The Ritual Bath Quotes
"The key to a good potato kugel is good potatoes. The key to a great potato kugel is the amount of oil."
"The kids will probably all be up when I get home, and Zvi is learning late tonight… I think I’ll walk home very slowly. Enjoy the fresh air."
"It’s my only respite, it makes me feel human again."
"You know what it tastes like? It tastes like a latke. A big, thick latke."
"Despite what the local residents think, this place isn’t a cult and I’m not a guru. People are free to come and go on their own."
"I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with praying, but it won’t help us find the man who raped her."
"I’m not looking forward to this. The Jews don’t relate well to outsiders."
"It could have been anyone of us, especially me. I happened to run a little late tonight."
"Gotta fight, he had said, when you’re threatened. Gotta protect yourself, protect your family and country. But it’s no damn good to fight someone just because of the way he was born. It’s wrong, and it’s stupid."
"The Lord Jesus turned the other cheek. Who are we to judge the infidels? Leave it to the hand of the Lord."
"So much for sensitivity, he thought, smiling. But it had been traumatic for him."
"Rina, did you hear me? The rape…Find out anything new?"
"You’re a cutey, little Miss Jew bitch. Those big blue eyes…Nice black kike hair…Where’s your purse, honey?"
"Horrible thing that happened to my daughter."
"It’s only because I love you that I worry about you. Come this weekend."
"The boys graduate and leave, others take their places. Some kids come here mid-semester. There’s a constant turnover of students, not to mention visiting rabbis and scholars who learn at the yeshiva for a year or so."
"We don’t learn Gemara with your wife, Detective."
"The words of Hashem envelop and whisk one out of the corporeal and into the spiritual."
"Of course I worry about you. I worry about your boys, too."
"I don’t have to justify my actions to anyone. Hashem knows what’s in my heart."
"I’m not going to run away. Hashem will look after us. He always has."
"I was trying to soar above my meager earthly existence and grow close to Hakodosh Boruch Hu."
"God must be punishing me. I must be doing something wrong."
"It takes a lot more to be a Torah Jew than just an accident of birth."
"The best revenge is to see the bastards behind bars."
"The thought of them sitting in an irreligious environment is very disconcerting."
"She begged me to do it. She liked it rough, man."
"I can't picture the yeshiva letting loose like that."
"I don’t understand your reasoning, but at least it’s nothing personal."
"It’s my professional opinion that Moshe Feldman witnessed something traumatic and brutal that night."
"If only Sarah hadn’t hung up. If only she hadn’t left the phone off the hook. If only he could have gotten through to someone."
"The invisible shackles of fear had to be broken."
"She was proud of the way she’d taken care of her own business."
"There was only one Hashem—Hakodosh Boruch Hu—and He alone was omnipotent."
"The routine was coming back, returning order to her life."
"Her hands had taken on a slight tremble, her legs felt weak."
"He ran his hands through his mop of thick curls and looked at her."
"A panther with a ski mask. Clothing black as midnight."
"The faces of her boys flashed through her head."
"The sudden movement threw him off balance and knocked the gun from his hand."
"Just try anything, and you’re dead meat, asshole."
"I’m so sorry, Rina. If you would have just given me a chance…"
"We Jews have a penchant for the extremes of the emotional spectrum. We know how to mourn, we know how to rejoice."
"Yet, a madman can slip under my nose, and I realize I know nothing."
"I am still a meaningless speck of dust in the scheme of things."