Jews were the first people to see God in history. They were the first people to read history as if it were a narrative. And the whole of the Bible is about that. And I once asked myself, “What is the Jewish narrative? How would you sum it up?” And of course, there’s one place where the Rabbis told us exactly what the narrative is. They said in Hebrew, “matchil bignut umasayin bashevach.” “Begin with the bad news and with the good.” So the Jewish narrative never hides it… The Jewish narrative never shuts its eyes to the evils of the world, but that’s only the beginning of the story.
So, the Jewish story begins in slavery, but it ends in freedom. And even if we have to have a 40-year journey across the Wilderness to get from here to there, the Jewish story is a story of hope. It tells us that the world doesn’t always have to be the way it’s been. It tells us that if we work together hand in hand with our fellow human beings and with God, we can make the world a little more beautiful, a little more just, a little more human and humane.
And that is why the Jewish story is a story of hope.
SHARE
More from JInsider
Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: 2
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Universal Jewish Story
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Eco-Judaism Roots
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Peoplehood
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on an Engaged Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Charity Priorities
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Reconciliation
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Community Conflict
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Particularism vs Universalism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Culture of Hope
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Hatikvah
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Israel and Jewish Society
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Torah in Today's World
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Prayer
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Indifference
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Role in the World
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Torah and the Real World
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Free Market and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Love as Deed
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Combatting Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Material Loss
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Antidote to Materialism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Parenting
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Tzedakah Tale
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Family Story
JInsider (March 2010)
On the Internet and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Plato's Ghost
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Optimism vs. Hope
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Victim Mentality
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Jerusalem
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Advice for our Times
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Fundamentalism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Time
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Chosen People
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on 21st Century Israel
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Origins of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Understanding Jewish Exile
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Anger
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Historical Evolution of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Interfaith Relations
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Coincidence and Providence
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Free Will
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Family and Marriage
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Tzedakah Defined
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Daily Life
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Being Jewish
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Rebbe, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Connecting to God
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on God and Evil
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Dialogue with Atheists
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Doubt
Jinsider (March 2010)
On Tikkun Olam
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Response to Atheism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Finding Purpose
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life - Example
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 2
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)