Lord Jonathan Sacks Quotes

Only in fiction are the great evils committed by caricatures of malevolence: Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort, Sauron or the Joker. In real history the great evils are committed by people seeking to restore a romanticised golden age, willing to sacrifice their lives and the lives of others in what they regard as a great and even holy cause. In some cases they see themselves as ‘doing God’s work’. They ‘seem happy’. That is how dreams of utopia turn into nightmares of hell.

When Jacob was chosen, Esau was not rejected. God does not reject. “Though my mother and father might abandon me, the Lord will take me in” (Psalms 27:10). Chosenness means two things: intimacy and responsibility. God holds us close and makes special demands on us. Beyond that, God is the God of all mankind – the Author of all, who cares for all.

Seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall prosper” (Jer. 29:7) – the first statement in history of what it is to be a creative minority.

Zechariah gives one of the most concise summaries of the Jewish experience: “Not by might nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).

[God] gave us only over beast, fish, fowl, Dominion absolute; that right we hold By his donation; but man over men He made not lord; such title to himself Reserving, human left from human free.

One way or another, the alphabet created a possibility that never existed before, namely of a society of mass, even universal, literacy. With only twenty-two symbols, it could be taught, in a relatively short time, to everyone. We see evidence of this at many places in Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah says “All your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children” (Isaiah 54:13), implying universal education.

Lord Acton, Philip Rieff and Nicholas Wolterstorff

Rabbi Shimon bar Pazzi said in the name of R. Joshua ben Levi on the authority of Bar Kappara: One who knows how to calculate cycles and planetary courses but does not do so, of him Scripture says, ‘But they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands’ (Isaiah 5:12). R. Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of R. Joshua, How do we know that it is a commandment to calculate cycles and planetary courses? Because it is written: ‘This is your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations.’ What is wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the nations? It is the science of cycles and planetary courses.18 The passage brings together