Talmud Class: 10 Glorious Principles from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, One Poignant Story of Loss
Description
“The unexamined life, a philosopher said, is not worth living. No one who has genuinely experienced Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur lives an unexamined life.”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Introduction to The Koren Rosh Hashanah Mahzor (2011)
This coming Shabbat is our last Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah. Our tradition bids us that we prepare ourselves for the Days of Awe by hearing the shofar every weekday morning, by reciting Psalm 27 every morning and every evening, and by attending Selikhot Saturday night (8:00 pm) that re-introduces us to the haunting liturgy and themes of our holiest days of the year.
In Talmud class on Shabbat, I would like to add two additional moves. One is to read a part of the introduction of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to The Koren Rosh Hashanah Mahzor, written in 2011. In a few pages, Rabbi Sacks captures ten principles of the human condition that are at the heart of Rosh Hashanah. His insight sparkles. He captures our lives in his words.
The second move is to encounter a real story that concretizes Rabbi Sacks’s principles. Written by David Frum about the passing of his daughter Miranda at the age of 32, this story embodies the existential themes of the yamim noraim.
If everything Rabbi Sacks writes is true—and every word is true—and if everything David Frum writes is true—and every word is true—how then shall we live our lives?
What does Naftali Herstik, a pre-eminent cantor at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem for 30 years, have in common with Bobby Allison, who was one of the greatest race car drivers in American history, who won 85 NASCAR races over 30 years? One is an all-time great cantor. The other is an all-time...
Published 11/16/24
We are plumb in the middle of two of the hardest stories in the Torah. Genesis 16:1-16 tells of Sarai’s continued inability to get pregnant, which leads her to assign her servant Hagar (literally the stranger) to Abram so that she might conceive a child with Abram who would somehow be reckoned as...
Published 11/16/24