JONATHAN SACKS’ LEGACY This coming week, on 20th Marcheshvan, is the first yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l. At shul we are holding an evening of learning, music, and words of inspiration in his memory this Wednesday, 27th October.  Please join us in this tribute to him. He passed away on the Shabbat of Vayera, last year. Let me share with you a thought that formed part of the hesped, the eulogy that I gave for him at the levaya the following day. I recall him giving a sermon a number of years ago on the sidra of Vayera....

ABRAHAM AND SARAH’S DISCIPLES When Abram and Sarai came to the land of Canaan, they didn’t come by themselves. They arrived with Lot, Abram’s nephew. They arrived with all their possessions. Then the verse adds: “and with the souls they had made in Charan.” (Bereishit 12:25.) Rashi (in his second explanation) observes that the straightforward meaning of this phrase, is that it refers to the retinue of servants that they had acquired. But Rashi’s first explanation is that the word “souls” refers to converts Abram and Sarai had made whilst in Charan. The example they had displayed of faith, trust...

AVERTING THE FLOOD At the end of this month the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, will be held in Glasgow. Postponed from 2020, it is regarded by many as possibly the last chance the world has to take coordinated action on the threat of climate change. The biblical precedent for a world-wide climate crisis is Noah’s Flood that we read about in this week’s parasha. Although the flood is seen as a result of man’s moral footprint rather than his carbon footprint, there are, nevertheless, powerful lessons to be learned. What lead to the decay of society that brought...

THE HOME WE BUILD TOGETHER Act One, Scene 1 – “In the beginning.” The drama of Bereishit, of creation, never fails to stir the imagination. Act One, Scene 2. In seventeen weeks’ time, we will read of a second act of creation: the Israelites are to create a Tabernacle or portable home for G-d that would travel with them in the desert. Our commentators point out a number of parallels between these two acts. G-d made the universe. Now He instructs the Israelites to make the Tabernacle. Just as the universe begins with an act of creation, so the history...

BE YOURSELF When we want to emphasise something in Hebrew, we often repeat the word, rather than say ‘very’. Sometimes we do so in English. We might say: “Emma Raducanu played a great, great tennis match,” though it would be more usual to say: “she played a very great tennis match!” In this week’s parasha, the word ‘I’, referring to G-d, is emphasised by repetition: Re’u ata, ki ani, ani hu, ve’ein elohim imadi “See now that it is I! I am the One, and there is no god like Me!” The great Hassidic Master, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk...

GROWING WITH OUR CHILDREN Jewish parenting. What could an event in the bible that took place every seven years have to say about that? This week’s parasha, tells us about Hakhel, or the national assembly of the people which took place during the Succot after the Shemitta or Sabbatical year.  “At the end of every seven years,… during the Festival of Succot, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this Torah before them in their hearing. Hakhel – Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the strangers...

THE FOURTEENTH PRINCIPLE OF FAITH During 2020, I lost not only my dear friend Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, but also, earlier in the year, I lost the teacher he and I shared, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch. Jonathan Sacks wrote that even though he had studied at Oxford and Cambridge with some of the leading intellects of the time, when he began to study with Rabbi Rabinovitch he found he was more demanding than any of them. In the introduction to his commentary of the Laws of Repentance, Rabbi Rabinovitch solves a puzzle that has long troubled students of Moses Maimonides, the...

SERVING G-D WITH JOY Shalom This coming Monday is the Matzeivah, the tombstone consecration of Rabbi Lord Sacks of blessed memory. It takes place at the Bushey New Cemetery at 2.15pm. It will be held outside and members of the community are invited to attend. In Rabbi Sacks’ honour, leilui nishmato, let me share a thought from one of his essays in Covenant and Conversation on this week’s parasha. It comes from the volume on Ethics, published in 2016. Rabbi Sacks distinguishes between happiness and joy. Happiness is certainly accorded high value in Judaism. One of our key prayers, said...