Posts Tagged: Chief Rabbi Sacks
Judaism’s Environmental Responsibility
Some commands in the Torah were understood so narrowly by the sages that they were rendered almost inapplicable. One example is the ir ha-nidachat, the city...
What Makes Us Human? It’s Time for a Conversation
My eye was caught yesterday by a photo of a charming Chinese lady known to her friends as Yangyang. She has long hair, a fetching...
Explaining the Sacrifice
The laws on sacrifices, which dominate the early chapters of the book of Leviticus, are among the hardest in the Torah to relate to in the...
The Ethic of Holiness
With Tetzaveh, something new enters Judaism: Torat cohanim, the world and mindset of the priest. Rapidly it became a central dimension of Judaism. It dominates the...
The Ten Commandments: A Structure for a Just Society
In the House of Lords there is a special chamber used, among other things, as the place where new peers are robed before their introduction...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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....
The Power of Believing in Yourself
It was perhaps the single greatest collective failure of leadership in the Torah. Ten of the spies whom Moses had sent to spy out the...
20 Years After Rebbe’s Death, Jewish Movements Increasingly Emulate Chabad
JNS.org - Many questions surrounded the future of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidism after the death of its seventh and final leader—"the Rebbe," Rabbi...