One of the questions asked by al-Balkhi, and often repeated to this day, is this: Why do the children of Israel continue to suffer? My grandmother Dodo thought it was because the goyim were jealous. The seder for Passover (which is a shame-faced simulacrum of a Hellenic question-and-answer session, even including the wine) tells the children that it's one of those things that happens to every Jewish generation. After the Shoah or Endlösung or Holocaust, many rabbis tried to tell the survivors that the immolation had been a punishment for 'exile,' or for insufficient attention to the Covenant. This explanation was something of a flop with those whose parents or children had been the raw material for the 'proof,' so for a time the professional interpreters of god's will went decently quiet. This interval of ambivalence lasted until the war of 1967, when it was announced that the divine purpose could be discerned after all. How wrong, how foolish, to have announced its discovery prematurely! The exile and the Shoah could now both be understood, as part of a heavenly if somewhat roundabout scheme to recover the Western Wall in Jerusalem and other pieces of biblically mandated real estate.
I regard it as a matter of self-respect to spit in public on rationalizations of this kind. (They are almost as repellent, in their combination of arrogance, masochism, and affected false modesty, as Edith Stein's 'offer' of her life to expiate the regrettable unbelief in Jesus of her former fellow Jews.) The sage Jews are those who have put religion behind them and become in so many societies the leaven of the secular and the atheist.
Tags: children christianity war religion atheism jealousy suffering punishment self-respect bible jesus arrogance grandmothers holocaust wine rabbis martyrdom survivors secularism exile judaism theodicy 1967 false-modesty masochism jerusalem six-day-war passover-seder hellenism passover hiwi-al-balkhi biblical-covenant divine-retribution edith-stein gentiles rationalisation western-wall will-of-god
Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.
Tags: inspirational love poetry gold self-esteem inspirational-quotes grace joy self-respect spirituality haiku personal-growth psychotherapy self-motivation poem-in-your-pocket-day classic-quotes self-love national-poetry-month positive-motivation rainbow rainbows famous-quotes haikus angel-poems classic-books creative-vision inspiring-authors inspiring-words
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Michel de MontaigneTags: individuality inspirational self-esteem solitude ataraxy self-respect self-determination self-reliance self-assurance independence self-awareness self-trust self-sufficiency self-containment
For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.
Marcus AureliusTags: individuality self-esteem solitude ataraxy self self-respect self-determination self-reliance self-assurance independence self-awareness self-trust self-sufficiency self-containment retire
A quest for self-respect is proof of its lack
Ayn RandTags: self-respect
Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.
Adrienne RichTags: empowerment women feminism self-respect self-determination responsibility independent-thought critical-thinking
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
Aung San Suu KyiTags: fear freedom civilization self-respect oppression dictatorship human-rights dignity
If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.
Fyodor DostoevskyTags: self-respect respect
In yourself right now is all the place you've got.
Flannery O'ConnorTags: individuality empowerment self-esteem solitude ataraxy self-respect self-determination self-reliance self-assurance independence self-awareness self-trust self-sufficiency self-containment
There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?"
"Are you a young lady?"
"I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated.
Tags: honesty love empowerment gender women integrity marriage self-respect self-determination independence respect influence expectations matrimony propriety uprightness
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