“Our nation’s success depends only on brotherly love, on connecting as one family.”

— Shmuel David Luzzatto

“The children of Israel correct the world when they return to being one nation … the correction should be that we correct ourselves and find the root of unity out of the separation.”
— Sefat Emet

“If a person takes a bundle of reeds, he cannot break them all at once. But taken one at a time, even an infant will break them. Likewise, Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one bundle.”

— Midrash Tanchuma

“When Israel have unity, there is no end to their attainment.”

— Noam Elimelech

“When the Jewish people are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.”

— Shem MiShmuel

“This is the mutual guarantee on which Moses worked so hard before his death, to unite the children of Israel. All of Israel are each other’s guarantors [responsible for one another], meaning that when they are all together, they see only good.”

— Simcha Bonim Bonhart of Peshischa

“Although Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel were disputed, they treated each other with fondness and friendship, to keep what was said (Zachariah 8), ‘Love truth and peace.’”

— Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot

“If we were destroyed, and the world with us, due to baseless hatred, then we shall rebuild ourselves, and the world with us, with baseless love.”

— Abraham Isaac Kook

“Although the bodies of the whole of Israel are divided, their souls are a single unity at the root … This is why Israel are commanded to unity of the hearts, as it is written, ‘And Israel encamped there,’ in singular form [in Hebrew], which means that they were corresponding below, meaning they had unity.”

— David Solomon Eibenschutz

“‘Jerusalem that is built as a city that is joined together’ (Psalms 122:3)—a city that makes all of Israel friends.”

— Jerusalem Talmud, Hagigah

“The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity and friendship in Israel, no calamity can come over them.”

— Maor VaShemesh

“The vitality, sustenance and correction of the whole of creation are by people of differing views becoming included together in love, unity and peace.”

— Likutey Halachot

“When is God fond of creation? When all of Israel are bundled together without envy, hatred or competition among them, and each one thinks of one’s friend’s well-being and favor. At that time, God is delighted.”

— Zichron Miriam