How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"There is a degradation deep down below the memory that has withered into superstition. In the multitudes of the ignorant on three continents who observe our rites and make the confession of the divine Unity, the soul of Judaism is not dead. Revive the organic centre: let the unity of Israel which has made the growth and form of its religion be an outward reality. Looking towards a land and a polity, our dispersed people in all the ends of the earth may share the dignity of a national life which has a voice among the peoples of the East and the West—which will plant the wisdom and skill of our race so that it may be, as of old, a medium of transmission and understanding." (42.79)
Here, Mordecai talks about the movement called Zionism, which argues for a national homeland for the Jews. Jewish people are dispersed across the world, and he argues that they can be strengthened and unified through the formation of a centralized nation.
Quote #8
"And you would have me hold it doubtful whether you were born a Jew! Have we not from the first touched each other with invisible fibres—have we not quivered together like the leaves from a common stem with stirrings from a common root? I know what I am outwardly—I am one among the crowd of poor—I am stricken, I am dying. But our souls know each other. They gazed in silence as those who have long been parted and meet again, but when they found voice they were assured, and all their speech is understanding. The life of Israel is in your veins." (46.38)
From the second that Mordecai sees Daniel in the bookshop, he is convinced that Daniel is Jewish. It is almost as though he has Daniel's entire history figured out before Daniel does.
Quote #9
"If my acts were wrong—if it is God who is exacting from me that I should deliver up what I withheld—who is punishing me because I deceived my father and did not warn him that I should contradict his trust—well, I have told everything. I have done what I could. And your soul consents. That is enough. I have after all been the instrument my father wanted.—'I desire a grandson who shall have a true Jewish heart. Every Jew should rear his family as if he hoped that a Deliverer might spring from it.'" (53.29)
Daniel's mother tried to hide his Jewish identity from him, but he sought it out anyway. Regardless of the fact that she went against her father's wishes – and didn't raise her son as though he might be a potential "deliverer" of the Jewish race – everything turned out as though she had never given Daniel up.