Jonathan Sacks
ARTICLES BY: Jonathan Sacks
Parshat Ki Tissa: The Jews as a Stiff-Necked People
It is a moment of the very highest drama. The Israelites, a mere 40 days after the greatest revelation in history, have made an idol:...
Parshat Tetzaveh: How Brothers Learned to Live in Unity
It is interesting to note the absence of Moses from parshat Tetzaveh. Moses -- the hero, the leader, the liberator, the lawgiver -- is off-stage...
Parshat Terumah: The Synagogue as a Portable Home
Parshat Terumah describes the construction of the Tabernacle -- the first collective house of worship in the history of Israel, which was eventually succeeded by the...
Parshat Mishpatim: The Torah Commands Us to Love the Stranger and the Immigrant
There are Torah commands that leap off the page by their sheer moral power. So it is in the case of the social legislation in...
Parshat Yitro: The Revelation at Mount Sinai Was the Creation of Freedom
The revelation at Mount Sinai -- the central episode not only of parshat Yitro, but of Judaism as a whole -- was unique in the...
Parshat Beshalach: Rational Explanations for Miracles Don’t Take Away Their Wonders
The splitting of the Red Sea is engraved in Jewish memory. We recite it daily during the morning service, and we speak of it again...
Parshat Bo: The True Meaning of the Plague of Darkness
The ninth plague -- darkness -- comes shrouded in a darkness of its own. What is this plague doing here? It seems out of sequence....
Parshat Vaera: The God Who Acts in History
The Israelites were at their lowest ebb. They had been enslaved. A decree had been issued that every male child was to be killed. Moses...
The Story of Moses — and Why We Must Never Consider All People Our ‘Enemies’
She is one of the most unexpected heroes of the Hebrew Bible. Without her, Moses might not have lived. The whole story of the exodus...
Parshat Vayechi: If We Truly Change, Our Mistakes Can Become Our Merits
The scene that brings the book of Genesis to a close is intensely significant. Joseph’s brothers were terrified that, after the death of their father...
Parshat Vayigash: Does My Father Love Me?
It is one of the great questions we naturally ask each time we read the story of Joseph: Why did he not, at some time...
Parshat Mikketz: Talking to Non-Jews About God
The story of Joseph is one of those rare narratives in the Tanach in which a Jew comes to play a prominent part in a...
Parashat Vayeshev: Refusing Comfort and Keeping Hope
The deception has already taken place. Joseph has been sold into slavery. His brothers dipped his coat in blood. They bring it back to their...
Parshat Vayishlach: Physical Fear and Moral Distress
In this week's parsha, 22 years have passed since Jacob fled his brother, penniless and alone, and since Esau swore revenge for what he saw...
