David Novak Quotations

As a traditional Jew, I have benefited personally from the hospitality of Chabad Hasidim on many occasions, and I marvel at how many Jews Chabad has brought back to their primordial home.

Proselytizing is only wrong if coercive or deceptive. Coercion, whether violent or not, is immoral, just as deception is immoral.

Roots can live without branches, although truncated; branches cannot live without roots.

The Holocaust, taken by itself, is a black hole. To look at it directly is to be swallowed up by it.

Unlike the issue of messiahhood, which arose when Jews and Christians were members of the same religio-political community and spoke the same conceptual language, the issues of the incarnation and the Trinity divide people who are no longer members of the same community and who no longer speak the same language.

Every individual is a person necessarily imbedded in a range of multiple relations, and therefore, no one is really independent in anything but a relative sense; no one is truly autonomous.

The slogan 'Never Again!' that emerged after the Holocaust implies that the Holocaust has a universal moral meaning, which, if properly learned, can provide at least a theoretical prophylactic against its repetition against anyone.

To be a Jew, essentially and not just accidentally, is to regard the Jewish people as one's sole primal community. Election by the unique God requires total and unconditional loyalty to one people.

The Jewish tradition presents itself as the greatest revelation of God's truth that can be known in the world. That is why we call ourselves 'the chosen people.' It is not that we choose ourselves. It means that we have been elected by God and given the Torah.

The most important part of the process of mourning is regularly reciting kaddish in a synagogue. Kaddish is a doxology, which Jewish tradition has mandated children to recite daily in a synagogue during the year of mourning for a deceased parent and then on the anniversary of his or her death thereafter.

One cannot accept Christ and still be part of the normative Jewish community; one cannot live by Torah and still be part of the Church.

When modern political Zionism emerged around the turn of the twentieth century, most Orthodox Jews opposed it.

The work of man is to respond to the Covenant by obeying the commandments of the Torah, those commandments that can be obeyed here and now.

Christianity and Judaism are united above all in their common affirmation and implementation of the moral teaching of the Hebrew Bible, or 'Old Testament,' and the traditions of interpretation of that teaching.

If human language, with its logic, is the way God has given us to understand the world, then the Torah must be understood in that same language and with that same logic.

The relationship between God and his people was always the one having absolute primacy, the one that had basically to determine all human relationships, whether those within the covenanted community itself or those between the covenanted community and the outside world.

Many of us, both Jews and Christians, want the public square to be pluralistic, which is neither partisan nor naked.

The relation between Judaism, Zionism, and Messianism is one that is often hard for Jews to get straight. Needless to say, it is even harder for non-Jews.

A fully positive relationship between Christians and Jews is one that would elide all differences.

Foundational autonomy asserts instead that in the most fundamental practical sense, I am my own creator, which means that at the core, I am alone.

Most Jews, like most rational persons, know that their personal identity and their ethnic identity are not one and the same.

Theological reflection takes place within history, but the history within which it takes place is an ongoing, open-ended process.

As a practicing Jew, I have studied with Christian teachers whom I respect for who they are and what they are, including their positive concern with Jews and Judaism.

In deciding among theological views, one should be something of a consequentialist: the choice of one theological position over another should be, if not actually determined, at least heavily conditioned by the fact that it implies a better ethical outcome than the alternatives.

In historical messianism, the reign of the Messiah is brought about by a Jewish ruler powerful enough to gather the Jewish exiles back to the land of Israel, reestablish a Torah government there, and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

A religious commitment coupled with theological awareness gives Jews a much better way to answer the claims made upon us by missionaries representing other religions than do the rather weak political and cultural arguments of the secularists.

We've also cut five other witnesses ... that were going to testify from the various airlines so that there would be no issue about taint based upon Ms. Martin's contact with their attorneys.

There is no question that Israelis - indeed, all concerned Jews - have to continue to work out a Jewish public philosophy that truly justifies a Jewish state in the land of Israel.

She can do anything she wants in her house, ... But it is a gilded cage.

Millions of people watch 'the most exciting two minutes of sports,' so this is a highly targeted and cost efficient way for us to create awareness and interest in Yum around the globe.

Modernity has been largely shaped for Jews by three momentous experiences: the acquisition of citizenship by individual Jews in secular nation-states, the destruction of one-third of Jewry in the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel.

My guess is they'll put her in a metropolitan correctional center in either Manhattan or Philadelphia,

I first came to Jewish-Catholic relations in 1963, while studying for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

For those who have envisioned the State of Israel to be a democracy, which although primarily a Jewish polity for Jews is one in which non-Jews can become citizens and enjoy equal civil rights with the Jewish majority, the question of natural law is the question of human rights.

God chose us to live both in body and in soul, but the body functions for the sake of the soul more than the soul functions for the body.

Going into the year, our No. 1 challenge was to improve sales trends at Taco Bell and KFC, and I am encouraged by progress at both brands,

Historically, Jews only accept converts rather than actively seeking them.

Hold accountable the person who was brazen enough to look you in the eye and say how grateful he was to have participated in such a horrible, horrible crime. Hold him accountable.

Humility is going to be critically important for him. It's going to be horrendous. It's going to be excruciating for him.

I absolutely agree that it is horrendously wrong and she should have known better.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is the one big trend that's going on in the world today. We're the chicken capital of the USA.

It has always been inevitable that, living as a small minority among a Christian majority, some Jews would convert to Christianity.

It is kind of unique, when the government argues the defendant is telling the truth.

Jews have not only become equal citizens in Western democracies, they have become leading citizens. And, of course, the reestablishment of the State of Israel has given Jews a political presence in the world they have not had since biblical times.

Jews have long experience with Christians who have tried to help us in putting our Judaism behind us.

Jewish status is defined by the divine election of Israel and his descendants. One does not become a Jew by one's own volition.

Our view is that she wasn't hearing what our point was and it wasn't being conveyed to people who are.

Religious traditions are in a constant state of development and renewed self-understanding.

We Jews who willingly and happily confirm our covenantal status and its attendant rights and duties must take the question of mission seriously: either to accept it or reject it knowingly and with conviction.

The press is going to go whacko over this, ... If the wardens of either institution were asked if they would want her, they would say 'no' for security purposes.

We are really not in a position to defend her conduct. The question is where do we go from here?

With all due respect, that's the jury's decision to decide whether they found him to be credible or not.

We thought it was time for us to begin to build awareness of the Yum corporate name.

The rabbi is often the regular preacher in the synagogue, the man whose sermons offer his community more general theological and moral guidance.

Through this sponsorship, potential investors will know of Yum! Brands and begin to associate the company with our leading restaurant brands.

To view any individual as being independent of relationality is like viewing a point outside of a line, a line outside of a figure, a figure outside of a body.

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.

Cultural synthesis is how a compromise between various opinions is worked out. But truth does not change, and truth is not arrived at by some sort of compromise.

During the Middle Ages, Jews were members of a semi-independent polity within a larger polity.

The right to privacy has both positive and negative connotations for those who consider themselves part of the natural law tradition.

The shortcoming of purely political discourse between Christians and Jews arises from the fact that it is largely built upon the perception of a common enemy.

The southeast division of the Bureau of Prisons is in total disarray, ... I could eat my words but I'd be shocked if they did (assign Stewart to Coleman).

The theological contacts between Jews and Christians during much of the premodern period are best characterized as disputations. Even when not engaged in face-to-face argumentation, Jews and Christians spoke about each other in essentially disputational terms.

Perhaps the main stumbling block to a better, and more fruitful, theological relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people has been the tendency of many Christian theologians to see the Christ event as the end of history.

The one and only time I met Pope Benedict XVI was when he was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.

Theology always has moral implications, and morality is always undergirded by theology.

Bar codes have been cryptic for consumers. We've broken that code.

This episode is not so much that he is crazy; he just wanted to get rid of you.

Although most Christian churches advocate some sort of mission to non-Christians, no Jewish group advocates a mission to non-Jews. Proselytization seems to be foreign to Judaism.

The religious doctrine of traditional Judaism entails the acceptance of the nationhood of the Jewish people and the everlasting sanctity of the Land of Israel for them.

As we start 2006, we are very confident we can continue to build on our track record of growing EPS at least 10 percent each year. The key drivers are opening over 1,500 new restaurants globally and growing U.S. same-store sales by 2 percent to 3 percent. ... We have raised our full-year 2006 EPS estimate 1 cent to $2.79 or at least 10 percent growth.

It seems unavoidable that history will always link the reestablishment of the State of Israel with the tragedy of the Holocaust.

It was in the early 1960s that my late revered teacher, Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel, became the first major Jewish theologian in America to enter into dialogue with Christian theologians on a high theological level.

Even when God chose Israel, he did not create the people of Israel as he created its human members, as natural beings. Instead, God formed the people of Israel from individual human beings already living in the natural world, calling them into a new historical identity.

Each person is responsible only for his or her own sins. Even the Christian doctrine of 'original sin' does not mean that humans are punished for the sin of the first human pair but, rather, that humans seem inevitably to copy the sin of the first human pair.

The Vatican's recognition of the State of Israel in 1997 could not have occurred without John Paul's leadership.

At the political level, most Jews and most Catholics have accepted the liberal idea of religious freedom.

Their immediate challenge, ... is to give us a fresh creative approach to help improve sales.

Ingram Micro has the reputation, relationships and reach to help Video Without Boundaries gain significant exposure in the retail home electronics field.

In a very real sense, Jews have to believe that Christians have missed the point about how to wait for the end, and Christians have to believe something quite similar about the Jews.

If not this case, then when is a death sentence appropriate? How many people have to die?

Because Judaism and Christianity are both covenantal religions, the relationship of the individual Jew or Christian to God is always within covenanted community.

Christians and Jews alike are the new exiles of the contemporary world, struggling with how to sing the Lord's song in a strange land.

This is a highly targeted and cost-effective way for us to create awareness and interest in Yum around the globe. Through this sponsorship, potential investors will know of Yum Brands and begin to associate the company with our leading restaurant brands.

All modern secularity requires is that our public norms and the arguments for them not presuppose common acceptance of Jewish or Christian revelation, even if these public norms are consistent with a particular community's revelation and the authoritative teachings it derives from that revelation.

The evidence demonstrates that ... he was actually going to fly that plane into the White House. If he's not part of this plot, why did they rush him into training?

The community in which one hears the voice of God structures how one hears that voice and interprets what it says.

The common moral praxis of Jews and Christians is most definitely theologically informed by the doctrine we share in common: The human person, male and female, is created in the image of God.

All the questions discussed in the Talmud and related rabbinic literature are normative questions: either they are questions of what one is to think or what one is to do. Every prescribed thought has some practical implication; every prescribed act has some theoretical implication.