If we breathe the scent of goodly grass, the fragrance of spices, the aroma of good fruits, we pronounce a blessing over the pleasure.

It is not enough for a man to dwell in the Land of Israel, he must also pray to be free.

God in heaven sits on high and plays games with us. He has plenty to do up there, what with building worlds and then knocking them down again, breaking things up and then rebuilding them, and yet he can manage to put his mind even to a little grocer in his shop or to a babe in the cradle.

After all my possessions had been burned, God gave me the wisdom to return to Jerusalem.

At the age of nineteen and a half, I went to the Land of Israel to till its soil and live by the labour of my hands. As I did not find work, I sought my livelihood elsewhere.

But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem.

I belong to the tribe of Levi.