QUOTES: Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909, Vol. 1, Preface

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"As the name of a man clings to him, so men cling to names. For the primitive savage the name is part of the essence of a person or thing, and even in the more advanced stages of culture, judgments are not always formed in agreement with facts as they are, but rather according to the names by which they are called. [...]"
Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909, Vol. 1, Preface

"The school and the home are not mutually opposed to each other in the conception of the Jews. They study in their homes, and they live in their schools. [...]"

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909, Vol. 1, Preface

"[...] To speak of the Haggadah of the Tannaim and Amoraim is as far from fact as to speak of the legends of Shakespeare and Scott. The ancient authors and their modern brethren of the guild alike elaborate legendary material which they found at hand."

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909, Vol. 1, Preface

"[...] The sadder the life of [the people], the more it felt the need of taking refuge in its past."

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909, Vol. 1, Preface

"[...] The sadder the life of the Jewish people, the more it felt the need of taking refuge in its past. The Scripture, or, to use the Jewish term, the Torah, was the only remnant of its former national independence, and the Torah was the magic means of making a sordid actuality recede before a glorious memory. To the Scripture was assigned the task of supplying nourishment to the mind as well as the soul, to the intellect as well as the imagination, and the result is the Halakah and the Haggadah.

The fancy of the people did not die out in the post-Biblical time, but the bent of its activity was determined by the past."

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909, Vol. 1, Preface