…to destroy the people, (after the Golden Calf and the episode of the spies). At the end of our parsha, He sent a plague against them. There were other devoted and religious peoples in the ancient world. The Torah calls Malkizedek, Abraham’s contemporary, “a Priest of God most high.” (Bereishit 14:18). Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, was a Midianite Priest who gave…
…help him find meat? Clearly not. Either it would appear by a miracle or it would not appear at all. Did he need them to share the burdens of leadership? The answer is again, No. Already, not long before, on the advice of his father-in-law Yitro, he had created an infrastructure of delegation. Yitro had said this: ‘What you are…
…Torah of non-Israelite Priests (for example Yitro, Moshe’ father-in-law, was a Midianite Priest). The Priesthood was not unique to Israel, and in all places it was an elite group. However, here for the first time, we find a code of holiness directed to the people as a whole. This is a radical and new idea the Torah brings to the…
The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was ‘the clash of civilizations.’ The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a…
In the course of any life there are moments of awe and amazement when, with a full heart, you thank God shehecheyanu vekiyemanu vehigiyanu lazeman hazeh, “who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this day.” Two that particularly stand out in my own memory were separated by almost ten years. The first was the Lambeth…
Hidden beneath the surface of parshat Pinchas, the Sages uncovered a story of great poignancy. Moses, having seen his sister and brother die, knew that his own time on earth was coming to a close. He prayed to God to appoint a successor: Let the Lord, God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over this community who…
One reason religion has survived in the modern world despite four centuries of secularisation is that it answers the three questions every reflective human being will ask at some time in his or her life: Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live? These cannot be answered by the four great institutions of the modern West:…
Immediately prior to the great revelation at Mount Sinai, God instructs Moses as to the nature of the covenant He is proposing to make with the children of Israel. On their willing acceptance of these terms, all else will depend. In the course of this preamble, the Torah articulates what, in hindsight, could be called the first mission statement and…
…Conversation, Bechukotai) On Judaism and Islam (Covenant & Conversation, Chayei Sarah) Particular Paths to a Universal God (Covenant & Conversation, Yitro) Loving the Stranger (Covenant & Conversation, Mishpatim) The Universal and the Particular (Covenant & Conversation, Mikketz) Minority Rights (Covenant & Conversation, Behar) The Home We Build Together (Covenant & Conversation, Terumah) Short Quotes from Rabbi Sacks on Interfaith Dialogue…
…only for their own people are chauvinists. They create false expectations, narrow and self-regarding emotions, and bravado rather than real courage. Moses had to show (as he did when he rescued Yitro’s daughters from the local shepherds, see Ex. 2:17) that he cared for non-Israelites as well as Israelites. Jeremiah was told by God to become a “Prophet to the…