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" Jews focus on the Torah, the embodiment of God's will; Christians, on an embodied God. "

Meir Soloveichik

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" The giving of the Torah is a story of God seeking to provide humanity with the opportunity to make moral decisions. "

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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" Jews bear children not only because the carnal election of Abraham must continue. For Jews, raising children is essential to living a rounded ethical life. "

Meir Soloveichik

" To the Christian Church, the destruction of the Temple served as an ultimate sign that the Jews were no longer God's chosen people, divine favor having now been transferred to a newer and better Israel. "

Meir Soloveichik

" Corresponding to the image of a monotheistic God is monogamous marriage. Marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa. "

Meir Soloveichik

" While Jews and Christians both agree on many religious issues, we disagree, and believe each other profoundly wrong, about others. "

Meir Soloveichik

" If Christians see Mormonism as a dramatic deviation from a millennia-old, biblically-based faith, Jews see Christianity in the same light. "

Meir Soloveichik

" If R. Akiva was perhaps overly generous in judging his generation, it can perhaps be ascribed to the belief, based on his own experience, that everyone is capable of a dramatic life change. "

Meir Soloveichik

" The practice of shaving makes its first appearance in the Bible in connection with the story of Joseph, who as a young man was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt, where he was subsequently imprisoned on false charges. "

Meir Soloveichik

" Europe is no longer a Christian continent; few Europeans attend religious services on Sunday, and the European Union recently refused to refer to Europe's religious heritage in its fledgling constitution. "

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

" 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

" Over the course of history, many Jews have ultimately embraced Christianity - some forcibly, some in order to advance in non-Jewish society, some out of wholehearted belief. "

Meir Soloveichik

" Stanley Hauerwas is correct that Judaism insists on the bearing of children because it is essential to Jewish continuity. But to end the matter there is to miss an essential point: if we are to learn to love others, Judaism says, we must begin by loving those who are closest to us. "

Meir Soloveichik

" By forbidding Jews to destroy their hair, the Bible warns them away from seeking the siren song of eternal youth. By encouraging Jews to grow beards, it reminds them that they will not be young forever, that they must prepare the ground for those who come after, just as their fathers did for them. "

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

" God can desire to enter into a relationship with us; he can be drawn to some aspect of our identity. "

Meir Soloveichik

" Either Jesus is the son of God, or he is not. "

Meir Soloveichik

" Even as Jews and Christians profoundly disagree about the truth, they are united in the belief that there is a truth to be sought. "

Meir Soloveichik

" As delineated in the biblical book of Leviticus, Israel's atonement was achieved, year after year, through the sacrifices brought on that day by the high priest. "

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

" 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

" We live in an age in which the biblical-moral traditions that have guided us for centuries are increasingly being forgotten. "

Meir Soloveichik

" 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

" When the Temple was destroyed, the Jewish people faced a crisis unlike any other in its history. For centuries, the sacrificial system had served as the primary medium of atonement before the Almighty. "

Meir Soloveichik

" I am humbled and deeply honored to have been asked to serve the congregants of Shearith Israel, a congregation with an incomparable history, where some of America's most distinguished rabbis have pastored and preached. "

Meir Soloveichik