Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

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	Select an Archives Section: JP Archives: Covenant & Conversation 101 Archived Articles Found in Covenant & Conversation Next 20 Articles > 21) Posted Mar 30 2011 Will The Real Mother Please Stand Up? By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Advances in medical technology such as in vitro fertilization have raised complex ethical and legal questions. In the case of surrogacy, for example - where the ovum comes from one woman, but the fertilized embryo is carried to term by another - the question is: Who is the mother? Read Article 22) Posted Mar 23 2011 Species And The Sanctuary By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The second half of Exodus and the first part of Leviticus form a carefully structured narrative. The Israelites are commanded to construct a sanctuary. They carry out the command. This is followed by an account of sacrifices to be offered there. Then, in the first part of today's sedrah, the kohanim are inducted into office. Read Article 23) Posted Mar 16 2011 'To Be A Jew Is To Offer Thanks' By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Among the sacrifices detailed in this week's sedrah is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: "If he offers it [the sacrifice] as a thanksgiving offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and loaves of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil" (Leviticus 7:12). Read Article 24) Posted Mar 09 2011 'The Animal Soul Within Us' By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The laws of sacrifices that dominate the early chapters of the book of Vayikra (Leviticus) are among the hardest in the Torah to relate to, for it has been almost 2,000 years since the Temple was destroyed and the sacrificial system came to an end. But Jewish thinkers, especially the more mystical among them, strove to understand the inner significance of the sacrifices with the statement they made about the relationship between humanity and G-d. They were thus able to rescue their spirit, even if their physical enactment was no longer possible. Read Article 25) Posted Mar 02 2011 Where Does The Divine Presence Live? By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Finally, the long narrative of the construction of the Tabernacle - to which the Torah devotes more space than any other single subject - is at an end. The building, its frame, drapes, and sacred furniture were complete. Moses inspects the finished project. We then read: "The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Moses saw all the work, and behold - they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them" (Exodus 39:43). Read Article 26) Posted Feb 16 2011 The Jews By The Numbers By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks This week's sedrah begins with this strange command: "When you take a census [literally, 'when you lift the head'] of the Israelites to determine their number, each one is to give to the Lord an atonement offering for his life when they are counted, so that they will not be stricken by plague when they are counted" (Exodus 30:12). Read Article 27) Posted Feb 09 2011 Prayer: The Priestly Or The Prophetic? By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Tetzaveh is the priestly sedrah par excellence. The name of Moses does not appear - the only sedrah of which this is true from the beginning of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy. Instead, the place of honor is occupied by Aaron and his sons, the priests - their tasks, their vestments, and their consecration. In this study, I will address an argument between two of the great medieval sages, Maimonides and Nahmanides, in relation to prayer. What is the nature of worship in Judaism? Read Article 28) Posted Feb 02 2011 Where Does The Divine Presence Reside? By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The sedrah of Terumah describes the construction of the tabernacle, the first collective house of worship in the history of Israel. The first but not the last, it was eventually succeeded by the Temple in Jerusalem. I want to focus on one moment in Jewish history that represents Jewish spirituality at its very highest: the moment the Temple was destroyed. Read Article 29) Posted Jan 26 2011 Abortion: The Debate Continues By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Behind Jewish belief in Torah she'be'al peh (Oral Law) lays a fundamental truth. The meaning of a text is not given by the text itself. Between a text and its meaning lies the act of interpretation - and this depends on who is interpreting, in what context, and with what beliefs. Read Article 30) Posted Jan 19 2011 Even Moses Needed Help By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The sedrah of Yitro, which contains the account of the greatest Divine revelation in history, at Mount Sinai, begins on a note that is human - all too human. Yitro, priest of Midian, has come to see how his son-in-law Moses and the people he leads are faring. It begins by telling us what Yitro heard (the details of the exodus and its attendant miracles). It goes on to describe what Yitro saw, and this gave him cause for concern. Read Article 31) Posted Jan 12 2011 The Unforgettable Wonders By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The division of the Red Sea is engraved in Jewish memory. We recite it daily in the morning service, at the transition from the Verses of Praise to the beginning of communal prayer. We speak of it again after the Shema, just before the Amidah. It was the supreme miracle of the exodus. But in what sense? Read Article 32) Posted Jan 05 2011 Caring For The Children By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The ninth plague - darkness - comes shrouded in a darkness of its own. What is this plague doing here? It seems out of sequence. Thus far there have been eight plagues, and they have become steadily, inexorably more serious. The first two, the Nile turned blood red and the infestation of frogs, seemed more like omens than anything else. The third and fourth, gnats and flies, caused discomfort, not crisis. The fifth, the plague that killed livestock, affected animals, not human beings. Read Article 33) Posted Dec 30 2010 The Duality Of Freedom By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks It is one of the classic philosophical conundrums. In this week's sedrah, before even the first plague has struck Egypt, G-d tells Moses, "But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt. He will not listen to you. Then I will lay My hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out My troops, My people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it" (Exodus 7:3-5). Read Article 34) Posted Dec 22 2010 The Two Heroines By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks She is one of the most unexpected heroes of the Bible. Without her, Moses might not have lived. The whole story of the exodus would have been different. Yet she was not an Israelite. She had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by her courage. Yet she seems to have had no doubt, experienced no misgivings, made no hesitation. If it was Pharaoh who afflicted the children of Israel, it was another member of his own family who saved the decisive vestige of hope: Pharaoh's daughter. Read Article 35) Posted Dec 15 2010 Awaiting The Final Chapter By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Different cultures tell different stories. The great novelists of the 19th century wrote fiction that is essentially ethical. Jane Austen and George Eliot explored the connection between character and happiness. There is a palpable continuity between their work and the book of Ruth. Dickens, more in the tradition of the prophets, wrote about society and its institutions, and the way in which they can fail to honor human dignity and justice. Read Article 36) Posted Dec 08 2010 Changing And Growing: Judah Sets The Standard By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The sequence from Bereishit, Chapters 37 to 50, is the longest unbroken narrative in the Torah, and there can be no doubt that its hero is Joseph. The story begins and ends with him. We see him as a child beloved - even spoiled - by his father; as an adolescent dreamer, resented by his brothers; as a slave, then a prisoner, in Egypt; then as the second most powerful figure in the greatest empire of the ancient world. At every stage, the narrative revolves around him and his impact on others. He dominates the last third of Bereishit, casting his shadow on everything else. From almost the beginning, he seems destined for greatness. Read Article 37) Posted Dec 01 2010 Free Choice And The Divine Script By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Joseph is languishing in prison. Then, at the beginning of this week's sedrah, a sequence of events takes place, leading to the most rapid, radical change of fortune in the Bible. Pharaoh has two dreams that trouble his spirit. None of his priestly retinue can decode the dreams in a way that satisfies him. Pharaoh's butler remembers Joseph. Hurriedly he is taken from prison, given a wash and change of clothes, and brought before the ruler. Read Article 38) Posted Nov 24 2010 Do Not Shame: Tamar's Righteous Lesson By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks In Genesis 38, temporarily interrupting the story of Joseph, we read the fascinating story of Tamar, one of the more unexpected heroines of the Torah. The text gives us no inclination as to who she is. The chapter opens by telling us that Judah had separated from his brothers, and married a Canaanite woman by whom he had three children. The eldest, Er, married Tamar. Read Article 39) Posted Nov 17 2010 Jacob's Justifiable Distress By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Jacob, on his way home after an absence of 22 years, hears that Esau is coming to meet him with a force of 400 men. He is terrified. He knows that many years earlier, his brother was merely waiting for Isaac to die before he took revenge. His approach with so large a contingent of people suggested to Jacob that Esau was intent on violence. He prepares himself. As the Sages noted, he made three types of preparation. First, he made provisions for war, dividing his household into two camps in the hope that one at least would survive. Then he prayed to G-d to protect him. Then he sent gifts, hoping to allay Esau's anger. Read Article 40) Posted Nov 10 2010 Prayers And Ladders By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks It is one of the great dreams of the Bible. Jacob, afraid and alone, finds himself in what the anthropologist Victor Turner called liminal space (the space between) - between the home he is escaping from and the destination he has not yet reached, between the known danger of his brother Esau from whom he is in flight, and the unknown danger of Laban from whom he will eventually suffer great wrongs. Read Article 101 Archived Articles Found in Covenant & Conversation Next 20 Articles >
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