C
ovenant & Conversation is kindly sponsored by The Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation. The Family Edition is kindly sponsored anonymously.
As part of the weekly Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition, we encourage readers under 18 years old to submit questions on the topics discussed. Each month or so, we will be selecting some of the best questions received, each of which will be sent an inscribed copy of the wonderful Koren Aviv Weekday Siddur! To read the selected questions received so far, and answers provided from Rabbi Sacks, please click here.
Click on the links below to download the latest Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition, an educational accompaniment to Rabbi Sacks’ weekly Covenant & Conversation essay on the parsha.
Nitzavim – Vayelech 5780: How to Renew a Nation
Ki Tavo 5780: Be Silent and Listen
Ki Teitse 5780: Does Love Conquer All?
Shoftim 5780: A Sage is Greater than a Prophet
Re’eh 5780: The Good Society
Eikev 5780: The Covenant and the Love
Va’etchanan 5780: The Infinite Game
Devarim 5780: Followership
Matot – Masei 5780: My Teacher: In Memoriam
Pinchas 5780: Moral vs. Political Decisions
Balak 5780: The Hidden Meaning of the Bilam Story
Chukat 5780: Kohelet, Tolstoy and the Red Heifer
Korach 5780: How not to Argue
Shelach Lecha 5780: What is going on?
Beha’alotecha 5780: Loneliness and Faith
Naso 5780: The Blessing of Love
Bamidbar 5780: Egalitarian Society, Jewish-Style
Behar – Bechukotai 5780: The Power of a Curse
Emor 5780: Radical Uncertainty
Acharei Mot – Kedoshim 5780: The Ethic of Holiness
Tazria – Metzora 5780: Words That Heal
Shemini 5780: Limits
Tzav 5780: Left- and Right-Brain Judaism
Vayikra 5780: The Prophetic View of Sacrifice
Vayakhel-Pekudei 5780: Communities and Crowds
Ki Tissa 5780: Moses Annuls a Vow
Tetzaveh 5780: Dressing to Impress
Terumah 5780: What do we receive when we give?
Mishpatim 5780: We will do and we will hear
Yitro 5780: The Universal and the Particular
Beshallach 5780: Crossing the Sea
Bo 5780: The Story We Tell About Ourselves
Vaera 5780: The Weighing of the Heart
Shemot 5780: Faith in the Future
Vayechi 5780: Family, Faith and Freedom
Vayigash 5780: The Future of the Past
Mikketz 5780: Joseph and the Risks of Power
Vayeshev 5780: The Angel who did not know he was an Angel
Vayishlach 5780: No Longer Shall You Be Called Jacob
Vayetse 5780: Laban the Aramean
Toldot 5780: Isaac and Esau
Chayei Sarah 5780: To Have a Why
Vayera 5780: Negative Capability
Lech Lecha 5780: A Palace in Flames
Noach 5780: The Light in the Ark
Bereishit 5780: The Genesis of Love
To view the 5779 archive, please click here.
About Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition
As many of you know, each week I send out a commentary essay on the week’s parsha (Torah reading). I have called these essays Covenant & Conversation because this for me is the essence of what Torah learning is – throughout the ages and for us now.
The text of Torah is our covenant with God; the interpretation of this text has been the subject of an ongoing conversation that began at Sinai and has never ceased.
We need to learn more Torah with our children because that is how we can truly secure the Jewish future. That is why I am so excited by the new Family Edition of Covenant & Conversation for this year’s Torah cycle.
The Family Edition, expertly compiled by Dr. Daniel Rose Ph.D (who I worked with on the “Ten Paths to God” curriculum project), is a wonderful accompaniment to the main Covenant & Conversation essay each week.
It has two main aims. First, to present the ideas in Covenant & Conversation in a simplified way, making my ideas more accessible to children and teenagers. Second, to act as an educational resource for parents, teachers and anyone else to engage their children and students in meaningful and stimulating conversations about the parsha.
I hope you find this a useful addition to your learning during 5779. You can watch this short video explaining the project, and download the Family Editions for each parsha below. The Family Edition will also be available as a download from the main Covenant & Conversation email which is sent out each week. If you are not already subscribed to my free mailing list and would like to be, please fill in your details here.
How it works
Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition is a new and exciting initiative from The Office of Rabbi Sacks for 5779. Written as an accompaniment to Rabbi Sacks’ weekly Covenant & Conversation essay, the Family Edition is aimed at connecting older children and teenagers with his ideas and thoughts on the parsha.
Each element of the Family Edition is progressively more advanced; In A Nutshell gives a brief overview of the parsha, and one straightforward question for all ages. The Core Idea is appropriate for all ages, It Once Happened gives us an additional related story and encourages readers to connect it to the themes of the week, and the final element, From The Thought of Rabbi Sacks, is the most advanced section. Each section includes Questions to Ponder, aimed at encouraging discussion between family members, guests and/or students in a way most appropriate to them.
We have also included a section called Around the Shabbat Table with a few further questions on the parsha to think about, and an Educational Companion which includes suggested talking points in response to the questions found throughout the Family Edition.
