When adults wage war, children perish.

My ambition really was, even as a child, to be a writer, a commentator, and a teacher, but a teacher of Talmud.

Anything you want to say about God you better make sure you can say in front of a pit of burning babies.

We didn't really differ [with Frank Moore Cross] because we have the same love of the text. We share that love.

In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see.

Moses was the greatest legislator and the commander in chief of perhaps the first liberation army.

I may be a descendant of Seth. I say to myself, What does [the story of Cain and Abel] teach me? So I go back to all the interpretations in the Talmud, which to me are a source of pleasure and joy. Then I say, maybe this story is not for then; maybe it's for now! It's possible for brothers to kill one another in civil wars. But most important, whoever kills, kills his brother. That's a moral conclusion that may not be there; but that must be my conclusion. Otherwise, why read it? Whoever kills, kills his brother.