Joseph H. Hertz (1872 – 1946)
Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, 1913–1946.
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To Israel's faithful hosts in the past, as to its loyal sons and daughters of the present, the Siddur has been the gate to communion with their Father in Heaven; and, at the same time, it has been a mighty spiritual bond that unites them to their scattered brethren the world over.
Life is a frail and transitory thing, but it has been given a higher purpose and dignity through the revelation of God's Teaching to Israel, and the resulting dedication of an entire people to God's service.
Prayer is a universal phenomenon in the soul-life of man. It is the soul's reaction to the terrors and joys, the uncertainties and dreams of life.
"Accept the true from whatever source it come," is sound rabbinic doctrine — even if it be from the pages of a devout Christian expositor or of an iconoclastic Biblical scholar, Jewish or non-Jewish.
The immemorial ingratitude of rulers and commonwealths is proverbial. Especially common is ingratitude to Israel — the People that has achieved so much of eternal worth, but has rarely succeeded in winning gratitude.
Man must be a co-worker with God in making this earth a garden.
Not indolence but congenial work is man's Divinely allotted portion.
A wife is not a man's shadow or subordinate, but his other self, his "helper," in a sense which no other creature on earth can be.
Men of all lands and climes are brothers.
Everything in the Universe was as the Creator willed it — nothing superfluous, nothing lacking — a harmony.
Divine punishment is at once followed by Divine pity.
In spite of the pangs of travail, the longing for motherhood remains the most powerful instinct in woman.
Man's most sacred privilege is freedom of will, the ability to obey or disobey his Maker.
Though man comes from the dust, sin is not a part of his nature. Man can overcome sin, and through repentance attain to at-one-ment with his Maker.
Because man is endowed with Reason, he can subdue his impulses in the service of moral and religious ideals, and is born to bear rule over Nature.
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