#Sacks
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Jonathan Sacks : Power versus Influence Korach
Jonathan Sacks : Power versus Influence Korach The Korach rebellion was an unholy alliance of individuals and groups united by their grievances with Moses’ leadership. There was Korach himself, a member of the tribe of Levi, angry (according to Rashi) t
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Jonathan Sacks: Beyond the Fringe – Shelach Lecha
Jonathan Sacks: Beyond the Fringe – Shelach Lecha Our Torah portion ends with one of the great commands of Judaism – tzitzit, the fringes worn on the corners of our garments as a perennial reminder of our identity as Jews and our obligation to ke
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Jonathan Sacks: Moses’ Challenge BEHA’ALOTECHA
Jonathan Sacks: Moses’ Challenge BEHA’ALOTECHA It was the worst crisis in Moses’ life. Incited by the ‘mixed multitude’, the Israelites complain about the food: ‘If only we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost ̵
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Jonathan Sacks: What Counts? NASO
Jonathan Sacks: What Counts? NASO This week’s sedra begins with a continuation of the census begun in last week’s – the act that gives the entire book its English name: the book of “Numbers.” Two things, though, are puzzling. The first is the ve
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Jonathan Sacks: Law as Love, Love as Law BAMIDBAR
Jonathan Sacks: Law as Love, Love as Law BAMIDBAR On the face of it the connections between the sedra and haftara of Bamidbar are slender. The first has to do with demography. Bamidbar begins with a census of the people. The haftara begins with Hosea’s
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Jonathan Sacks: The Chronological Imagination Behar, Bechukotai
Jonathan Sacks: The Chronological Imagination Behar, Bechukotai I want, in this study, to look at one of Judaism’s most distinctive and least understood characteristics – the chronological imagination. Sometimes a modern discovery so changes our ways
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Jonathan Sacks: Faith as a Journey EMOR
Jonathan Sacks: Faith as a Journey EMOR In its account of the festivals of the Jewish year, this week’s parsha contains the following statement: For seven days you shall live in huts [succot]. All those native-born in Israel must live in huts, so that f
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Jonathan Sacks: Of Love and Hate ACHAREI MOT – KEDOSHIM
Jonathan Sacks: Of Love and Hate ACHAREI MOT – KEDOSHIM At the centre of the Mosaic books is Sefer Vayikra. At the centre of Vayikra is the “holiness code” (chapter 19) with its momentous call: “You shall be holy because I, the Lord your God,
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Jonathan Sacks: Holiness and Childbirth TAZRIA-METZORA
Jonathan Sacks: Holiness and Childbirth TAZRIA-METZORA The sidrot of Tazria and Metzora contain laws which are among the most difficult to understand. They are about conditions of “impurity” arising from the fact that we are physical beings, embodied
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Jonathan Sacks: Fire: Holy and Unholy שמיני
Jonathan Sacks: Fire: Holy and Unholy The shock is immense. For several weeks and many chapters – the longest prelude in the Torah – we have read of the preparations for the moment at which God would bring His Presence to rest in the midst of the peop
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Jonathan Sacks: Between Destiny and Chance VAYIKRA
Jonathan Sacks: Between Destiny and Chance VAYIKRA The third book of the Torah is known in English as Leviticus, a word deriving from Greek and Latin, meaning, “pertaining to the Levites”. This reflects the fact that in Judaism the priests – all dir
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Jonathan Sacks: Two Types of Religious Encounter KI TISSA
Jonathan Sacks: Two Types of Religious Encounter KI TISSA Framing the epic events of this week’s sedra are two objects – the two sets of Tablets, the first given before, the second after, the sin of the Golden Calf. Of the first, we read: The Tablets
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Jonathan Sacks: Prophet and Priest Tetzaveh
Jonathan Sacks: Prophet and Priest Tetzaveh The sedra of Tetzaveh, as commentators have noted, has one unusual feature: it is the only sedra from the beginning of Shemot to the end of Devarim that contains neither the name nor the words of Moses. Several
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Jonathan Sacks: Two Narratives of Creation TERUMAH
Jonathan Sacks: Two Narratives of Creation TERUMAH The Torah describes two acts of creation: God’s creation of the universe, and the Israelites’ creation of the Mikdash, or Mishkan, the Sanctuary that travelled with them in the desert, the prototype o
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Jonathan Sacks: Letting go of HATE!
Jonathan Sacks: Letting go of HATE! Taken from the book, “Not in God’s Name” by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies to
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Jonathan Sacks: In the Details MISHPATIM
Jonathan Sacks: In the Details MISHPATIM On the opening phrase of Mishpatim: “And these are the laws you are to set before them,” (Shemot 21:1) Rashi comments: “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” Wherever the word “
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Jonathan Sacks: The Politics of Revelation Yitro
Jonathan Sacks: The Politics of Revelation Yitro The revelation at Mount Sinai – the central episode not only of the parsha of Yitro, but of Judaism as a whole – was unique in the religious history of humankind. Other faiths (Christianity and Islam)
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Jonathan Sacks: To be a Leader of the Jewish People BESHALLACH
Jonathan Sacks: To be a Leader of the Jewish People BESHALLACH That day, the Lord saved the Israelites from the Egyptians. And when the Israelites… witnessed the wondrous power the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, the people were in awe of the
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Jonathan Sacks: Freedom’s Defence BO
Jonathan Sacks: Freedom’s Defence BO And you shall explain to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt.’ Ex. 13:8 It was the moment for which they had been waiting for more than two hundred years
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Jonathan Sacks: Of Lice and Men Vaera
Jonathan Sacks: Of Lice and Men Vaera The dust of the earth was turned to lice all across Egypt. The magicians tried to produce lice with their sorcery, but they could not. Meanwhile the lice still infested people and animals alike. “This,” the magici
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Jonathan Sacks: Leadership and the People Shemot
Jonathan Sacks: Leadership and the People Shemot The sedra of Shemot, in a series of finely etched vignettes, paints a portrait of the life of Moses, culminating in the moment at which God appears to him in the bush that burns without being consumed. It i
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Jonathan Sacks: Generations Forget and Remember VAYECHI
Jonathan Sacks: Generations Forget and Remember VAYECHI The drama of younger and older brothers which haunts the book of Bereishit from Cain and Abel onwards reaches a strange climax in the story of Joseph’s children. Jacob/Israel is nearing the end of
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Jonathan Sacks: Choice and Change VAYIGASH
Jonathan Sacks: Choice and Change VAYIGASH 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
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Jonathan Sacks: Disguise MIKKETZ
Jonathan Sacks: Disguise MIKKETZ Joseph is now the ruler of Egypt. The famine he predicted has come to pass. It extends beyond Egypt to the land of Canaan. Seeking to buy food, Joseph’s brothers make the journey to Egypt. They arrive at the palace of th
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Jonathan Sacks: Refusing Comfort, Keeping Hope וישב
Jonathan Sacks: Refusing Comfort, Keeping Hope The deception has taken place. Joseph has been sold into slavery. His brothers dip his coat in blood. They bring it back to their father, saying: “We found this. Try to identify it. Is it your son’s robe
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Jonathan Sacks: Between Prophecy and Oracle Toldot
Jonathan Sacks: Between Prophecy and Oracle Toldot Rebecca, hitherto infertile, became pregnant. Suffering acute pain, “she went to inquire of the Lord” [vatelech lidrosh et Hashem] (Bereishit 25:22). The explanation she received was that she was carr
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Jonathan Sacks: Hopes and Fears CHAYEI SARAH
Jonathan Sacks: Hopes and Fears CHAYEI SARAH The sedra of Chayei Sarah focuses on two episodes, both narrated at length and in intricate detail. Abraham buys a field with a cave as a burial place for Sarah, and he instructs his servant to find a wi
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Jonathan Sacks: Even Higher than Angels VAYERA
Jonathan Sacks: Even Higher than Angels VAYERA It is one of the most famous scenes in the Bible. Abraham is sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day when three strangers pass by. He urges them to rest and take some food. The text calls t
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Jonathan Sacks: Our Children Walk on Ahead LECH LECHA
Jonathan Sacks: Our Children Walk on Ahead LECH LECHA The call to Abraham, with which Lech Lecha begins, seems to come from nowhere: “Leave your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house, and go to a land which I will show you.” Nothing has pre
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Jonathan Sacks: True Morality Noach
Jonathan Sacks: True Morality Noach Is there such a thing as an objective basis of morality? For some time, in secular circles, the idea has seemed absurd. Morality is what we choose it to be. We are free to do what we like so long as we don’t harm othe
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Jonathan Sacks: A Living Book BEREISHIT
Jonathan Sacks: A Living Book BEREISHIT written by Rabbi Sacks in 2012 It is the most famous, majestic, and influential opening of any book in literature: “… בּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א” “When God began creating heaven and earth, the ear
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Jonathan Sacks: Moses the Man Ha’azinu
Jonathan Sacks: Moses the Man Ha’azinu That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel
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Jonathan Sacks: Yom Kippur How It Changes Us
Jonathan Sacks: Yom Kippur How It Changes Us Read an extract from the Koren Sacks Yom Kippur machzor. To those who fully open themselves to it, Yom Kippur is a life-transforming experience. It tells us that God, who created the universe in love and forgiv
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Jonathan Sacks: The Heart, the Home, the Text-Vayelech
Jonathan Sacks: The Heart, the Home, the Text-Vayelech By now Moses had given 612 commands to the Israelites. But there was one further instruction he still had to give, the last of his life, the final mitzva in the Torah. Now therefore write this song an
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Jonathan Sacks: Why Be Jewish? ניצבים
Jonathan Sacks: Why Be Jewish In the last days of his life, Moses renews the covenant between God and Israel. The entire book of Devarim has been an account of the covenant – how it came about, what its terms and conditions are, why it is the core of Is
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Jonathan Sacks: Listening and Law Ki Tavo
Jonathan Sacks: Listening and Law Ki Tavo It would be reasonable to assume that a language containing the verb “to command” must also contain the verb “to obey.” The one implies the other, just as the concept of a question implies the possibility
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Jonathan Sacks: Greatness is Humility SHOFTIM
Jonathan Sacks: Greatness is Humility SHOFTIM There is a fascinating detail in the passage about the king in this week’s Parsha. The text says: “As he presides upon his royal throne, he must inscribe a copy of this Torah for himself upon a scroll, in
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Jonathan Sacks: The Politics of Freedom Re’eh
Jonathan Sacks: The Politics of Freedom Re’eh Having set out the broad principles of the covenant, Moses now turns to the details, which extend over many chapters and several parshiyot. The long review of the laws that will govern Israel in its land beg
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Jonathan Sacks: A Tiny, Treasured People Va’etchanan
Jonathan Sacks: A Tiny, Treasured People Va’etchanan There is a statement made towards the end of Parshat Va’etchanan, and it is so inconspicuous that we can sometimes miss it, but it is a statement with such far reaching implications that it chal
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Jonathan Sacks: The Prophetic Voice MATOT-MASEI
Jonathan Sacks: The Prophetic Voice MATOT-MASEI During the three weeks between 17 Tammuz and Tisha b’Av, as we recall the destruction of the Temples, we read three of the most searing passages in the prophetic literature, the first two from the opening
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Jonathan Sacks: The Zealot Pinchas
Jonathan Sacks: The Zealot Pinchas With Pinchas a new type enters the world of Israel: the zealot. “Pinchas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the Priest, has turned My anger away from the Israelites by being zealous with My zeal in their midst, so that I did
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Jonathan Sacks: Not Reckoned Among the Nations-בלקBalak
Jonathan Sacks: Not Reckoned Among the Nations-בלקBalak The year is 1933. Two Jews are sitting in a Viennese coffee house, reading the news. One is reading the local Jewish paper, the other the notoriously antisemitic publication Der Stürmer. “How c
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Jonathan Sacks: The Leader as Servant KORACH
Jonathan Sacks: The Leader as Servant KORACH written by Rabbi Sacks in 2012 “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” Num. 16:3 So sa
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Jonathan Sacks: The Real World Shelach Lecha
Jonathan Sacks: The Real World Shelach Lecha The episode of the spies has rightly puzzled commentators throughout the centuries. How could they have got it so wrong? The land, they said, was as Moses had promised. It was indeed “flowing with milk and ho
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Jonathan Sacks: Is a Leader a Nursing Father? BEHA’ALOTECHA
Jonathan Sacks: Is a Leader a Nursing Father? BEHA’ALOTECHA It was the emotional low of Moses’ life. After the drama at Sinai, the Revelation, the Golden Calf, the forgiveness, the building of the Tabernacle, and the book-length codes of purity an
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Jonathan Sacks: The Ever-Repeated Story BAMIDBAR
Jonathan Sacks: The Ever-Repeated Story BAMIDBAR Bamidbar takes up the story as we left it toward the end of Shemot. The people have journeyed from Egypt to Mount Sinai. There they received the Torah. There they made the Golden Calf. There they were forgi
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Jonathan Sacks: The Limits of the Free Market Behar, Bechukotai
Jonathan Sacks: The Limits of the Free Market Behar, Bechukotai As I was writing this essay, a newspaper headline caught my eye. It read: “The UK’s richest people have defied the double-dip recession to become even richer over the past year.”[1]
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Jonathan Sacks: Eternity and Mortality Emor
Jonathan Sacks: Eternity and Mortality Emor Our Parsha begins with a restriction on the people for whom a kohen may become tamei, a word usually translated as defiled, impure, ceremonially unclean. A priest may not touch or be under the same roof as a dea
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Jonathan Sacks: Love Is Not Enough ACHAREI MOT – KEDOSHIM
Jonathan Sacks: Love Is Not Enough ACHAREI MOT – KEDOSHIM The opening chapter of Kedoshim contains two of the most powerful of all commands: to love your neighbour and to love the stranger. “Love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord” goes t
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Jonathan Sacks: Holiness and Childbirth TAZRIA – METZORA
Jonathan Sacks: Holiness and Childbirth TAZRIA – METZORA The sidrot of Tazria and Metzora contain laws which are among the most difficult to understand. They are about conditions of “impurity” arising from the fact that we are physical beings, e
Miscellaneous | Miscellaneous
Jonathan Sacks – A Nail of Faith – A Story for Succot
Jonathan Sacks – A Nail of Faith – A Story for Succot Here is what I learned from the first time I built a sukkah (aside from the fact that I am not particularly good at woodwork!). Wishing you and your families a wonderful Sukkot. Chag Sameac
Advice & Self-Help | Advice & Self-Help
Jonathan Sacks z"l - The Power of Praise Vayeshev 5781
Jonathan Sacks z”l – The Power of Praise Vayeshev 5781 Reuben is the leader who might have been but never was. He was Jacob’s firstborn. Jacob said of him on his deathbed, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my s
