Lekh Lekha
Mark Twain said it most pithily: When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. Whether Freud was right or wrong about the Oedipus complex, there…
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar One of the great discoveries that tends to come with age is that, having spent what seems like a lifetime running away from our parents, we realise we have become very…
Delve into our collection of sources and guiding questions on notions of covenant, inspired by the teachings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l, compiled by Sacks Scholar Mijal Bitton. Download in English Download in Hebrew Download in Spanish Download in French Download in German You may also wish to view our full range of Shavuot and Tikkun Leil resources….
This essay has also been adapted into a Family Edition Covenant & Conversation, available to read here. The most influential man who ever lived does not appear on any list I have seen of the hundred most influential men who ever lived. He ruled no empire, commanded no army, engaged in no spectacular acts of heroism on the battlefield, performed…
Koren Publishers have launched a new Magerman edition of the Koren Tanach featuring, for the first time, the complete translation of Chumash by Rabbi Sacks zt”l. You can order your copy here and view the opening pages below. Peek Inside…
The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was ‘the clash of civilizations.’ The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a…
In an extraordinary series of observations on this week’s parsha, Ramban (Nahmanides, 1194 – 1270) delivers harsh criticisms of Abraham and Sarah. The first has to do with Abraham’s decision to leave the land of Canaan and go to Egypt because “there was a famine in the land” (Gen. 12:1). On this Ramban says: Know that Abraham our father unintentionally committed…
Is character strictly personal – either you are or aren’t calm, courageous, charismatic – or does culture have a part to play? Does when and where you live make a difference to the kind of person you become? That was the question posed by three great American-Jewish sociologists, David Reisman, Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney in their 1950 classic, The…
Within the first words that God addresses to the bearer of a new covenant, there are already hints as to the nature of the heroism he would come to embody. The multi-layered command “Lech lecha” – “go forth” contains the seeds of Abraham’s ultimate vocation. Rashi, following an ancient exegetic tradition, translates the phrase as “Journey for yourself.”[1] According to…