Suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us.

At Auschwitz, not only man died, but also the idea of man. To live in a world where there is nothing anymore, where the executioner acts as god, as judge-many wanted no part of it. It was its own heart the world incinerated at Auschwitz.

In the beginning there was faith - which is childish; trust - which is vain; and illusion - which is dangerous.

To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.

Josiah has a tremendous reputation in the text. He rediscovered the Book of the Law; you remember how Hilkiah the High Priest somehow found it [2 Kings 22:8].

I have one request: may I never use my reason against truth.

The only place where I felt at home, on familiar ground, was the Jewish cemetery. And yet I had never set foot in it before. Children had been forbidden to enter.