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Studies in Spirituality
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on spirituality in the parasha, the final book in the Covenant & Conversation series.
WITH A FOREWORD BY SIVAN RAHAV MEIR
“I hope the very personal nature of these essays helps you find yourown way to the Divine Presence, which is always the musicbeneath the noise, the call beneath the clamour, the voice of Godwithin the human soul.”– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, was an internationally respected religious leader, prolific writer, and the Emeritus Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. In this work Rabbi Sacks reminds us that while there is an authoritative code of Jewish law, when it comes to the spiritual dimension, we each have our own path to God. There is the way of the priest and the way of the prophet, the way of the Levite and the way of the pilgrim farmer bringing his first fruits to the Temple. Throughout history and today, Judaism has had its poets, its philosophers, its rationalists, and its mystics.
Studies in Spirituality is the final volume to be published of Rabbi Sacks’ Covenant & Conversation essays on the weekly Torah portion. In these pages, we find Rabbi Sacks reading the biblical narrative with profound sensitivity to the depths of the human condition. He inspires us to see models of courage, innovation, faith, fear, the challenges and beauty of family dynamics, healing, the art of listening, hope, personal transformation, and more. His poignant reflections on spirituality return to us the sense of closeness with God that resonated so powerfully with our ancestors – that intimacy which gave them a sense of hope and courage and singularity. Studies in Spirituality aspires to bring the covenant between God and humanity closer to each of us, today and always.
WITH A FOREWORD BY SIVAN RAHAV MEIR
“I hope the very personal nature of these essays helps you find yourown way to the Divine Presence, which is always the musicbeneath the noise, the call beneath the clamour, the voice of Godwithin the human soul.”– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, was an internationally respected religious leader, prolific writer, and the Emeritus Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. In this work Rabbi Sacks reminds us that while there is an authoritative code of Jewish law, when it comes to the spiritual dimension, we each have our own path to God. There is the way of the priest and the way of the prophet, the way of the Levite and the way of the pilgrim farmer bringing his first fruits to the Temple. Throughout history and today, Judaism has had its poets, its philosophers, its rationalists, and its mystics.
Studies in Spirituality is the final volume to be published of Rabbi Sacks’ Covenant & Conversation essays on the weekly Torah portion. In these pages, we find Rabbi Sacks reading the biblical narrative with profound sensitivity to the depths of the human condition. He inspires us to see models of courage, innovation, faith, fear, the challenges and beauty of family dynamics, healing, the art of listening, hope, personal transformation, and more. His poignant reflections on spirituality return to us the sense of closeness with God that resonated so powerfully with our ancestors – that intimacy which gave them a sense of hope and courage and singularity. Studies in Spirituality aspires to bring the covenant between God and humanity closer to each of us, today and always.
- GenresJudaismJewishNonfiction
375 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 27, 2021
69 people are currently reading
58 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.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 10, 2022
Studies in Spirituality (published posthumously) is another wonderful set of ruminations about the purpose and meaning of life, the Jewish faith and the social and spiritual issues that so plague our modern world.
His writing is always inspirational, not the least because of his deeply held belief in the fundamental goodness of humanity and his optimism about our ability to see our way through the problems of divisiveness and polarization in our world. As a Rabbi, he talks openly and comfortably about relationship with G-d which may not be everyone's cup of tea. Yet, underlying his openly religious world view are subtle messages about the goodness of humanity and our responsibility to each other and our planet.
If you haven't read Rabbi Sacks' work before, you'll also find him quite realistic about the failings and foibles of our imperfect humanity and he draws inspiration from the idea that we are neither perfect nor can we ever achieve perfection. "What is beautiful about the Torah," he says, "is that it shows the heroes and heroines of our people's past not as epitomes of perfection but as human beings - great, to be sure, but always human - wrestling with God and finding Him wrestling with us."
He also frequently discusses our moral obligations as human beings and uses sacred text interpretation as a tool for viewing our modern day responsibilities. For example, when discussing the drama of Adam and Eve in the bible he comments that it's not about the forbiddeness of sex or even sin. Instead, "it is about the kind of morality we are called on to live. Are we to be governed by what everyone else does, as if morality were like politics: the will of the majority? Will our emotional horizon be bounded by honour and shame, two profoundly social feelings? Is our key value appearance? How we seem to others?" His clear and ringing answer is no. That to live by the materialistic standards of the day and to seek comfort in doing what others find acceptable misses the great strength of the human soul - to see right and wrong particularly in how we treat each other. When others are bullying the vulnerable or people we only know via social media, should we join them because they are in the majority, or should we take a stand on the general goodness of humanity and support those in need of our help?
In addressing the all-too-common sense of inadequacy that human beings can feel, Rabbi Sacks offers perhaps some of his deepest and most profound insight. "This fear of unworthiness is one that surely most of us have had at some time or other. The reason it is wrong is not that it is untrue, but that it is irrelevant. Of course we feel inadequate for a great task before we undertake it. It is having the courage to undertake it that makes us great. Leaders grow by leading. Writers grow by writing. Teachers grow by teaching. It is only by overcoming our sense of inadequacy that we throw ourselves into the task and find ourselves lifted and enlarged by so doing." Because every task we may face as human beings can feel like a great task, these words are for all the challenges we face on a daily basis.
He also talks about the challenge of making our world better - particularly in the face of the toxic polarization and hatred we see today. "A single life, says the Mishna, is like a universe. Change a life, and you begin to change the universe. That is how we make a difference: one life at a time, one act at a time."
Rabbi Sacks can also be inexplicably and stunningly funny. Commenting about the Jewish community's penchant for seeking spiritual knowledge from all religious traditions, he reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.
"When I was a student at university in the late 1960s, there was a well-known story about an American Jewish woman in her sixties travelling to north India to see a celebrated guru. Huge crowds were waiting to see the holy man, but she pushed through, saying that she needed to see him urgently. Eventually, she entered the tent and stood in the presence of the master himself. What she said has entered the realm of legend. 'Marvin, listen to your mother. Enough already. Come home."
I am always inspired and uplifted by Rabbi Sacks writing and this is another set of brilliant insights not just on the Jewish faith, but on how to live our lives in a universe in which we are the only beings (that we know of) that have the capacity to see right and wrong. I miss his voice of hope and inspiration and continue to mourn the loss of his brilliant mind.
His writing is always inspirational, not the least because of his deeply held belief in the fundamental goodness of humanity and his optimism about our ability to see our way through the problems of divisiveness and polarization in our world. As a Rabbi, he talks openly and comfortably about relationship with G-d which may not be everyone's cup of tea. Yet, underlying his openly religious world view are subtle messages about the goodness of humanity and our responsibility to each other and our planet.
If you haven't read Rabbi Sacks' work before, you'll also find him quite realistic about the failings and foibles of our imperfect humanity and he draws inspiration from the idea that we are neither perfect nor can we ever achieve perfection. "What is beautiful about the Torah," he says, "is that it shows the heroes and heroines of our people's past not as epitomes of perfection but as human beings - great, to be sure, but always human - wrestling with God and finding Him wrestling with us."
He also frequently discusses our moral obligations as human beings and uses sacred text interpretation as a tool for viewing our modern day responsibilities. For example, when discussing the drama of Adam and Eve in the bible he comments that it's not about the forbiddeness of sex or even sin. Instead, "it is about the kind of morality we are called on to live. Are we to be governed by what everyone else does, as if morality were like politics: the will of the majority? Will our emotional horizon be bounded by honour and shame, two profoundly social feelings? Is our key value appearance? How we seem to others?" His clear and ringing answer is no. That to live by the materialistic standards of the day and to seek comfort in doing what others find acceptable misses the great strength of the human soul - to see right and wrong particularly in how we treat each other. When others are bullying the vulnerable or people we only know via social media, should we join them because they are in the majority, or should we take a stand on the general goodness of humanity and support those in need of our help?
In addressing the all-too-common sense of inadequacy that human beings can feel, Rabbi Sacks offers perhaps some of his deepest and most profound insight. "This fear of unworthiness is one that surely most of us have had at some time or other. The reason it is wrong is not that it is untrue, but that it is irrelevant. Of course we feel inadequate for a great task before we undertake it. It is having the courage to undertake it that makes us great. Leaders grow by leading. Writers grow by writing. Teachers grow by teaching. It is only by overcoming our sense of inadequacy that we throw ourselves into the task and find ourselves lifted and enlarged by so doing." Because every task we may face as human beings can feel like a great task, these words are for all the challenges we face on a daily basis.
He also talks about the challenge of making our world better - particularly in the face of the toxic polarization and hatred we see today. "A single life, says the Mishna, is like a universe. Change a life, and you begin to change the universe. That is how we make a difference: one life at a time, one act at a time."
Rabbi Sacks can also be inexplicably and stunningly funny. Commenting about the Jewish community's penchant for seeking spiritual knowledge from all religious traditions, he reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.
"When I was a student at university in the late 1960s, there was a well-known story about an American Jewish woman in her sixties travelling to north India to see a celebrated guru. Huge crowds were waiting to see the holy man, but she pushed through, saying that she needed to see him urgently. Eventually, she entered the tent and stood in the presence of the master himself. What she said has entered the realm of legend. 'Marvin, listen to your mother. Enough already. Come home."
I am always inspired and uplifted by Rabbi Sacks writing and this is another set of brilliant insights not just on the Jewish faith, but on how to live our lives in a universe in which we are the only beings (that we know of) that have the capacity to see right and wrong. I miss his voice of hope and inspiration and continue to mourn the loss of his brilliant mind.
September 28, 2022
Very helpful for understanding the weekly Parsha.
November 11, 2021
During the afternoon a few months ago, the power went out in the neighborhood on a hot and humid New Jersey summer day. The air conditioners stopped, the food in the refrigerator started to be of concern, and panic started in the area. The power we expected that fueled us 7x24 was out. Neighborhood WhatsApp groups were busy about how to relocate food in freezers so they would not spoil. Fortunately, around 8:15PM, power was restored.
For the past few decades, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was a source of immense and seeming non-stop intellectual and spiritual power. With Studies in Spirituality (Koren Publishing), what was thought to be the eternal light of Rabbi Sacks is extinguished.
As Rabbi Sacks explains, spirituality is not the same as religion, even though the two are related. He writes that spirituality is, in essence, what happens when we open ourselves to something greater than ourselves. Some find it in the beauty of nature, art, or music. Others find it in prayer, mitzva performance, or learning Torah. Moreover, others find it in doing acts of chesed, with friends, or those they love.
The brilliant essays in this final volume of Rabbi Sacks follow the weekly Parsha. He took religion and spirituality quite seriously, and in each of these marvelous essays, he extracts profound spiritual messages.
As he explained in his book Not in God's Name, the stories in the Chumash are far more subtle than we take it to be. It was divinely written to be understood at different levels at different stages in our moral growth. There is a surface narrative, as often taught to children, but there is also a much deeper story that can only come to notice and understand when we reach a certain level of maturity. Rabbi Sacks calls this the concealed counter-narrative.
His brilliance is to reveal the concealment of that counter-narrative. For example, we just read that Avraham was chosen to be the father of the Jewish people. Who he was and why he was chosen are far from obvious. As to the story of the sacrifice of Yitzchok, which is one of the most challenging narratives to understand, he explains that the point of the story is not that Avraham loved God enough to sacrifice his son. Instead, God wanted to teach Avraham that we do not own our children, however much we love them.
While the subtitle of this book is A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible, it might be more accurate to call this an autobiography. The genius and uniqueness of Rabbi Sacks was that he was able to extract meaning from the Biblical narrative that speaks to the depth of a person. Never one to use his vast intellectual powers to impress others with his sophisticated analysis; he mines the depths of the Chumash and extracts the deep meaning the reader can apply to their lives. When he writes of the Biblical characters and their struggles, challenges, communion with God, he also seemingly is expressing his own experiences. And that is what makes this book so very real.
Rabbi Sacks wanted the very personal nature of the book to help the reader find their own way to the Divine Presence, which is always there: the music beneath the noise, the call beneath the clamor, the voice of God within the human soul. And to that, he succeeds brilliantly.
For the past few decades, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks was a source of immense and seeming non-stop intellectual and spiritual power. With Studies in Spirituality (Koren Publishing), what was thought to be the eternal light of Rabbi Sacks is extinguished.
As Rabbi Sacks explains, spirituality is not the same as religion, even though the two are related. He writes that spirituality is, in essence, what happens when we open ourselves to something greater than ourselves. Some find it in the beauty of nature, art, or music. Others find it in prayer, mitzva performance, or learning Torah. Moreover, others find it in doing acts of chesed, with friends, or those they love.
The brilliant essays in this final volume of Rabbi Sacks follow the weekly Parsha. He took religion and spirituality quite seriously, and in each of these marvelous essays, he extracts profound spiritual messages.
As he explained in his book Not in God's Name, the stories in the Chumash are far more subtle than we take it to be. It was divinely written to be understood at different levels at different stages in our moral growth. There is a surface narrative, as often taught to children, but there is also a much deeper story that can only come to notice and understand when we reach a certain level of maturity. Rabbi Sacks calls this the concealed counter-narrative.
His brilliance is to reveal the concealment of that counter-narrative. For example, we just read that Avraham was chosen to be the father of the Jewish people. Who he was and why he was chosen are far from obvious. As to the story of the sacrifice of Yitzchok, which is one of the most challenging narratives to understand, he explains that the point of the story is not that Avraham loved God enough to sacrifice his son. Instead, God wanted to teach Avraham that we do not own our children, however much we love them.
While the subtitle of this book is A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible, it might be more accurate to call this an autobiography. The genius and uniqueness of Rabbi Sacks was that he was able to extract meaning from the Biblical narrative that speaks to the depth of a person. Never one to use his vast intellectual powers to impress others with his sophisticated analysis; he mines the depths of the Chumash and extracts the deep meaning the reader can apply to their lives. When he writes of the Biblical characters and their struggles, challenges, communion with God, he also seemingly is expressing his own experiences. And that is what makes this book so very real.
Rabbi Sacks wanted the very personal nature of the book to help the reader find their own way to the Divine Presence, which is always there: the music beneath the noise, the call beneath the clamor, the voice of God within the human soul. And to that, he succeeds brilliantly.
December 15, 2021
It’s Sacks’ usual excellence, plus a bit more of his personal life than he’s typically willing to offer. Recently I remarked to a friend that I don’t think I’ve read a more studied mind than his — in economics, history, psychology, philosophy, love, and of course, Torah. He is greatly missed.
Much of this book consists of his “greatest hits” covered in other entries in his Covenant & Conversations series and some entries without a clear connection to the book’s theme, so I knocked off a star for that. But for those not as well-versed in Sacks’ ideas, this makes an excellent starter. Prepare for wisdom, knowledge, awe.
Much of this book consists of his “greatest hits” covered in other entries in his Covenant & Conversations series and some entries without a clear connection to the book’s theme, so I knocked off a star for that. But for those not as well-versed in Sacks’ ideas, this makes an excellent starter. Prepare for wisdom, knowledge, awe.
August 15, 2024
Deep, informative, and most of all, inspiring
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews