Tuesday, September 18, 2012

From a Commonplace Book

Menachem Mendel of Kotsk, the tortured Hasid of the last century, once said that when the Evil One wants to destroy us, he tempts us not through our wicked desires but through our most virtuous inclinations; we do good deeds at the wrong time, with the wrong intensity, and in a setting in which they do devastating harm.

-- Arthur Hertzberg, "An Open Letter to Elie Wiesel"

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