Religious Beliefs
In accordance with Rebbe Nachman's teachings, Bender kept a rigorous personal study schedule and completed many key Jewish texts each year, finishing the entire Talmud and Zohar numerous times. He also practiced hitbodedut, the unique Breslov form of meditation, and recited tikkun chatzot (the midnight lament) over the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, every night for 75 years. But when someone once asked him, "Which of your accomplishments is most precious to you? Which are you going to present to the Heavenly Court?" Bender answered, "I lived 30 years in Russia, and I still believe in God!"
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Famous quotes containing the words religious beliefs, religious and/or beliefs:
“Never for a moment have I had one doubt about my religious beliefs. There are people who believe only so far as they can understand—that seems to me presumptuous and sets their understanding as the standard of the universe.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down.... Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“The methodological advice to interpret in a way that optimizes agreement should not be conceived as resting on a charitable assumption about human intelligence that might turn out to be false. If we cannot find a way to interpret the utterances and other behaviour of a creature as revealing a set of beliefs largely consistent and true by our standards, we have no reason to count that creature as rational, as having beliefs, or as saying anything.”
—Donald Davidson (b. 1917)