Posts Tagged: jonathan sacks
The Jewish Leader’s Call to Responsibility: Celebrate Life
In the year that we recently parted with, 5774, it became dangerous once again to be a Jew. Israel, subject to sustained missile attack, discovered...
Leaders Must Lead by Both Consensus and Command
What do you say to your successor? What advice do you give him or her? Vayelech is the place to look for the answer, because it is...
The Jewish People Are a Nation of Storytellers
Howard Gardner, professor of education and psychology at Harvard University, is one of the great minds of our time. He is best known for his...
Judaism Does Not Allow Us to Hate
Ki Tetzei contains more laws than any other parsha in the Torah, and it is possible to be overwhelmed by this embarrass de richesse of detail....
Reading and Writing Separate the Statesmen From the Politicians
The parsha of Shoftim is the classic source of the three types of leadership in Judaism, which the sages called the "three crowns:" priesthood, kingship, and...
Defining Reality
One of the gifts of great leaders, and one from which each of us can learn, is that they frame reality for the group. They define...
Listening Can Save Someone’s Life
"If only you would listen to these laws ..." (Deut. 7: 12). These words with which our parsha begins contain a verb that is a...
A Small Unified People Can Overcome Any Enemy
Buried inconspicuously in this week's parsha is a short sentence with explosive potential, causing us to think again about the nature of Jewish history and...
The Role of a Leader is to Educate His People
It was one of the great moments of personal transformation, and it changed not only Moses but our very conception of leadership itself. By the end...
Leadership During Times of Crisis
The parsha of Masei always occurs at the heart of the Three Weeks. This is the time when we engage in an act of collective...
Sometimes True Change Takes Generations, Even With Great Leaders
Pinhas contains a mini-essay on leadership, as Moses confronts his own mortality and asks God to appoint a successor. The great leaders care about succession....
Leadership and Loyalty
Is leadership a set of skills, the ability to summon and command power? Or does it have an essentially moral dimension also? Can a bad...
In Memory of Israel’s Murdered Teens
This past Shabbat we read the parsha of Chukkat with its almost incomprehensible commandment of the red heifer - whose ashes, mixed with "living water,"...
Miriam as Moses’ Friend
It is one of the great mysteries of the Torah. Arriving at Kadesh the people find themselves without water. They complain to Moses and Aaron....
