Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

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Apr 25, 2025, 2:27 PM

‘Do you cherish life or do you worship death?’ — with Douglas Murray

"I want to draw a very clear line, a dichotomy, democracies and death cults, life or death - do you cherish and love life or do you worship death?" Douglas Murray is a rare breed - a journalist whose search...

Apr 24, 2025, 7:10 PM

Food for Thought (Shemini, Covenant & Conversation)

The second half of Exodus and the first part of Leviticus form a carefully structured narrative. The Israelites are commanded to construct a Sanctuary. They carry out the command. This is followed by an account of sacrifices to be...

Benjamin G. Kelsen

Apr 11, 2025, 11:38 AM

From Service to Sacrifice: Lessons in Leadership from Parshas Tzav

One of the first instructions in Parshas Tzav relates to the removal of the ashes from the mizbeach, the mitzvah of terumas ha-deshen. At first glance, this task seems minor, even mundane, in comparison with the dramatic rituals of...

Apr 10, 2025, 11:58 AM

The Thanksgiving Offering (Tzav, Covenant & Conversation)

Among the sacrifices detailed in this week's Parsha is the korban todah, the thanksgiving offering: If he offers it as a thanksgiving offering, then along with this thanksgiving offering he is to offer unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers...

Apr 10, 2025, 5:44 AM

The choice each of us must make

Image created by author, using Microsoft Designer

How we can have more faith in our future There are two ways in which we can perceive ourselves as Jews, Rabbi Sacks taught. The one we choose has the power to change the course of our future - personally...

Apr 4, 2025, 6:33 AM

Why Do We Sacrifice? (Vayikra, Covenant & Conversation)

The laws of sacrifices that dominate the early chapters of the Book of Leviticus are among the hardest in the Torah to relate to in the present. It has been almost two thousand years since the Temple was destroyed...

Mar 28, 2025, 5:43 AM

Encampments & Journeys (Pekudei, Covenant & Conversation)

Right at the end of the book of Shemot, there is a textual difficulty so slight that it is easy to miss, yet – as interpreted by Rashi – it contains one of the great clues as to the...

Mar 26, 2025, 12:57 PM

What Do We Really Mean by Palestinianism and Israelism?

I am asking how your Shabbat was. How was your week? Well, ours included a little midnight party, thanks to a Houthi missile fired on Friday night toward Jerusalem and central Israel. Thankfully, it was intercepted — but we still...

Mar 20, 2025, 2:25 PM

Vayakhel: When We Come Together as a Community — Then and Now

Helen Keller famously said, "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much". The biblical term for coming together as a community or nation derives from the root k-h-l (קהל), which is the root of the...

Mar 20, 2025, 6:03 AM

Mirrors of Love (Vayakhel, Covenant & Conversation)

The Torah in Parshat Vayakhel, which describes the making of the Mishkan, goes out of its way to emphasise the role women played in it: The men accompanied the women, and those who wanted to make a donation brought bracelets,...

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