The Land of Israel will be small, but the people of Israel will make it great. Not _x000D_ in opulence, but in eminence will their destiny be fulfilled, and the elixir of their_x000D_ pride will be distilled not out of dominion or far-flung borders, but out of the_x000D_ faithful and skillful building of the good society.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the idea that greatness comes from the contributions of people rather than territorial or material wealth.
Abba Hillel Silver highlights the notion that despite the physical limitations of the Land of Israel, the true greatness of the nation is derived from the character, contributions, and integrity of its people. He suggests that a society's value and pride stem not from power or expansion, but from the community's efforts in fostering a just and thriving environment.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about community development to emphasize the importance of citizen contributions.
For 6,000 years, these rules have been unquestionably right. And yet we break them every day. People feel that something is wrong in life. There is some kind of atmosphere that makes people now turn to other values. They want to contemplate the basic questions of life, and that is probably the real reason for wanting to tell these stories.
the voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most fully awakened souls
Imagination is an almost divine faculty which, without recourse to any philosophical method, immediately perceives everything: the secret and intimate connections between things, correspondences and analogies.
We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.
Ninety-nine hundredths or, possibly, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of our activity is purely automatic and habitual, from our rising in the morning to our lying down each night.
A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to committ outrages.
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