Exodus Quotes

Ben-Gurion was right. If he had not done what he did, a state would not have come into being. That has to be clear. It is impossible to evade it…. Without the uprooting of the Palestinians, a Jewish State would not have arisen …. There is no justification for acts of rape. There is no justification for acts of massacre. Those are war crimes. But in certain conditions, expulsion is not a war crime. I don’t think that the expulsions of 1948 were war crimes…. It was impossible to leave a large fifth column in the country.

We've had to pull out of so many countries in Northern Africa.

Since the Exodus, Freedom has always spoken with a Hebrew accent.

As Jews, their families left Russia to escape the poverty and the antisemitism.

Through centuries of struggle, Jews across the world have been witnesses not only against the crimes of men, but for faith in God and God alone. Theirs is a story of defiance and oppression, and patience in tribulation reaching back to the exodus and their exile. That story continued in the founding of the state of Israel. That story continues in the defense of the state of Israel.

The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.

There is a big cry in California to stop everyone from running to Canada.

God would come down and lead us out of bondage. And God led us out of bondage.

Let my people go!

To see how many Italians are going out of Italy, the sort of exodus, a great generation leaving my country, I think is the worst nightmare for me as prime minister but also for the country, of course.

Moses should have said "Let my people go. Please."

Moses, who said to the children of Israel, Wear your galoshes; I never did this trick before. Never got a dinner!

That [Exodus] occurred, I have no doubt.

I like Bob Marley.

In the Bible, we first encounter God when he sides with a bunch of slaves against a powerful Pharaoh, an act of grace freely given.

A great emigration necessarily implies unhappiness of some kind or other in the country that is deserted.

Moses, who said when the Red Sea parted, What the hell was that? I was just going in for a dip! Never got a dinner!

You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.

My family were finally kicked out of Egypt in 1965 for being Jewish. We managed to remain longer than most.

This Moses, I say, this man of old time, whose existence and character you are trying to elucidate, matters to nobody but scholars like you.

We collected in a group in front of their door, and we experienced within ourselves a grief that was new for us, the ancient grief of the people that has no land, the grief without hope of the exodus which is renewed in every century.

The Jewish festival of freedom is the oldest continuously observed religious ritual in the world. Across the centuries, Passover has never lost its power to inspire the imagination of successive generations of Jews with its annually re-enacted drama of slavery and liberation.

The history of Israel and Judaism is the unfolding of the meaning of this story. It's retelling is never finished and will not be until the Kingdom.

The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is won not on the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.

What's interesting to me about Moses isn't the big stuff that everybody knows.