-interest is also not a society; it is a sect – or, on the largest scale, totalitarianism. – Meir Soloveichik
How can finite man commune with an infinite God? To both Christians and Jews, God himself has made that possible by irrupting into the temporal world. To Christians, God became man in the Incarnation; to Jews, the God that spoke out of the fire on Mount Sinai gave his Torah. – Meir Soloveichik
The giving of the Torah is a story of God seeking to provide humanity with the opportunity to make moral decisions. – Meir Soloveichik
Jews focus on the Torah, the embodiment of God’s will; Christians, on an embodied God. – Meir Soloveichik
We Americans unite faith and freedom in asserting that our liberties are your gift, God, not that of government. – Meir Soloveichik
As with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, the origins of Shearith Israel trace back to a small group of religious freedom-seekers and a treacherous ocean passage to the New World. – Meir Soloveichik
The moment that one person in an argument claims to be God, dialogue and debate become impossible. – Meir Soloveichik
I do work a lot on arguing that things which people assume are always wrong are not necessarily so and, indeed, can often be right. – Meir Soloveichik
To Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant Christians, communion involves partaking of the physical real presence of God in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. By contrast, the Torah draws the Jew into engagement with God’s infinite mind. Torah learning is the definitive Jewish mode of communion with God. – Meir Soloveichik
The essence of a religion can be discovered by asking its adherents one question: ‘What, to your mind, was the seminal moment in the history of the world?’ – Meir Soloveichik
We know a great deal about the configuration of the menorah from the biblical book of Exodus. Beaten out of solid gold, the ancient candelabrum boasted six branches emerging from a seventh, its central shaft. The menorah was adorned with golden buttons, cups, and flowers. – Meir Soloveichik
Jews seek to cleave to the will of God as set forth in the Bible and, particularly, the Pentateuch, with its rabbinic commentaries, the Mishnah and Talmud. – Meir Soloveichik
Bride and groom are not just two contracting parties but two loving and beloved companions, joined in establishing a home that will be nothing less than a source of immortality. – Meir Soloveichik
