An impoverished widow once came to the courthouse of the great sage, Rabbi Yehoshua Kutner. Weeping bitterly, she begged the Sage to summon a man she claimed had wronged her.

Rabbi Yehoshua ordered the accused individual to appear before the court, but adamantly refused to preside over the case himself. Instead, he referred the case to another rabbi.

“The Torah forbids the taking of bribes,” Rabbi Yehoshua explained. “Do you think that a bribe is only a gift of money? Tears can also be a bribe that ‘blinds the clear-sighted’ – especially the tears of a poor widow.”

—Maayanah Shel Torah

“Rationalize = Rational lies.”

“It’s easy to be pleasant when everything goes like a song, but the worthy man can smile when everything goes dead wrong.”

“Self-control is knowing you can but deciding you won’t.”