Shavuot Yizkor (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on June 5, 2022) We are all reeling from the tragedy at Uvalde. It’s a lot to process and a lot of issues have rightly captured public attention. Yet now I hone in on one overlooked piece.. When the detailed official timeline of the shooting emerged, Texas Department of […]

Parashat B’midbar Sinai: Counting Ourselves As Israel (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Saturday, June 4, 2022)  We begin reading the Book of Numbers this week. It opens with the taking of a census. After the rather arcane matters we have been reading about in recent weeks—the sacrificial cult, laws of purity and impurity, skin eruptions, […]

Parashat B’midbar Sinai: Is the United States, “All For One” or “None For All,” and, if the Latter, Do We Deserve to be a Country? (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on Friday, June 3, 2022) When Shabbat ends tomorrow night, we begin a very special celebration in the Jewish world, the birthday of the Torah, Shavuot. […]

Parashat B’har Sinai: The Task of Peace-Building delivered by Rabbi Sacks on May 20, 2022 We are nearing the conclusion of the book of Leviticus. The book, especially in the latter half, makes clear that extraordinary action is called for as part of our people’s calling to be kadosh l-d-nai E-l-hecha, “holy unto HaShem your […]

Selections from Parashat Ki Tisa: Equality, Sin, and Atonement A Torah study led by Maayan Lev on February 19, 2022) Because we did not have a Torah scroll for our online services this Shabbat weekend, there was a need to temporarily depart from the usual format of our Torah service. I used that need to […]

Parashat T’rumah: Giving, Not Taking, Leads to Love (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on February 4, 2022) Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler[1] was an important figure of the twentieth century. A Talmudic scholar and Jewish philosopher, he served as the mashgiach ruchani, “spiritual counselor,” for the Ponevezh yeshiva, located in B’nei B’rak, a center of ultra-Orthodox Judaism just […]

Parashat Yitro: Nostalgia, Memory and the Building of Judaism (delivered by Rabbi Sacks on January 21, 2021)   I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Manhattan. For some 13-14 years, I lived in Manhattan and right next door to it, in Jersey City, New Jersey, just across the Holland Tunnel. Tonight […]

The Akedah, The Un’taneh Tokef and the Pandemic:  Part 2: Lessons Learned and Lived Rosh HaShanah, First Morning 5782 (September 7, 2021)   Boker tov. Good morning. L’shanah tovah to all of you. Last night I spoke mainly about the Akedah, the story of the binding of Isaac which we’ll read tomorrow, and a bit […]

­The Akedah, The Un’taneh Tokef and the Pandemic: Part 1: “Envisioning” the Akedah Erev Rosh HaShanah 5782 (September 6, 2021) Tonight I share a story that I have never before seen in the light of the High Holy Days. I have told this story during the internment portion at funerals, though I did not learn […]