Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

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Justice or Peace?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
What was the benefit of Yitro’s suggestion to Moshe about delegating the role of judging the Jewish people?

By delegating the judicial function downward, Moses would bring ordinary people – with no special prophetic or legal gifts – into the seats of judgment. Precisely because they lacked Moses’ intuitive knowledge of law and justice, they were able to propose equitable solutions, and an equitable solution is one in which both sides feel they have been heard; both gain; both believe the result is fair, which is the ultimate goal of the judicial process.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Justice or Peace? (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 10 minutes
What was the benefit of Yitro’s suggestion to Moshe about delegating the role of judging the Jewish people?

By delegating the judicial function downward, Moses would bring ordinary people – with no special prophetic or legal gifts – into the seats of judgment. Precisely because they lacked Moses’ intuitive knowledge of law and justice, they were able to propose equitable solutions, and an equitable solution is one in which both sides feel they have been heard; both gain; both believe the result is fair, which is the ultimate goal of the judicial process.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Doing and Hearing
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
One of the most famous phrases in the Torah makes its appearance in this week’s parsha. It has often been used to characterise Jewish faith as a whole. It consists of two words: na’aseh venishma, literally, “we will do and we will hear”. What does this mean and why does it matter?

Through an examination of the text we learn about community and individuality, and the difference between na’aseh and nishma. We respond to God’s commands “with one voice”, yet we hear God’s presence in many ways- for though God is One, we are all different, and we encounter Him each in our own way.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Doing and Hearing (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 9 minutes
One of the most famous phrases in the Torah makes its appearance in this week’s parsha. It has often been used to characterise Jewish faith as a whole. It consists of two words: na’aseh venishma, literally, “we will do and we will hear”. What does this mean and why does it matter?

Through an examination of the text we learn about community and individuality, and the difference between na’aseh and nishma. We respond to God’s commands “with one voice”, yet we hear God’s presence in many ways- for though God is One, we are all different, and we encounter Him each in our own way.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Vision and Details
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Parshat Mishpatim takes us through a bewildering transition. Until now in Shemot we have been carried along by the sweep and drama of the narrative: the Israelites’ enslavement, their hope for freedom, the plagues, Pharaoh’s obstinacy, their escape into the desert, the crossing of the Red Sea, the journey to Mount Sinai and the great covenant with God.

Suddenly, now, we find ourselves faced with a different kind of literature altogether: a law code covering a bewildering variety of topics, from responsibility for damages to protection of property, to laws of justice, to Shabbat and the festivals. Why here? Why not continue the story, leading up to the next great drama, the sin of the golden calf? Why interrupt the flow? And what does this have to do with leadership?

Through an examination of some of the laws in Parshat Mishpatim, we understand the necessity of both law and historical narrative. Neither historical events nor abstract ideals – not even the broad principles of the Ten Commandments – are sufficient to sustain a society in the long run. Hence the remarkable project of the Torah: to translate historical experience into detailed legislation, so that the Israelites would live what they had learned on a daily basis, weaving it into the very texture of their social life. In the parsha of Mishpatim, vision becomes detail, and narrative becomes law.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Vision and Details (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 8 minutes
Parshat Mishpatim takes us through a bewildering transition. Until now in Shemot we have been carried along by the sweep and drama of the narrative: the Israelites’ enslavement, their hope for freedom, the plagues, Pharaoh’s obstinacy, their escape into the desert, the crossing of the Red Sea, the journey to Mount Sinai and the great covenant with God.

Suddenly, now, we find ourselves faced with a different kind of literature altogether: a law code covering a bewildering variety of topics, from responsibility for damages to protection of property, to laws of justice, to Shabbat and the festivals. Why here? Why not continue the story, leading up to the next great drama, the sin of the golden calf? Why interrupt the flow? And what does this have to do with leadership?

Through an examination of some of the laws in Parshat Mishpatim, we understand the necessity of both law and historical narrative. Neither historical events nor abstract ideals – not even the broad principles of the Ten Commandments – are sufficient to sustain a society in the long run. Hence the remarkable project of the Torah: to translate historical experience into detailed legislation, so that the Israelites would live what they had learned on a daily basis, weaving it into the very texture of their social life. In the parsha of Mishpatim, vision becomes detail, and narrative becomes law.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
God’s Nudge
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
In Parshat Yitro there were the Aseret Hadibrot, the “ten utterances” or general principles. Now in Parshat Mishpatim come the details. They begin by outlining the laws of Hebrew servant.

Why begin here? There are 613 commandments in the Torah. Why does Mishpatim, the first law code, begin where it does?

The Israelites have just endured slavery in Egypt. It seems that this was the necessary first experience of the Israelites as a nation. From the very start of the human story, the God of freedom sought the free worship of free human beings. It took the collective experience of the Israelites, their deep, intimate, personal, backbreaking, bitter experience of slavery – a memory they were commanded never to forget – to turn them into a people who would no longer turn their brothers and sisters into slaves, a people capable of constructing a free society, the hardest of all achievements in the human realm.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
God’s Nudge (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 7 minutes
In Parshat Yitro there were the Aseret Hadibrot, the “ten utterances” or general principles. Now in Parshat Mishpatim come the details. They begin by outlining the laws of Hebrew servant.

Why begin here? There are 613 commandments in the Torah. Why does Mishpatim, the first law code, begin where it does?

The Israelites have just endured slavery in Egypt. It seems that this was the necessary first experience of the Israelites as a nation. From the very start of the human story, the God of freedom sought the free worship of free human beings. It took the collective experience of the Israelites, their deep, intimate, personal, backbreaking, bitter experience of slavery – a memory they were commanded never to forget – to turn them into a people who would no longer turn their brothers and sisters into slaves, a people capable of constructing a free society, the hardest of all achievements in the human realm.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Architecture of Holiness
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
From Parshat Teruma to the end of the book of Exodus the Torah describes, in painstaking detail and great length, the construction of the Mishkan, the first collective house of worship of the Jewish people. Precise instructions are given for each item – the Tabernacle itself, the frames and drapes, and the various objects it contained – including their dimensions.

But why do we need to know how big the Tabernacle was? It did not function in perpetuity. Its primary use was during the wilderness years. Eventually it was replaced by the Temple, an altogether larger and more magnificent structure. What then is the eternal significance of the dimensions of this modest, portable construction?

Through an analysis of the purpose of the Mishkan, we can understand that it was a micro-cosmos, a symbolic reminder of the world God made. The fact that the Divine presence rested within it was not meant to suggest that God is here not there, in this place not that. It was meant to signal, powerfully and palpably, that God exists throughout the cosmos. It was a man-made structure to mirror and focus attention on the Divinely-created universe. It was in space what Shabbat is in time: a reminder of creation.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Who Is Honoured?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Tetzaveh is the only parsha from the beginning of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy, that does not contain the word “Moses”. For once Moses, the hero, the leader, the liberator, the lawgiver, is offstage. Instead our focus is on his elder brother Aaron who, elsewhere, is often in the background. Indeed virtually the whole parsha is devoted to the role Moses did not occupy, except briefly – that of priest in general, high priest in particular.

Why so? Is there any larger significance to the absence of Moses from this passage? Through an analysis of sibling relationships throughout Genesis we can learn about the unique Moshe- Aharon relationship and appreciate the role that humility plays in a healthy sibling relationship. It was precisely the fact that Aaron did not envy his younger brother but instead rejoiced in his greatness that made him worthy to be High Priest. Therefore, just as Aaron made space for his younger brother to lead, so the Torah makes space for Aaron to lead. That is why Aaron is the hero of Tetzaveh: for once, not overshadowed by Moses.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Who Is Honoured? (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 9 minutes
Tetzaveh is the only parsha from the beginning of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy, that does not contain the word “Moses”. For once Moses, the hero, the leader, the liberator, the lawgiver, is offstage. Instead our focus is on his elder brother Aaron who, elsewhere, is often in the background. Indeed virtually the whole parsha is devoted to the role Moses did not occupy, except briefly – that of priest in general, high priest in particular.

Why so? Is there any larger significance to the absence of Moses from this passage? Through an analysis of sibling relationships throughout Genesis we can learn about the unique Moshe- Aharon relationship and appreciate the role that humility plays in a healthy sibling relationship. It was precisely the fact that Aaron did not envy his younger brother but instead rejoiced in his greatness that made him worthy to be High Priest. Therefore, just as Aaron made space for his younger brother to lead, so the Torah makes space for Aaron to lead. That is why Aaron is the hero of Tetzaveh: for once, not overshadowed by Moses.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Sabbath: First Day Or Last?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
There is one marked difference between the account of God’s instruction to build the Sanctuary, and Moses instruction to the people. In the first case, the command of the Sabbath appears at the end, after the details of the construction. In the second, it appears at the beginning, before the details. Why so? Through a close examination of the text we can learn about the Mishkan and Shabbat as symbolic prototypes of the building of a society in carefully calibrated order and harmony.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Where Does the Divine Presence Live?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Like many other passages in the description of the making of the Mishkan, the completion of the building echoes a line from the creation narrative: “God saw all that He had made, and behold – it was very good”

The literary parallels between the Divine creation of the universe and the Israelites’ construction of the Tabernacle are intentional and consequential. The Tabernacle was a micro-cosmos, a universe-in-miniature. In creating the universe, God made a home for humanity. In building the sanctuary, humanity made a home for God. And just as, at the beginning of time, God had blessed creation, so Moses blessed those who had a share in its human counterpart. What is the nature of the similarities between the creation and the building of the Mishkan? Through an examination of the text we can learn about the concept of holiness, and that it is not objects that are holy. It is human action and intention in accordance with the will of God that creates holiness.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Sin Offering
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Parshat Vayikra deals with the laws of sin offerings in order to receive atonement for various sins committed by the individual. Why should unintentional sins require atonement at all? What guilt is involved? The sinner did not mean to sin. Had the offender known the facts and the law at the time, he would not have done what he did. Why then does he have to undergo a process of atonement?

Through an exploration of the classical commentaries who attempt to answer this question, we can learn about taking responsibilities for our actions, whether intentional or not.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.
Holiness and Childbirth
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Why does childbirth render the mother ritually impure? Why is the period after giving birth to a girl twice that for a boy? Through an examination of the text we can answer these questions and understand Judaism’s approach to the miracle of childbirth and the importance of raising the next generation.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Judaism’s Three Voices
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The nineteenth chapter of Vayikra, with which our parsha begins, is one of the supreme statements of the ethics of the Torah. It’s about the right, the good and the holy, and it contains some of Judaism’s greatest moral commands: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” and “Let the stranger who lives among you be like your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt.”

But the chapter is also surpassingly strange. It contains what looks like a random jumble of commands, many of which have nothing whatever to do with ethics and only the most tenuous connection with holiness.

What have these to do with the right, the good and the holy?

To understand this we have to engage in an enormous leap of insight into the unique moral/social/spiritual vision of the Torah, so unlike anything we find elsewhere.

Through an examination of the text, we can understand that the strange collection of commands in Kedoshim turns out not to be strange at all. The holiness code sees love and justice as part of a total vision of an ordered universe in which each thing, person and act has their rightful place, and it is this order that is threatened when the boundary between different kinds of animals, grain, fabrics is breached. An ordered universe is a moral universe, a world at peace with its Creator and itself.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Holy Times
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
There are five passages in the Torah dedicated to the festivals of the Jewish year. By examining them each individually, we notice that each contributes its own perspective and additions to our understanding of the holidays. Through a close analysis of the text, we can explore the uniqueness of the festival description in Parshat Emor, and its focus on the spiritual dimension of encounter, closeness, the meeting of the human and the divine.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Holy Times (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 13 minutes
There are five passages in the Torah dedicated to the festivals of the Jewish year. By examining them each individually, we notice that each contributes its own perspective and additions to our understanding of the holidays. Through a close analysis of the text, we can explore the uniqueness of the festival description in Parshat Emor, and its focus on the spiritual dimension of encounter, closeness, the meeting of the human and the divine.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Family Feeling
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Repeatedly in this week’s parsha we read of social legislation couched in the language of family. “Your brother” in these verses is not meant literally. At times it means “your relative”, but mostly it means “your fellow Jew”. This is a distinctive way of thinking about society and our obligations to others.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Family Feeling (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 8 minutes
Repeatedly in this week’s parsha we read of social legislation couched in the language of family. “Your brother” in these verses is not meant literally. At times it means “your relative”, but mostly it means “your fellow Jew”. This is a distinctive way of thinking about society and our obligations to others.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Sound of Silence
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Bamidbar is usually read on the Shabbat before Shavuot. So the sages connected the two. Shavuot is the time of the giving of the Torah. Bamibar means, “In the desert.” What then is the connection between the desert and the Torah, the wilderness and God’s word?

The desert is a place of silence. There is nothing visually to distract you, and there is no ambient noise to muffle sound. To be sure, when the Israelites received the Torah, there was thunder and lightening and the sound of a shofar.

The silence that counts, in Judaism, is thus a listening silence – and listening is the supreme religious art. Listening means making space for others to speak and be heard.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
What Makes God Laugh
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
As we learn from Parshat Balak, Pagan prophets like Bilam had not yet learned the lesson we must all one day learn: that what matters is not that God does what we want, but that we do what He wants. God laughs at those who think they have godlike powers. The opposite is true. The smaller we see ourselves, the greater we become.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
What Makes God Laugh (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 10 minutes
As we learn from Parshat Balak, Pagan prophets like Bilam had not yet learned the lesson we must all one day learn: that what matters is not that God does what we want, but that we do what He wants. God laughs at those who think they have godlike powers. The opposite is true. The smaller we see ourselves, the greater we become.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Influence and Power
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
In Parshat Pinchas God tells Moses to appoint Joshua, ‘a man in whom is the spirit’. He gives him precise instructions about how to arrange the succession in a specific three-step process. What is the significance of this process? Through a close examination of the text we can learn about the power of influence and the nature of leadership in Judaism.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Influence and Power (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 8 minutes
In Parshat Pinchas God tells Moses to appoint Joshua, ‘a man in whom is the spirit’. He gives him precise instructions about how to arrange the succession in a specific three-step process. What is the significance of this process? Through a close examination of the text we can learn about the power of influence and the nature of leadership in Judaism.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Individual and Collective Responsibility
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
What is the link between the stories of the Flood and the Tower of Babel? Through an understanding of the balance between personal and societal responsibility we can understand Parshat Noach in a whole new light, and appreciate Avraham’s unique role in creating a new form of social order that would give equal honor to the individual and the collective.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Individual and Collective Responsibility (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 10 minutes
What is the link between the stories of the Flood and the Tower of Babel? Through an understanding of the balance between personal and societal responsibility we can understand Parshat Noach in a whole new light, and appreciate Avraham’s unique role in creating a new form of social order that would give equal honor to the individual and the collective.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Trace of God
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
How did the flood change our perspective of the human condition? Through an examination of the text we understand that after the Flood God taught Noach and through him all humanity, that we should think, not of ourselves but of the other as in the image of God. That is the only way to save ourselves from violence and self-destruction.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Trace of God (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 7 minutes
How did the flood change our perspective of the human condition? Through an examination of the text we understand that after the Flood God taught Noach and through him all humanity, that we should think, not of ourselves but of the other as in the image of God. That is the only way to save ourselves from violence and self-destruction.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
A Journey of a Thousand Miles
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
For a variety of reasons, neither Abraham nor Sarah had an easy life. Theirs were lives of trial, in which their faith was tested at many points. How can Rashi say that all of Sarah’s years were equal in goodness? How can the Torah say that Abraham had been blessed with everything? Through an examination of the text we can understand Avraham and Sarah’s life journey and what it means to fulfill one’s destiny.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
A Journey of a Thousand Miles (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 8 minutes
For a variety of reasons, neither Abraham nor Sarah had an easy life. Theirs were lives of trial, in which their faith was tested at many points. How can Rashi say that all of Sarah’s years were equal in goodness? How can the Torah say that Abraham had been blessed with everything? Through an examination of the text we can understand Avraham and Sarah’s life journey and what it means to fulfill one’s destiny.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Why Did Isaac Love Esau?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Why did Yitzchak love Esav over Yaakov ? Did he not know about Rivkah’s oracle? Did he not know that Esau was wild and impetuous? Can we really take literally the proposition that Yitzchak loved Esav because “he had a taste for wild game,” as if his affections were determined by his stomach, by the fact that his elder son brought him food he loved? Surely not, when the very future of the covenant was at stake.

The classic answer is that Yitzchak loved Esav because he simply did not know who or what Esav was. But there is another possible answer: that Yitzchak loved Esav precisely because he did know what Esav was.

This article is from the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Why Did Isaac Love Esau? (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 7 minutes
Why did Yitzchak love Esav over Yaakov ? Did he not know about Rivkah’s oracle? Did he not know that Esau was wild and impetuous? Can we really take literally the proposition that Yitzchak loved Esav because “he had a taste for wild game,” as if his affections were determined by his stomach, by the fact that his elder son brought him food he loved? Surely not, when the very future of the covenant was at stake.

The classic answer is that Yitzchak loved Esav because he simply did not know who or what Esav was. But there is another possible answer: that Yitzchak loved Esav precisely because he did know what Esav was.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Was Jacob Right To Take Esau’s Blessing?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Was Jacob right to take Esau’s blessing in disguise? Was he right to deceive his father and to take from his brother the blessing Isaac sought to give him? Was Rivka right in conceiving the plan in the first place and encouraging Jacob to carry it out? These are fundamental questions dealing with this episode. We can attempt to answer these questions by suggesting two dramatically different readings of this narrative.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Was Jacob Right To Take Esau’s Blessing? (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 13 minutes
Was Jacob right to take Esau’s blessing in disguise? Was he right to deceive his father and to take from his brother the blessing Isaac sought to give him? Was Rivka right in conceiving the plan in the first place and encouraging Jacob to carry it out? These are fundamental questions dealing with this episode. We can attempt to answer these questions by suggesting two dramatically different readings of this narrative.

This lecture this part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Birth of the World’s Oldest Hate
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
“Go and learn what Laban the Aramean sought to do to our father Jacob. Pharaoh made his decree only about the males whereas Laban sought to destroy everything.”This passage from the Haggadah on Pesach – evidently based on this week’s parsha – is extraordinarily difficult to understand. It seems to make no sense, either in terms of the central theme of the Haggadah or in relation to the actual facts as recorded in the biblical text. How then are we to understand it? Perhaps the answer is this. Laban’s behaviour is the paradigm of anti-Semites through the ages. It was not so much what Laban did that the Haggadah is referring to, but what his behaviour gave rise to, in century after century.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
The Author of Our Lives
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Almost everything that happens in Joseph’s life falls into two categories: Things done to him, and things he attempts to do on his own. But, in a unique sequence of descriptions, the Torah explicitly attributes his actions and their success to God. Through a close examination of the Joseph narrative we can gain a deep understanding of Divine intervention and about Joseph’s relationship with God.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Choice and Change
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The sequence from Bereishit 37 to 50 is the longest unbroken narrative in the Torah, and there can be no doubt who 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.

Yet history did not turn out that way. To the contrary, it is another brother who, in the fullness of time, leaves his mark on the Jewish people. It was not Joseph but Judah who conferred his identity on the people, Judah who became the ancestor of Israel’s greatest king, David, Judah from whom the messiah will be born. Why Judah, not Joseph? The answer undoubtedly lies in the beginning of Vayigash, as the two brothers confront one another, and Judah pleads for Benjamin’s release.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Choice and Change
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 9 minutes
The sequence from Bereishit 37 to 50 is the longest unbroken narrative in the Torah, and there can be no doubt who 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.

Yet history did not turn out that way. To the contrary, it is another brother who, in the fullness of time, leaves his mark on the Jewish people. It was not Joseph but Judah who conferred his identity on the people, Judah who became the ancestor of Israel’s greatest king, David, Judah from whom the messiah will be born. Why Judah, not Joseph? The answer undoubtedly lies in the beginning of Vayigash, as the two brothers confront one another, and Judah pleads for Benjamin’s release.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
On Not Predicting the Future
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
When Jacob wanted to tell his children what would happen to them in the end of days, the Divine spirit was taken away from him. Why is this? We can suggest an answer to this question by understanding Judaism’s approach to predicting the future.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
On Not Predicting the Future (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 10 minutes
When Jacob wanted to tell his children what would happen to them in the end of days, the Divine spirit was taken away from him. Why is this? We can suggest an answer to this question by understanding Judaism’s approach to predicting the future.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Who Am I?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” said Moshe to God. “And how can I possibly get the Israelites out of Egypt?” On the surface the meaning is clear. Moshe is asking two things. The first: who am I, to be worthy of so great a mission? The second: how can I possibly succeed?

God never answered the first question. Perhaps in a strange way Moshe answered himself. In Tanakh as a whole, the people who turn out to be the most worthy are the ones who deny they are worthy at all. Through a close examination of the text we can understand Moshe’s question leading to a deeper exploration about worthiness and identity.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Who Am I? (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 9 minutes
“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” said Moshe to God. “And how can I possibly get the Israelites out of Egypt?” On the surface the meaning is clear. Moshe is asking two things. The first: who am I, to be worthy of so great a mission? The second: how can I possibly succeed?

God never answered the first question. Perhaps in a strange way Moshe answered himself. In Tanakh as a whole, the people who turn out to be the most worthy are the ones who deny they are worthy at all. Through a close examination of the text we can understand Moshe’s question leading to a deeper exploration about worthiness and identity.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Love Is Not Enough
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
A close examination of the myriad of laws in Leviticus 19 reveals their common theme- creating and sustaining social order, and humanizing that order through love – the love of neighbor and stranger.

This article is part the the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Love Is Not Enough (Audio)
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks | 11 minutes
A close examination of the myriad of laws in Leviticus 19 reveals their common theme- creating and sustaining social order, and humanizing that order through love – the love of neighbor and stranger.

This lecture is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
A People That Dwells Alone
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Where did Jewish singularity lie? The clue lies in the precise wording of Bilaam’s blessing: “Behold it is a people that dwells alone.” For it was as a people that God chose the descendants of Abraham; as a people that He made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai; as a people that He rescued them from Egypt, gave them laws, and entered into their history. “You will be to Me,” He said at Sinai, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Judaism is the only religion to place God at the center of its self-definition as a nation. Jews are the only nation whose very identity is defined in religious terms.

Why, if God is the God of the universe, accessible to every human being, should He choose one nation to bear witness to His presence in the human arena? This is a profound question. There is no short answer. But at least part of the answer, I believe, is this. God is wholly Other. Therefore He chose a people who would be humanity’s ‘other’. That is what Jews were – outsiders, different, distinctive, a people who swam against the tide and challenged the idols of the age. Judaism is the counter-voice in the conversation of mankind.

This article is part of the Covenant & Conversation series.

To read more from Rabbi Sacks or to subscribe to his mailing list, please visit http://www.rabbisacks.org/. You can also follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.