Arguments for the Sake of Heaven: Emerging Trends in Traditional Judaism

by Jonathan Sacks

Rabbi Sacks Classics Library Project

What is the future of the Jewish people? In Arguments for the Sake of Heaven, first published in 1991, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explores the contemporary issues that influence Judaism and the controversies that affect its destiny.

If the Jewish world is to be mended, Rabbi Sacks contends, Jews must move beyond sectional thinking and recognize alternatives within Judaism. The tradition of argument requires respect for positions with which one doesn’t agree; rabbinic texts imply more than one legitimate stance. It is in this spirit of healing that Jewish unity will be achieved, and “to see this is already to have begun the transition from Torah as the faith of some Jews to Torah as the constitution of the whole Jewish people.”

Genres: Judaism, Jewish

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Henry Sacks was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. His Hebrew name was Yaakov Zvi.

Serving as the chief rabbi in the United Kingdom from 1991 to 2013, Sacks gained fame both in the secular world and in Jewish circles. He was a sought-after voice on issues of war and peace, religious fundamentalism, ethics, and the relationship between science and religion, among other topics. Sacks wrote more than 20 books.

Rabbi Sacks died November 2020 after a short bout with cancer. He was 72.

Reviews

[Vanessa Dinah · Rating 4 out of 5]

really meant for a western reader, and hard to tell who the audience is beyond that. but really well written and well reasoned look on trends in judaism from the 1990s.