"For [Nachmanides and HaLevi] the attribute of kedushah, holiness, ascribed to the Land of Israel is an objective metaphysical quality inherent in the land. With all my respect for the Rishonim, I must disagree with such an opinion. I do notbelieve that it is halkhically cogent. Kedushah, under a halakhic aspect, is man-made; more accurately, it is a historical category. A soil is sanctified by historical deeds performed by a sacred people, never by any primordial superiority... Nothing should be attributed a priori to dead matter. Objective Kedushah smacks of fetishism"
TEEM p.150
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"The first prerequisite of prophecy is loneliness. A lonely man finds the Lonely G-d, and this very loneliness creates the charismatic bond between them" ibid
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"As a natural being, as an individual who represents his genus, the charismatic personality is subject to the biological process of life which ends in death. ..The historical Abraham as a historical personality attained immortality. Yet Abraham did not conquer death in metaphysical, transcendent sense. His immotality is through and through historical.... Immortal is the man is the personality which, incarted in the anticipation of the multitude of a non-existent group, is in turn incarnated by that group in retrospect....
....The first concept of immortality coined by Judaism is the continuation of a historical existence throughout the ages. It differs from transcendent immortality insofar as the deceased person does not lead an isolated, seperate existence in a transcendental world. The identity persists on a level of a concrete reality disguised as a people. It asserts itself in the conscioussness of the many, who traces their roots to the one. Yet metaphysical immortality is based on historical immortality. Whoever does not identiy himself with the historical ego and remains on the natural level cannot attain immortality. The first conquest of death takes place in the realm of history"
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Student: Rav, can you bless me
Rav: What, are you an apple or something?!?!? [attributed]
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