Arguments for the Sake of Heaven
Emerging Trends in Traditional Judaism
What is the future of the Jewish people? In Arguments for the Sake of Heaven, Rabbi Sacks explores the contemporary issues that influence Judaism and the controversies that affect its destiny.
Setting out the traditional alternatives proposed by Rabbis Samson Raphael Hirsch, Moses Sofer, Abraham Isaac Kook, and Joseph Soloveitchik, Rabbi Sacks uses these models to examine today’s Jewish communities in the United States, England, and Israel. He proposes that in order to achieve Jewish unity, there must be “a candid acknowledgment of what divides Jews and an attempt to locate those divisions within the framework of tradition.”
If the Jewish world is to be mended, Rabbi Sacks contends, Jews must move beyond sectional thinking and recognize alternatives within Judaism. The tradition of argument requires respect for positions with which one doesn’t agree; rabbinic texts imply more than one legitimate stance. It is in this spirit of healing that Jewish unity will be achieved, and “to see this is already to have begun the transition from Torah as the faith of some Jews to Torah as the constitution of the whole Jewish people.”
CONTEXTUALISING THE CANON
To coincide with the republication of several of Rabbi Sacks’ earlier works, we are sharing essays to provide valuable context for readers, shedding light on when and why each book was written, and offering insights into the themes contained within them.
Read a piece by Joanne Greenaway on the context of this book.
