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 > 1) Posted Nov 09 2011 Mastering The Art Of Gratitude By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks It is the hardest passage of all, one that seems to defy understanding. Abraham and Sarah have waited years for a child. G-d has promised them repeatedly that they would have many descendants, as many as the stars of the sky, the dust of the earth, the grains of sand on the seashore. They wait. No child comes. Read Article 2) Posted Oct 26 2011 Babel's Larger Theme By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Between the Flood and the call to Abraham, between the universal covenant with Noah and the particular covenant with one people comes the strange, suggestive story of Babel: Read Article 3) Posted Oct 18 2011 Yes, There's Room For Israel By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks There are times when an ancient text seems to speak more directly to where we are now than to the time when it was first written. Rarely has that been truer than in the case of the famous first comment of Rashi to the Torah, to the words: "In the beginning, G-d created..." Let us listen to it in its entirety: Read Article 4) Posted Sep 27 2011 To Avenge Or Not To Avenge: That Is The Question By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks One of the most tragic moments in Western civilization came when Christians began distinguishing between what they called "the Old Testament G-d of vengeance" as opposed to the "New Testament G-d of love." This is not a small error. One trembles to think how many Jews lost their lives because of it. It survives today, even among good and sensitive people. There is hardly a week when I do not see some reference to it in the national press. It is one of those taken-for-granted assumptions that are buried so deep within a culture that rarely, if ever, is it examined in the clear light of day. Read Article 5) Posted Sep 21 2011 Loving The Book Of Books By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks At the end of his life, having given the Israelites at G-d's behest 612 commands, Moses is instructed to give them one last command - number 613: Now, therefore, write down for yourselves this song, and teach it to the people of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be my witness within the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 31:19). Read Article 6) Posted Sep 14 2011 Remembering Yesterday To Ensure A Better Tomorrow By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Ki Tavo begins with the ceremony of bringing first fruits to the Temple. The Mishnah (Bikkurim 3) gives a detailed account of what happened: Read Article 7) Posted Sep 07 2011 The Complexity Of Justice By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks In Deuteronomy 24:16, we encounter for the first time the explicit statement of a law of far-reaching significance: "Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children put to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime." Read Article 8) Posted Jul 13 2011 The Difference Between Power And Influence By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Knowing that he is about to die, Moses turns to G-d and asks him to appoint a successor: "Moses said to the Lord, 'May the Lord, G-d of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd' " (Numbers 15-17). Read Article 9) Posted Jun 29 2011 The Continuity Of Death And Life By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks One of the most striking features of the Torah - and of the Judaic heritage generally - is insufficiently commented on, namely its combination of law and narrative. The Mosaic books contain both, and they gave rise to two different literatures in the rabbinic period - halacha and aggadah. Halacha represents law. Aggadah is the generic name for everything else: stories, theological reflections, and interpretations of biblical narrative. The two literatures have a different feel about them. They reflect different sensibilities. Halacha is detailed and demanding, and uses sophisticated rules of jurisprudence. Aggadah is more intuitive and imaginative. One might almost call them the left and right hemispheres of the Jewish brain. Read Article 10) Posted Jun 22 2011 Look At The Accuser, Not The Accused By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks If you seek to understand an accusation, look at the accuser, not the accused. Read Article 11) Posted Jun 15 2011 Expanding Freedom By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Whose idea was it to send the spies? According to this week's sedrah, it was G-d. Read Article 12) Posted Jun 07 2011 Leadership As A Cure By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Tanach is remarkable for the realism with which it portrays human character. Its heroes are not superhuman. Its non-heroes are not archetypal villains. The best have failings; the worst often have saving virtues. I know of no other religious literature quite like it. Read Article 13) Posted Jun 01 2011 Longing To Be A Saint By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks I've noted in the past the well-known difference of opinion among the Sages about the nazirite - the individual who undertook to observe special rules of holiness and abstinence: not to drink wine or other intoxicants (including anything made from grapes), not to have his hair cut, and not to defile himself by contact with the dead. Read Article 14) Posted May 25 2011 Ben And Bat: The Attributes Of Both By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks How are we to understand the differential roles of men and women within Judaism? On the one hand, Jewish identity is conferred by women, not men. The child of a Jewish mother is Jewish; the child of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother is not. Some (non-orthodox) scholars have sought to date this from the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and their campaign against intermarriage. In fact, though, it goes back to the very first Jewish child, Isaac. Abraham already had a child, Ishmael, by Sarah's handmaid, (the Egyptian) Hagar. Yet G-d was insistent that only Sarah's son would continue the covenant. Maternity, not paternity, was the decisive factor. Read Article 15) Posted May 18 2011 Eternal Israel By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks One of the greatest Jewish contributions to the West's civilization is the idea of hope. Not all cultures give rise to hope. To the contrary: at the heart of many cultures is the idea that time is cyclical. What has been will be. History is a set of eternal recurrences. Nothing ever really changes. Life is tragic. One of the classic expressions of this is contained in the book of Ecclesiastes: "What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Read Article 16) Posted May 11 2011 Free Worship By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The modern world was shaped by four revolutions: the English, the American, the French and the Russian. Two - the English and American - were inspired by the Hebrew Bible. The French and Russian revolutions, by contrast, were inspired by philosophy: the French by the work of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the Russian by the writings of Karl Marx. Read Article 17) Posted May 04 2011 Sukkot's Uniqueness By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks This week's sedrah outlines the festivals that give rhythm and structure to the Jewish year. Examining them carefully, however, we see that Sukkot is unique. Read Article 18) Posted Apr 28 2011 Learning From Behavior By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks In his commentary to the command with which our sedrah begins - "You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your G-d, am holy" - Nahmanides makes a famous observation. Read Article 19) Posted Apr 13 2011 Eternal Atonement By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks "On this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins" (Leviticus 16:30). Read Article 20) Posted Apr 06 2011 The Plague Of Evil Speech By Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks The rabbis moralized the condition of tzara'at - often translated as leprosy - the subject that dominates last week's sedrah, and this week's as well. It was, they said, a punishment rather than a medical condition. Their interpretation was based on the internal evidence of the Mosaic books themselves. Moses's hand became leprous when he expressed doubt about the willingness of the people to believe in his mission (Exodus 4:6-7). Miriam was struck by leprosy when she spoke against Moses (Numbers 12:1-15). The metzora (leper) was a motzi shem ra: a person who spoke slightingly about others. Read Article 101 Archived Articles Found in Covenant & Conversation Next 20 Articles >
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