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.

If we eat any food, or drink any beverage, we must recite a blessing over them before and after.

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.

When I first began to combine letters other than Hebrew, I read every book in German that came my way, and from these I certainly received according to the nature of my soul.

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

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

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