Jonathan Sacks
ARTICLES BY: Jonathan Sacks
Anyone Who Mistreats Other Human Beings Is Not a Pious or Religious Jew
Sacrifices, the subject of this week’s parsha, were central to the religious life of Biblical Israel. We see this not only by the sheer space...
This Week’s Parsha: Communities and Crowds
Melanie Reid is a journalist who writes a regular column for London's The Times. A quadriplegic with a wry lack of self-pity, she calls her...
Parhsat Ki Tissa: Moses Annuls a Vow
Kol Nidre, the prayer said at the beginning of Yom Kippur, is an enigma wrapped in a mystery, perhaps the strangest text ever to capture...
Parshat Tetzaveh: Dressing to Impress
Tetzaveh, with its elaborate description of the “sacred vestments” which the Priests and the High Priest wore “for glory and for splendor,” seems to run...
What Do We Receive When We Give?
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell the Israelites to take an offering for Me; take My offering from all whose heart moves them to...
Parshat Mishpatim: We Must Understand in Our Own Way
Two words we read toward the end of our parsha -- na’aseh ve-nishma, “We will do and we will hear” -- are among the most...
Judaism Demands That We Respect ‘The Other’
The quintessential Jewish expression of thanks, gratitude, and acknowledgment is Baruch Hashem, meaning “Thank God” or “Praise be to the Lord.” Hasidim say of the Baal...
Parshat Beshallach: Crossing Our Own Red Sea
Our parsha this week begins with an apparently simple proposition: When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the...
Why Storytelling Is Essential to Jews and Judaism
Sometimes others know us better than we know ourselves. In the year 2000, a British Jewish research institute came up with a proposal that Jews...
Parshat Vaera: The Weighing of the Heart
In this week’s parsha, before even the first plague has struck Egypt, God tells Moses: “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My miraculous signs...
Parshat Shemot: Honor the Past, But Live in the Future
Some measure of the radicalism that is introduced into the world by the story of the Exodus can be seen in the sustained mistranslation of...
Parshat Vayechi: Family, Faith, and Freedom
If you want to understand what a book is about, look carefully at how it ends. Genesis ends with three deeply significant scenes. First, Jacob blesses...
Parshat Vayigash: The Power of Reinterpreting the Past
In this week's parsha, Joseph does something unusual. Revealing himself to his brothers, fully aware that they will suffer shock and then guilt as they...
Parshat Vayeshev: How Fate Guides the Course of History
The story of Joseph and his brothers, spread over four parshiyot, is the longest and most tightly-scripted of all the narratives in the Torah. Nothing...
