David Novak Quotes

I feel very privileged indeed to be appointed to be the next Chief Rabbi.

In terms of my religious preference, if a year goes by and I don't have a Seder or I don't light the menorah, I feel a loss.

Judaism to me, as badly as I practiced it, what I've always loved about it was its total embrace of complexity, its admission of unknowability.

I was raised in an observant Jewish household, so for me, Hebrew prayers - the sounds, the sunlight streaming in from the stained-glass windows of a synagogue - bring my father back to me as surely as if he were sitting next to me, my head pressed against his shoulder.

I am humbled and deeply honored to have been asked to serve the congregants of Shearith Israel, a congregation with an incomparable history, where some of America's most distinguished rabbis have pastored and preached.

Some people think that religion is not essential to society. I do not hold this view. I consider the foundation of religion to be essential to the life and practices of a society.

I was raised Jewish and fully embrace the core beliefs of Judaism - the ones that I identify as core beliefs, which are essentially freedom and justice. But the supernatural aspects of religion were never important to me.

Judaism is an intellectually based religion, and the single most important theme is that of study.

I believe religion is important for every person.

My father was a rabbi and had a little synagogue in Canada, so I'm from Canada. I left there at 16.

A traditional rabbi is the man to whom the community and its members turn to rule on what Jewish law requires of them, particularly in cases of doubt.

I love religions and find them fascinating, and I find Judaism very beautiful. It's enriched my life enormously.

My grandfather was Orthodox, and he was religious, but neither of my parents were. Of course, as they got older, it seems like they get more religious the older they get, even though they're still not practicing Jews.

Religion is a complex and often contradictory force in our world. It fosters hope and comfort but also doubt and guilt. It creates both community and exclusion. It brings societies together around shared belief and tears them apart through war. However, what unites the faithful, whatever their religion, is the unshakeable force of generosity.

I want to be just a pure spiritual leader.

I'm not a very religious man, but I'm proud to be a Jew.

My family is very religious.

I remember my father, who was 'somebody' in the synagogue, bringing home with him one of the poor men who waited outside to be chosen to share the Passover meal. These patriarchal manners I remember well, although there was about them an air of bourgeois benevolence which was somewhat comic.

If you're religious, it gives you a perspective.

And what is religion, you might ask. It's a technology of living.

All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by. religion, whatever else it has done, has provided one of the main ways of meeting this abiding need.

People need religion. It's a vehicle for a moral tradition. A crucial role. Nothing can take its place.

[Referring to Judaism:] ... a gutter religion.

… religion for many people is some sort of moral viagra.

The best way to make money is to start a religion.