To Heal a Fractured World

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To Heal a Fractured World
The Ethics of Responsibility

Publication Date: 8 May 2005

One of Judaism's most distinctive and challenging ideas is its ethics of responsibility. We have been given the gift of freedom and we in turn have to honour and enhance the freedom of others. More than in any previous generation, we have been tempted to imagine that it is the individual's needs which are the sole source of meaning. In To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Sacks argues that such preoccupation with oneself is a mistake. Ethics are concerned with the life we live together, and the goods we share only exist by virtue of being shared.

Rabbi Sacks argues his case in a way which shows a profound engagement with the human condition today, and reflects how widely he has read. He talks with as much authority about Sigmund Freud or Karl Marx as he does about the Hebrew Bible.

This book is a clarion call to the outside world to come to its senses.

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quotemarks
Although written by a Rabbi, this powerful, biblically based plea for ethical behavior will appeal to non-Jews as well as to Jews... Patient readers will be rewarded by exposure to a great intellect who demonstrates how his knowledge and experiences have led him to the conclusion that each individual has responsibility "to heal where others harm, mend where others destroy, [and] to redeem evil by turning its negative energies to good.
Publishers Weekly
I have rarely met anyone who combines spirituality, intelligence, wisdom, and compassion in quite the way Dr. Jonathan Sacks does. He has taught me so much about the Abrahamic faiths. He is truly a spiritual Master, which is why I believe he can be called Mahatma, or Great Soul.
Professor Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University
Upon receiving this latest volume by Rabbi Sacks, I appreciated again his well-deserved reputation for marrying high content to elegant style. There are no pious preachments here, and no self-conscious intellectual posturings. To Heal a Fractured World is carefully reasoned yet warm, intellectually engaging, and entirely quotable." –
Dr. Norman Lamm zt"l, Former President of Yeshiva University