Jonathan Sacks
ARTICLES BY: Jonathan Sacks
Judaism and the Blessing of Love
At 176 verses, Naso is the longest of the parshiyot. Yet one of its most moving passages, and the one that has had the greatest...
If We Really Listen, We Can Still Hear God
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....
As a People, We Must Dedicate Ourselves to Lives of Purpose
Smartphones can do amazing things -- few more amazing than Waze, the Israeli-designed satellite navigation system acquired by Google in 2013. But there is one thing...
The Jewish People Is a True Family
I argued in Covenant and Conversation Kedoshim that Judaism is more than an ethnicity. It is a call to holiness. In one sense, however, there is an...
Shabbat Is a Gift From God
The parsha of Emor contains a chapter dedicated to the festivals of the Jewish year. There are five such passages in the Torah. Two, both...
Stay Away From Those Who Speak Ill of and Shame Others
On December 20, 2013, a young woman, Justine Sacco, was waiting in Heathrow airport before boarding a flight to Africa. To while away the time,...
The Covenant of Circumcision: Why the Eighth Day Is So Holy
Our parsha this week begins with childbirth. It says that, in the case of a male child, “On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin...
The Dangers of Enthusiasm
Excavating the history of words can sometimes be as revealing as excavating the ruins of an ancient city. Take the English word “enthusiasm.” Today we...
Love and the Principle of Sacrifice
One of the most difficult elements of the Torah and the way of life it prescribes is the phenomenon of animal sacrifices -- for obvious...
Finding Meaning in Your Life
The American Declaration of Independence speaks of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Recently, following in the footsteps of the...
A Jew Can Never Sit; He Must Always Move
Sitting is the new smoking. So goes the new health mantra. Spend too much time at a desk or in front of a screen, and...
Our Community Influences Our Choices and Behavior
At the beginning of Vayakhel, Moses performs a tikkun, a mending of the past -- namely the sin of the Golden Calf. The Torah signals this by using...
The Closeness of God
The more I study the Torah, the more conscious I become of the immense mystery of Exodus 33. This is the chapter set in the...
Ritual and Routine Lead to Creative and Spiritual Heights
Beethoven rose each morning at dawn and made himself coffee. He was fastidious about this: each cup had to be made with exactly 60 beans, which...
