MOVIE STUDY GUIDE: DESPICABLE ME
SOURCE SHEET
JEWISH SOURCES ON FRIENDSHIP
ECCLESIASTES 4:9–10
Two are better than one, because they have a
good reward for their labor. For should they
fall, one can raise the other; but woe to the one
who falls and has no companion to raise that
person up!
PIRKEI AVOT 1:6
Make for yourself a teacher and acquire for
yourself a friend.
RABBI ELIYAHU DESSLER, MIKHTAV
ME’ELIYAU
A person loves the fruits of his or her efforts,
as one feels that he or she has imparted one’s
essence to it. Whether it is a child he or she has
brought up, an animal he or she has raised, a
plant he or she has nurtured, or even a house he
or she has built, the person feels bound with
love to the results of one’s own labor. In it, one
sees him or herself.
JEWISH SOURCES ON HEROISM
MIDRASH TEHILLIM 52:6
When can someone be called a mighty person?
When that someone seizes the hand of an
individual who is about to fall into a pit or
when that someone sees another who has
already fallen into a pit and lifts that person
out.
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PIRKEI AVOT 2:6
In a place where there are no people, strive to
be a person.
RABBI NAHMAN OF BRATSLAV
The entire world is a very narrow bridge, but
the main thing is not to fear at all.
JEWISH SOURCES ON MAKING CHOICES
MAIMONIDES, MISHNEH TORAH, HILKHOT
TESHUVAH 5:2
Each person is fit to be righteous like Moshe
our teacher, or wicked like Jeroboam…There
is no one who forces, sentences, or leads a
person to either of these two paths. Rather, the
person makes his or her own decision which
path to choose.
DEVARIM 30:19
Life and death I have placed before you,
blessing and curse; and you shall choose life.
MAIMONIDES, MISHNEH TORAH, HILKHOT
TESHUVAH 2:2
What constitutes teshuvah? That a sinner
should abandon his or her sins and remove
them from his or her thoughts, resolving in that
person’s heart never to commit them
again…Similarly, that person must regret the
past….[That person must reach the level
where] he or she knows….that he or she will
not return to this sin again….That person must
verbally confess and state these matters which
he or she resolved to his or her heart.
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