As we have seen in both Vayetse and Vaera, leadership is marked by failure. It is the recovery that is the true measure of a leader. Leaders can fail for two kinds of reason. The first is external. The time may not be right. The conditions may be unfavourable. There may be no one on the other side to talk…
SUBMIT A REFLECTION FEATURED STORY I teach high school English at a Jewish day school in America. When Rabbi Sacks spent the day at our school, the administration hosted a special luncheon with some of the teachers and Rabbi Sacks. During the luncheon, the teachers were given the opportunity to ask the Chief Rabbi their questions. One teacher asked Rabbi…
…Babylonian exile) the Jews. Bereishit Noach Lech Lecha Vayera Chayei Sarah Toldot Vayetse Vayishlach Vayeshev Mikketz Vayigash Vayechi Shemot (Exodus) The book of Exodus – Shemot – is the West’s meta-narrative of hope. It tells an astonishing story of how a group of slaves were liberated from the mightiest empire of the ancient world. Theologically, its message is even more…
…Conversation, Vayetse) Prayers from the past and present can shape our world of the future (Credo article) Prayer, Meditation and Ritual are Fitness Trackers for the Soul (Thought for the Day radio broadcast) The Power of Jewish Prayer (2009 article for Jewish Action Magazine) Prayer (Letter 13 from Letters to the Next Generation 2: Reflections on Jewish Life) Short Quotes…
…is the willingness to live a life of risks that makes such individuals different from others… To try, to fall, to fear, and yet to keep going: that is what it takes to be a leader. Vayetse: Light in Dark Times Managing the conflicts that affect every human group is the work of the leader – and if the leader…
To try, to fall, to fear, and yet to keep going: that is what it takes to be a leader. That was Jacob, the man who at the lowest ebbs of his life had his greatest visions of heaven….
Less than prayer changes the world, it changes us. The Hebrew verb lehitpalel, meaning “to pray,” is reflexive, implying an action done to one’s self. Literally, it means “to judge oneself.” It means, to escape from the prison of the self and see the world, including ourselves, from the outside. Prayer is where the relentless first person singular, the “I,”…
If we could only stop asking the question, “How does this affect me?” we would see that we are surrounded by miracles. There is the almost infinite complexity and beauty of the natural world. There is the Divine Word, our greatest legacy as Jews, the library of books we call the Bible. And there is the unparalleled drama, spreading over…
Sometimes it takes a great crisis to make us realise how self-centred we have been. The only question strong enough to endow existence with meaning is not, “What do I need from life?” but “What does life need from me?” That is the question we hear when we truly pray. More than an act of speaking, prayer is an act…
More than prayer changes God, it changes us. It lets us see, feel, know that “God is in this place.” How do we reach that awareness? By moving beyond the first person singular, so that for a moment, like Jacob, we can say, “I know not the I.” In the silence of the “I,” we meet the “Thou” of God….