“Pesach is the oldest and most transformative story of hope ever told. It tells of how an otherwise undistinguished group of slaves found their way to freedom from the greatest and longest-lived empire of their time, indeed of any time. It tells the revolutionary story of how the supreme Power intervened in history to liberate the supremely powerless. It is a story of the defeat of probability by the force of possibility. It defines what it is to be a Jew: a living symbol of hope.” — Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The festival of Passover (Pesach) lasts for seven days in Israel, and eight days in the Diaspora. Pesach starts with an evening full of rituals, symbols and storytelling, as Jews all around the world re-visit the momentous exodus from Egypt and their first steps in their journey towards their own land.
When is Passover 2026
15-22 Nisan 5786
Begins: Sundown on Wednesday 1 April 2026
Ends: Nightfall on Thursday 9 April 2026
Videos on Passover
What do Pesach and Hamilton have in common?
Freedom is not won in a single moment. It needs to be fought for in every generation...
Inspiration for Shabbat HaGadol and Pesach during the coronavirus pandemic
This is a video of a Facebook Live dvar Torah, livestreamed in April 2020 where Rabbi Sacks offered some words...
Always End With Hope
David Bashevkin welcomed Rabbi Sacks into this NCSY virtual flashmob of inspiration, broadcast live in March 2020, as viewers around...
The Story We Tell
When we read the Pesach story, we come across something so remarkable, it appears to be counterintuitive... Transcript On behalf...
Rambam's Guide for the Perplexed on the Seder Night
One of Judaism's greatest Sages, Rambam (Maimonides) offers us a deeply meaningful insight into the nature of the Seder night....
Ways of Counting Time: The Omer Controversy
Rabbi Sacks delivered this shiur to over 500 yeshiva and seminary students in Jerusalem on Wednesday 18th May 2016. The...
The Haggadah's Politics: A Conversation with Senator Joseph Lieberman
On Sunday 22nd March 2015, Yeshiva University presented a conversation between Rabbi Sacks and former Senator Joseph Lieberman on “The...
From Freedom to Responsibility
To mark the launch of the Koren Sacks Pesach Machzor, the Chief Rabbi delivered a keynote shiur entitled “From Freedom...
Passover: A More Meaningful Holiday
Transcript Shalom, Shalom. Pesach is on its way. So, as we’re getting ready for the great moment, let me share...
Holocaust Curriculum Resources
Rabbi Sacks answers some deep questions frequently asked about the Holocaust. This series, in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust, has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Richard Harris.
Should the Holocaust be a key ingredient of our Jewish identity?
In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...
Read about Passover
SHIURIM
A New Concept of Freedom
On 20th March 2018, Rabbi Sacks delivered a pre-Pesach shiur to students at University College London's Jewish Society (J-Soc). This...
From The Archives
Essays and writings from Rabbi Sacks' extensive body of work
CONTINUING RABBI SACKS' CONVERSATION
Seder Night Through the Eyes of Rabbi Sacks
Explore a selection of downloadable materials to help bring Rabbi Sacks’ insights into your classroom this Pesach. Click here to...
SHORT THOUGHTS & ACTIVITIES
Seder Night Discussion Cards
“Teaching the young to ask questions is an essential feature of Pesach, so much so that the Haggada – the...
SHORT THOUGHTS & ACTIVITIES
The Seder Night Activity: Scavenger Hunt!
Here’s a fun and engaging Pesach activity for Seder night, aimed at teens and adults. It features challenges and questions...
ARTICLES, REFLECTIONS
Short thoughts for Pesach
To enhance your Seder night, we invite you to use these illustrative cards of short thoughts on Pesach from Rabbi...
ARTICLES
Rediscovering the Common Good, Passover in isolation, and Lessons from a Gulag Survivor
For perhaps the first time in 32 centuries, Jews around the world will be unable to celebrate the festival of...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
A Pesach present from us....
With thanks to our friends at Koren Publishers, we offer you the opportunity to download a bumper back of Pesach...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS, REFLECTIONS
Free e-book for Pesach
Click on the link below to claim a free e-book from Koren Publishers of the introduction to Rabbi Sacks' Pesach...
SHIURIM
How Maimonides Can Help Us Understand the Exodus
The following shiur was recorded at Yeshiva University on 26th March 2017.
SHIURIM
Judaism's Unique Concept of Freedom
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Kressel and Ephrat Family Professor of Jewish Thought, was the featured speaker at a special Abraham and...
SHIURIM, SPEECHES
B'Chol Dor v'Dor
This lecture was delivered during Rabbi Sacks' engagement as professor at Yeshiva University, when he gave the keynote address (shiur)...
TEACHINGS, BOOK EXTRACTS
Seasons of Love
Extract from the Koren - Sacks Pesach Machzor Shir HaShirim (which will be read on the afternoon of Shabbat chol ha’moed...
ARTICLES
What Does This Avodah Mean To You?
One of the most dazzling insights of the Sages was to connect the dots – the three places in the...
BOOK EXTRACTS
Pesach and the Jewish Task
The following is an extract from the introduction to the Koren Sacks Pesach Machzor. Pesach is the oldest and most transformative...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
The Unasked Question
Pesach is a night of questions, but there is one we do not ask, and it is significant. Why was...
SHIURIM
Pesach: The Birth of the Jewish Nation
As part of his engagement with Yeshiva University, Rabbi Sacks delivered a shiur entitled: “Pesach: The Birth of the Jewish...
CREDO
Sharing the Bread of Affliction
Pesach, the Jewish festival of freedom, is an extraordinary testimony to the power of ritual to keep ideals and identity...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Rituals are how civilisations preserve their memory
When people talk about religion in Britain, they tend to speak about beliefs. Which, for Jews, is very odd. Yes,...
ARTICLES, REFLECTIONS, STATEMENTS
Rabbi Sacks’ Pesach Message to Jewish Communities 2012
The story of Pesach, of the Exodus from Egypt, is one of the oldest and greatest in the world. It...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
If you want to survive and thrive as a people, a culture, a civilisation, celebrate the family
The Passover season is well and truly on us. We’re preparing our homes for the festival of freedom, with its...
CREDO
Teach your children well for a better life
What creates freedom? A revolution in the streets? Mass protest? Civil war? A change of government? The ousting of the...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Every child, even a child of your enemies, is holy
This week we in the Jewish community were just beginning our preparations for Passover, the festival of freedom, when we...
ARTICLES
Passover tells us: Teach your children well
As one nation after another in Africa and the Middle East engages in a fight for freedom, Passover, which begins...
CREDO
Passover Has Lessons For Those Fighting for Freedom
As one nation after another in Africa and the Middle East engages in a fight for freedom, Passover, which begins...
ARTICLES, STATEMENTS
The Chief Rabbi's Pesach Message 5771
The Chief Rabbi Sacks’ Pesach message, written in 2011 as an introduction to the United Synagogue‘s Guide to Pesach and shared...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
The Universal Story
Observe [these decrees] carefully, for this is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations, who will hear...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
The Story of Stories
Remember the earliest of days; grasp the years of generations that have been. Ask your father – he will tell...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Never underestimate the power of a story to enlarge the moral imagination of a child
On Monday night we, the members of the Jewish community, will be sitting down with our families to begin perhaps...
SHIURIM
A Seder Night That Changed History
Originally recorded on 21st March 2010 at Kollel Yom Rishon at Yeshiva University. Transcript K’vod haRabanim, friends, it's wonderful to...
BOOK EXTRACTS
החכמים בבני ברק
Download the Hebrew translation of the essay, The Rabbis of Bnei Brak found in the Jonathan Sacks Haggadah, published by...
LECTURES, SPEECHES
The Echoes of Tragedy
The Nexus Institute brings together the world’s foremost intellectuals, artists and politicians, and has them think and talk about the...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
What we remember we can avoid; what we forget, we can repeat
We're coming close to Pesach - Passover - the Jewish festival of memory and freedom. Next week Jews will be sitting...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Sharing our vulnerabilities, we discover strength
We're fast approaching the G20 summit which meets in London next week. Rarely have the world's political and economic leaders come...
CREDO
Teach your children well the power of Passover
Passover has come and gone and within the Jewish community we’re counting the days to Shavuot, Pentecost. But I want...
CREDO
Once upon a time, long ago, there was a nation in slavery
It was one of the Bible’s most brilliant insights, and we need it in Britain today. Tell the story, said...
CREDO
Next year in Jerusalem - teaching children the story of their people
What are your earliest memories? Mine go back to my grandparents’ house, just opposite Finsbury Park in North London. In...
REFLECTIONS, STATEMENTS
The Chief Rabbi's Pesach Message 5764
Chief Rabbi Sacks' Pesach message to communities across the Commonwealth in 2004: I sometimes wonder whether we fully realise the...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
Women and the Exodus
By merit of the righteous women of that generation, Israel was redeemed from Egypt. Sota 11b The human hero of...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
The Missing Fifth
This essay forms one chapter in the Jonathan Sacks Haggada, published by Koren, and reproduced here with their kind permission....
SPEECHES
A Prayer for the Thirteen Imprisoned Iranian Jews
In April 2000 Rabbi Sacks delivered an address at an emergency Prayer Meeting, held in Bevis Marks while news of...
ARTICLES, L'EYLAH ARTICLES
On Pesach, Identity and Moral Courage (L'Eylah)
Issue 47 - Printed April 1999 The Seder service is the oldest and newest of all religious rituals. Nothing in...
PAMPHLETS
Ma Nishtana: A Seder Guide
This Seder Guide was created in April 1981 by a group of young Anglo-Jewish Rabbinical leaders who named themselves Y'min,...
From Covenant & Conversation
The series of weekly commentary essays on the Torah by Rabbi Sacks
KI TAVO • 5771, 5784
Freedom Means Telling the Story
Here's an experiment. Walk around the great monuments of Washington D.C. There, at the far end, is the figure of...
BO • 5772, 5777, 5785
The Necessity of Asking Questions
It is no accident that Parshat Bo, the section that deals with the culminating plagues and the Exodus, should turn...
EMOR • 5776, 5783
Holy Times
The parsha of Emor contains a chapter dedicated to the festivals of the Jewish year. There are five such passages...
SHEMOT • 5776, 5783
Turning Curses into Blessings
Genesis ends on an almost serene note. Jacob has found his long lost son. The family has been reunited. Joseph...
BO • 5774, 5781
The Far Horizon
To gain insight into the unique leadership lesson of this week’s parsha, I often ask an audience to perform a...
BO • 5780
Writing My Own Chapter
Sometimes others know us better than we know ourselves. In the year 2000, a British Jewish research institute came up...
VAYETSE • 5780
Laban the Aramean
The events narrated in this week’s parsha – Jacob’s flight to Laban, his stay there, and his escape, pursued by...
BO • 5778
The Story We Tell
It remains one of the most counterintuitive passages in all of religious literature. Moses is addressing the Israelites just days...
VAERA • 5765, 5769
The Cup of Hope
As a child, I used to be fascinated by the cup of Elijah at the Seder table. Would the prophet...
