Erica Brown

Shavuot 11b: "As people say, 'From a camel, it's ear.'" Camels were so valuable that even the smallest part of them had value.

Shavuot 12b: Supplementary offerings on the altar are like "white figs for a person," maybe because you don't need them, but they sweeten your day.

"The desert has its holiness of silence, the crowd its holiness of conversation," Walter Elliot.

Shavuot 10b: "Where did the holiness go?" Can holiness leave something that is already sanctified? Can you bring the holiness back?

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth," Buddha.

Shavuot 9a: The offering brought for the new moon because "The Holy One...says, 'This goat shall be an atonement for diminishing the moon.'" One day the moon may give the same light as the sun.

"I don't have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated," Tupac Shakur.

Shavuot 8b: "Death atones." The finality of death washes away sin.

“Life is two things. Life is morality – life is adventure. Squire and master," H. G. Wells.

Shavuot 7a: "Rava read the following verse about R. Yehuda: 'One who draws water from deep wells' (Proverbs 20:5)." He looked hard for a verse to support a law.

“People never notice anything," J.D. Salinger.

Shavuot 6b: "Does he eat in a forest?" is the Talmudic equivalent of "Does he live under a rock?" To this the Talmud responds: "Go out and see whose coin circulates throughout the world."

Shavuot 4a: "A mishna does not move from its place." Do not remove something that was already taught from the literature of what one must know.

Shavuot 5b: "One who carries out an item from one domain to another. Is this not a case of bringing it in but it's called carrying out?" Is the ultimate intention to bring something somewhere or take it away from somewhere else?

"Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts," Henri Frederic Amiel.

Shavuot 3b: One is not punished for "a prohibition that does not involve an action" because you can only act on an act and take responsibility for that which actually happens.

"What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself," Abraham Maslow.

Shavuot 2b: "When one did not have awareness at the beginning but had awareness at the end" when transgressing, how responsible are you for sin and how does one become aware of wrongdoing?

Does one matter? Mother Teresa thinks so: "If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."

Makkot 24a-b: Sages tried to distill 613 commandments into 11, then 6, then 3, then 2, then 1. The one? "The righteous one shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4).