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Essays from the Jonathan Sacks Haggada
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks offers a refreshing and insightful commentary to the Koren Haggada, together with illuminating essays on the themes and motifs of the Festival of Freedom. Rabbi Sacks' essays explore the foundational concepts of the Passover holiday and ritual, his style is engaging, intelligent – at times daring in its innovation – and always inspiring.
179 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 12, 2016
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About the author
Jonathan Sacks
226 books449 followersRabbi 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 14, 2023
Anything by the late great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks ztzl is amazing, but being alone on Passover due to illness, I felt like he was at my table sharing Passover and his wonderful thoughts with me.
I had some wonderful rabbis and teachers over the decades, but Rabbi Sacks is a whole wholey holy brilliant level.
I had some wonderful rabbis and teachers over the decades, but Rabbi Sacks is a whole wholey holy brilliant level.
April 24, 2022
The Jonathan Sacks Haggada consists of two parts. One is a traditional commentary on the text of the Haggada. The other is a series of essays on the Exodus, Jewish history, and the themes of the Haggadah.
The textual commentary is stylistically quite different from classical commentaries in that it is less incisive concerning the wording, but rather uses the text as a jump-off point for discussion similar to that found in the essays.
Among the essays I found much material I had not previously considered. For me, this was the better part of the book. For example, in the essay entitled "The Sages of Benei Brak," the author uses the order in which the sages are named in the text to conclude which of them was the one recognized by the others as having greater authority, and even the year in which the encounter occurred. In Sack's novel, but credible, elucidation, the long retelling of the story of the Exodus is not merely an example of the merit to be found in amplifying the story, but also served as a mechanism to defuse a potentially disruptive disagreement which threatened to (further) divide the Jewish people during the Roman occupation.
In the essay "Time as a Narrative of Hope," Sacks discusses the deeper meaning counting of the Omer, which begins (for us in exile) on the second seder night. Sacks describes how, for most of human history, time has been seen as a cyclical phenomenon: season following season; birth followed by growth, flourishing, death, and replacement by another generation, etc. This is to be expected when God is seen as a personification of the forces of nature, rather than the creator and ruler of those forces. The Hebrew Bible introduces the concept of a God beyond nature guiding history, and therefore introduces the concept of history as a linear, rather than cyclical, phenomenon.
The book is particularistic, as all proper Jewish commentary must be, but Sacks presents his ideas in a way to show how the particularistic underlies the universal. This is not at all the commonly encountered effort to portray Jewish thought as merely one flavor of a vague universal ideology.
It is worthwhile every year to review a commentary on the Haggadah between Purim and Passover. This book merits to be included among those which may be reviewed with benefit for the reader.
The textual commentary is stylistically quite different from classical commentaries in that it is less incisive concerning the wording, but rather uses the text as a jump-off point for discussion similar to that found in the essays.
Among the essays I found much material I had not previously considered. For me, this was the better part of the book. For example, in the essay entitled "The Sages of Benei Brak," the author uses the order in which the sages are named in the text to conclude which of them was the one recognized by the others as having greater authority, and even the year in which the encounter occurred. In Sack's novel, but credible, elucidation, the long retelling of the story of the Exodus is not merely an example of the merit to be found in amplifying the story, but also served as a mechanism to defuse a potentially disruptive disagreement which threatened to (further) divide the Jewish people during the Roman occupation.
In the essay "Time as a Narrative of Hope," Sacks discusses the deeper meaning counting of the Omer, which begins (for us in exile) on the second seder night. Sacks describes how, for most of human history, time has been seen as a cyclical phenomenon: season following season; birth followed by growth, flourishing, death, and replacement by another generation, etc. This is to be expected when God is seen as a personification of the forces of nature, rather than the creator and ruler of those forces. The Hebrew Bible introduces the concept of a God beyond nature guiding history, and therefore introduces the concept of history as a linear, rather than cyclical, phenomenon.
The book is particularistic, as all proper Jewish commentary must be, but Sacks presents his ideas in a way to show how the particularistic underlies the universal. This is not at all the commonly encountered effort to portray Jewish thought as merely one flavor of a vague universal ideology.
It is worthwhile every year to review a commentary on the Haggadah between Purim and Passover. This book merits to be included among those which may be reviewed with benefit for the reader.
May 19, 2024
This Haggadah transformed my entire Pesach. Anything by Rabbi Sacks is brilliant, moving, and inspiring.
The central theme in this Haggadah is how all the way back to our forefather Abraham, the Jewish people have always been outsiders, the "other", and how this is our greatest strength.
Being the outsider has allowed us to transform history and the human story. I feel a renewed sense of Jewish pride and connection to my heritage.
The central theme in this Haggadah is how all the way back to our forefather Abraham, the Jewish people have always been outsiders, the "other", and how this is our greatest strength.
Being the outsider has allowed us to transform history and the human story. I feel a renewed sense of Jewish pride and connection to my heritage.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews