“Of all the worlds man has created, the world of books is the most powerful.“
(Heinrich Heine)

“How much our teachers in Mainz, in Worms and in Speyer belong to the most erudite of the scholars, to the Holy of the Holy One ... from there the teaching goes out for all of Israel ... Ever since the day of their foundation all communities on the Rhine and in the whole land of Ashkenaz follow their teachings.“
(Rabbi Isaac ben Moses, known as Isaac Or Sarua, 13th century)

“At four and a half or a little later I was recognized as worthy and able to decipher the Rashi comments. ... Sometimes it seemed to me that he was among us, the hidden source of the bright light that he spread day by day with infinite generosity.“
( Manès Sperber, 1961)