The Complexity Of Human Rights
We should be free to live as we choose, worship as we choose, and identify as we choose.
Moshe’s Disappointment
We are each, to some extent, who we chose to become. Neither genes nor upbringing can guarantee that we become the person our parents want us to be.
Healing The Trauma Of Loss
Moses at the rock was not so much a prophet as a man who had just lost his sister.
Hierarchy And Politics: The Never-Ending Story
Where there is hierarchy, there will be competition as to who is the alpha male.
Two Kinds Of Fear
G-d wanted the Israelites to create a model society where human beings were not treated as slaves, where rulers were not worshipped as demigods, where human dignity was respected…
COVENANT & CONVERSATION: Parshat Shelach Lecha: Two Kinds of Fear
The spies feared success, not failure. It was the mistake of deeply religious men. But it was a mistake.
From Despair To Hope
To be a Jew is to seek to make a difference, to change lives for the better, to heal some of the scars of our fractured world. But people don’t like change.
The Blessing Of Love
We do not need to prove ourselves in order to receive a blessing from G-d. All we need to know is that His face is turned toward us.
The Sound Of Silence
The service of the Priests in the Temple was accompanied by silence. The Levites sang in the courtyard, but the Priests – unlike their counterparts in other ancient religions – neither sang nor spoke while offering the sacrifices.
Family Feeling
Where families are strong, a sense of altruism exists that can be extended outward, from family to friends to neighbors to community and from there to the nation as a whole.
Holy Times
The account in Deuteronomy is about society. Moses at the end of his life told the next generation where they had come from, where they were going to, and the kind of society they were to construct.
The Courage To Admit Mistakes
Moses’ intercession with G-d did not, in and of itself, induce a penitential mood among the people. Yes, he performed a series of dramatic acts to demonstrate to the people their guilt. But we have no evidence that they internalized it.
The Plague of Evil Speech
What was the connection between the internal Jewish struggle and the Christian burning of Jewish books?
1 Million Shoes Saved, 1 Million Lives Destroyed
Reflections from Rabbi Sacks’ following his first visit to Auschwitz in 1995
To Ask Is To Grow
In Judaism, to be without questions is a sign not of faith, but of lack of depth.
Understanding Sacrifice
To love is to thank. To love is to want to bring an offering to the Beloved. To love is to give. Sacrifice is the choreography of love.
The Pursuit Of Meaning
For each of us G-d has a task: work to perform, a kindness to show, a gift to give, love to share, loneliness to ease, pain to heal, or broken lives to help mend.
The Social Animal
Regular attendance at a house of worship is the most accurate predictor of altruism, more so than any other factor, including gender, education, income, race, region, marital status, ideology, and age.
The Closeness Of G-d
We cannot see G-d’s face; we cannot understand G-d’s ways; but we can encounter G-d’s glory whenever we build a home for His presence here on earth.
Inspiration & Perspiration
These were all innovators, pioneers, ground-breakers, trail-blazers, who formulated new ideas, originated new forms of expression, did things no one had done before in quite that way. They broke the mold. They changed the landscape. They ventured into the unknown. Yet their daily lives were the opposite: ritualized and routine.
The Gift Of Giving
So long as Moses was in their midst, the people knew that he communicated with G-d, and G-d with him, and therefore G-d was accessible, close. But when he was absent for nearly six weeks, they panicked.
Doing And Hearing
The only way to understand leadership is to lead. The only way to understand marriage is to get married. The only way to understand whether a certain career path is right for you is to actually try it for an extended period.
To Thank Before We Think
Envy, covetousness, desiring what someone else has, is an emotion, not a thought, a word, or a deed. And surely we can’t help our emotions.
Renewable Energy
What Shabbat gave – and still gives – is the unique opportunity to create space within our lives, and within society as a whole, in which we are truly free.
The Spiritual Child
Jews became famous throughout the ages for putting education first. Where others built castles and palaces, Jews built schools and houses of study.
Spirits In A Material World
The well-being of the soul is something inward and spiritual, but the well-being of the body requires a strong society and economy, where there is the rule of law, division of labor, and the promotion of trade.
Turning Curses Into Blessings
Where did it come from, this Jewish ability to turn weakness into strength, adversity into advantage, darkness into light?
On Not Predicting The Future
We make the future by our choices. The script has not yet been written. The future is radically open.
Covenant and Conversation: Parshat Vayigash: Reframing
If we change the way we think, we will change the way we feel.
To Wait Without Despair
To understand the power of this anti-climax, we must remember that only since the invention of printing and the availability of books have we been able to tell what happens next merely by turning a page.
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