(left)The Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem (detail – Hillel the Elder)
(right) "My question to them is, ‘when is the right time?" Obama told a supportive crowd at Arcadia University, near Philadelphia.
Listening to Obama’s rabble rousing speech on healthcare, the most stirring passage sounded eerily similar:
"My question to them is, ‘when is the right time?" Obama told a supportive crowd at Arcadia University, near Philadelphia. "If not now, when? If not us, who?"
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/03/obama-on-health-care-if-not-now-when/1
I seemed to have heard this in Hebrew school. Sure enough, a little digging produced:
Pirkei Avot 1:14
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I?"
This quote is attributed to Hillel The Elder.
I see I am not the only one who noticed the similarity to Rabbi Hillel!