What do you think?
Rate this book
Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible
What is Judaism? A religion? A faith? A way of life? A set of beliefs? A collection of commands? A culture? A civilization? It is all these, but it is emphatically something more. It is a way of thinking about life, a constellation of ideas. One might think that the ideas Judaism introduced into the world have become part of the common intellectual heritage of humankind, at least of the West. Yet this is not the case. Some of them have been lost over time; others the West never fully understood. Yet these ideas remain as important as ever before, and perhaps even more so. In this inspiring work, Rabbi Sacks introduces his readers to one Life-Changing Idea from each of the weekly parashot.
307 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2020
50 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Jonathan Sacks
224 books442 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 7, 2024
Not my favourite but still good. No NRL comparison coz L’havdil
September 16, 2020
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks is a world-wide respected religious leader, the former chief rabbi of the English Commonwealth, the author of more than thirty books, and the winner of numerous prizes. His new book "Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas," with a Foreword '"The Secret of Our Staying Power" by Bari Weiss, the award-winning author and op-ed editor and writer of the New York Times, introduces readers to a life changing Jewish idea from each of the more than fifty weekly biblical portions.
The life changing ideas
His goal, he writes, is to alter the way we feel and the way we act so that we change our lives and improve, gain courage, happiness and a life filled with blessing. Each article is about four pages long, easy to read, generally mentioning the ideas of other thinkers Jews and non-Jews, including psychologists, philosophers such as Nietzsche, authors such as Tolstoy, atheists, historians, sociologists and other professionals and thinkers, ancient and modern. He also refers to various books of the Bible and early and modern Jewish sources such as Midrashim, Mishna, Talmud, Jewish Codes of Law, Bible commentators such as Rashi. He ends each article with a short, usually two line “Life-Changing Idea, discussed in the article, 56 in all.
In the more than fifty articles, Lord Sachs discusses, among much else,
• “Why Isaac, not Ishmael? Why Jacob, not Esau? These are among the most searing questions in the whole of Judaism.”
• “What did Jacob add to the Jewish experience? What is it that we find in him that we do not find to the same measure in Abraham and Isaac?”
• Why are Jews winning “a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes: over 20 percent of them from a group that represents 0.2 percent of the world population, an over-representation of 100 to one.”
• Is there a “kind of Jewish thinker one who contributes to the universe of knowledge, but does so in a recognizable Jewish way?”
• Joseph forgiving his brothers for selling him into slavery, “was the turning point in history. For this was the first recorded act of forgiveness in literature.”
• The Torah states in Exodus 7:3 that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. “If God was the cause and Pharaoh merely His passive vehicle, what was his sin? He had no choice, therefore no responsibility, therefore no culpability.” Why then was he punished?
• Why when Moses tells the Israelites that they will leave Egypt, he “does not talk about freedom? “Instead, he talks about education, specifically about the duty parents have [to educate] their children”
Samples of his Life-Changing Ideas are:
• We are fallible, therefore learn to grow from each mistake.
• We will not complete the journey; therefore inspire others to continue what we begin.
• Next time you meet someone radically unlike you, try seeing differences not as a threat but an enlarging, possibility-creating gift.
• To survive tragedy and trauma, first build the future; only then, remember the past.
• There are no fast tracks; lasting achievement takes time; you can never get there by the shortest road; the harder it gets, the stronger you become.
• If you seek to change anyone’s behavior, you have to enter into their mindset, and then say the word or do the deed that speaks to their emotions, not yours.
• When you experience suffering, the question to ask is, “Given this has happened, what should I do?” for this has an answer not of thought but of deed.
• The highest achievement is not self-expression but self-limitation: making space for something other and different from us.
• Each of us may have a task given to us by God; discerning that task, hearing God’s call, is what gives a life meaning and purpose.
• What you think of as your greatest weakness can become, if you wrestle with it, your greatest strength.
Readers of Lord Sack’s book will learn a lot, be prompted to think, and many reading the book will improve, as he desires.
The life changing ideas
His goal, he writes, is to alter the way we feel and the way we act so that we change our lives and improve, gain courage, happiness and a life filled with blessing. Each article is about four pages long, easy to read, generally mentioning the ideas of other thinkers Jews and non-Jews, including psychologists, philosophers such as Nietzsche, authors such as Tolstoy, atheists, historians, sociologists and other professionals and thinkers, ancient and modern. He also refers to various books of the Bible and early and modern Jewish sources such as Midrashim, Mishna, Talmud, Jewish Codes of Law, Bible commentators such as Rashi. He ends each article with a short, usually two line “Life-Changing Idea, discussed in the article, 56 in all.
In the more than fifty articles, Lord Sachs discusses, among much else,
• “Why Isaac, not Ishmael? Why Jacob, not Esau? These are among the most searing questions in the whole of Judaism.”
• “What did Jacob add to the Jewish experience? What is it that we find in him that we do not find to the same measure in Abraham and Isaac?”
• Why are Jews winning “a disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes: over 20 percent of them from a group that represents 0.2 percent of the world population, an over-representation of 100 to one.”
• Is there a “kind of Jewish thinker one who contributes to the universe of knowledge, but does so in a recognizable Jewish way?”
• Joseph forgiving his brothers for selling him into slavery, “was the turning point in history. For this was the first recorded act of forgiveness in literature.”
• The Torah states in Exodus 7:3 that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. “If God was the cause and Pharaoh merely His passive vehicle, what was his sin? He had no choice, therefore no responsibility, therefore no culpability.” Why then was he punished?
• Why when Moses tells the Israelites that they will leave Egypt, he “does not talk about freedom? “Instead, he talks about education, specifically about the duty parents have [to educate] their children”
Samples of his Life-Changing Ideas are:
• We are fallible, therefore learn to grow from each mistake.
• We will not complete the journey; therefore inspire others to continue what we begin.
• Next time you meet someone radically unlike you, try seeing differences not as a threat but an enlarging, possibility-creating gift.
• To survive tragedy and trauma, first build the future; only then, remember the past.
• There are no fast tracks; lasting achievement takes time; you can never get there by the shortest road; the harder it gets, the stronger you become.
• If you seek to change anyone’s behavior, you have to enter into their mindset, and then say the word or do the deed that speaks to their emotions, not yours.
• When you experience suffering, the question to ask is, “Given this has happened, what should I do?” for this has an answer not of thought but of deed.
• The highest achievement is not self-expression but self-limitation: making space for something other and different from us.
• Each of us may have a task given to us by God; discerning that task, hearing God’s call, is what gives a life meaning and purpose.
• What you think of as your greatest weakness can become, if you wrestle with it, your greatest strength.
Readers of Lord Sack’s book will learn a lot, be prompted to think, and many reading the book will improve, as he desires.
November 25, 2020
In his brilliant weekly Thursday night shiur, Simcha Herzog recently expounded on the notion of Hapax legomenon. This refers to a word or term that occurs only once in a document or corpus. Some examples in Bereshis include gofer (6:14), sulam (28:12), avrech (41:43), and more. There are countless more examples in Tanach.
Taking some liberty and applying hapax legomenon to an individual, the late chief rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was undoubtedly a once in a generation personality.
In his final work, Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas (Maggid Books), the genius of Rabbi Sacks comes out in every chapter. He goes through every Parsha and, at the conclusion of each chapter, shares a life-changing idea; every reader can apply to their lives.
While not meant to be an autobiography, there are many points where the author shares insights from his life. Sacks was on a traditional British trajectory of college and entering the professional world. He writes that all changed when he met the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who encouraged him to go into Jewish education.
Like his teacher, the late great gaon Rav Nahum Rabinovitch, neither he nor Sacks were destined for greatness per se. Nevertheless, they both worked on themselves to become the legendary figures they became. Their will and sheer brilliance enabled them to be life-changing figures for the Jewish world.
What makes this book so enjoyable and readable is that Sacks is a man whose Judaism was quite real for him. It was his very essence and being, just an erudite Torah at its finest. For the reader with a western mindset, his approach to Chumash is equally real.
For example, he opens the chapter on Parshas Vayishlach with the observation that there are Mozart's, and there are Beethoven's, and one needs to choose whom they want to be. He writes that Jacob was Beethoven, as his life was a series of struggles. Like Beethoven, nothing came easy to him. Furthermore, Jacob, of all the patriarchs, was a man who chose to be chosen.
In Parshas Miketz, he discusses the impact of Jews on economics, noting that Jews have won a disproportionate number of Nobel prizes for economics. And in fact, after discussing the effect of what Joseph did in Egypt, was that he was the first economist. To which the life-changing idea in this Parsha is: What can be healed is not holy. God does not want us to accept poverty and pain, but to cure them.
When writing of the qualities of great Jewish leaders, Sacks notes that the great leaders of Israel were the great defenders of Israel, people who saw the good within the not-yet good. That is why they were listened to when they urged people to change and grow. While he wrote that about Moshe, is could also be said of Rabbi Sacks. He never screamed, was never prone to histrionics. He was a caring teachers par excellence, and that is why his teachings are so insightful and valuable.
Rabbi Sacks brought a unique sensitivity and sophistication to the Jewish world. His loss is already felt, and one is hard to find an adequate replacement for him. He leaves the world with scores of seforim that will last evermore. And in Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas, it is a testament to his greatness.
Taking some liberty and applying hapax legomenon to an individual, the late chief rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was undoubtedly a once in a generation personality.
In his final work, Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas (Maggid Books), the genius of Rabbi Sacks comes out in every chapter. He goes through every Parsha and, at the conclusion of each chapter, shares a life-changing idea; every reader can apply to their lives.
While not meant to be an autobiography, there are many points where the author shares insights from his life. Sacks was on a traditional British trajectory of college and entering the professional world. He writes that all changed when he met the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who encouraged him to go into Jewish education.
Like his teacher, the late great gaon Rav Nahum Rabinovitch, neither he nor Sacks were destined for greatness per se. Nevertheless, they both worked on themselves to become the legendary figures they became. Their will and sheer brilliance enabled them to be life-changing figures for the Jewish world.
What makes this book so enjoyable and readable is that Sacks is a man whose Judaism was quite real for him. It was his very essence and being, just an erudite Torah at its finest. For the reader with a western mindset, his approach to Chumash is equally real.
For example, he opens the chapter on Parshas Vayishlach with the observation that there are Mozart's, and there are Beethoven's, and one needs to choose whom they want to be. He writes that Jacob was Beethoven, as his life was a series of struggles. Like Beethoven, nothing came easy to him. Furthermore, Jacob, of all the patriarchs, was a man who chose to be chosen.
In Parshas Miketz, he discusses the impact of Jews on economics, noting that Jews have won a disproportionate number of Nobel prizes for economics. And in fact, after discussing the effect of what Joseph did in Egypt, was that he was the first economist. To which the life-changing idea in this Parsha is: What can be healed is not holy. God does not want us to accept poverty and pain, but to cure them.
When writing of the qualities of great Jewish leaders, Sacks notes that the great leaders of Israel were the great defenders of Israel, people who saw the good within the not-yet good. That is why they were listened to when they urged people to change and grow. While he wrote that about Moshe, is could also be said of Rabbi Sacks. He never screamed, was never prone to histrionics. He was a caring teachers par excellence, and that is why his teachings are so insightful and valuable.
Rabbi Sacks brought a unique sensitivity and sophistication to the Jewish world. His loss is already felt, and one is hard to find an adequate replacement for him. He leaves the world with scores of seforim that will last evermore. And in Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas, it is a testament to his greatness.
October 25, 2025
Commentary on the Torah ( first 5 books of the Bible) divided according to the. weekly portion read in synagogue. One imprtant idea is distilled from each week's reading, and discussed in 3-5 pages. Ideas include: following one's inner voice; the more work you put into some. thing, the greater you value it; life is a journey, not a destination; we are fallible and should therefore learn from every mistake.
Rabbi Sacks' discussions of how these ideas are derived from the Biblical text and how we can apply them are thought-provoking. His insights offer new ways of thinking about old familiar texts.
Rabbi Sacks' discussions of how these ideas are derived from the Biblical text and how we can apply them are thought-provoking. His insights offer new ways of thinking about old familiar texts.
November 14, 2025
A great introduction to studying the parsha of the week with modern and widespread applications! A note to readers that one must know the story of the parsha in advance to appreciate the essays fully.
Read
February 18, 2021I was lifted by each chapter. Will definitely reread. Rabbi Sacks brights light to life.
March 23, 2021
I don't believe I have ever read, or will ever read, a book with such vast amounts of wisdom.
August 2, 2024
I am in awe of his writing and am better off because of all of his intellectual and informative writings.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews