Over the past two weeks you read two short passages by two very famous Jews - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Abraham Heschel. For your discussion board, I would like you to choose one these readings and discuss your thoughts and reaction to it. In your response you can respond to any of the following questions:

• why did you choose this particular reading? what interested you about it?
• did you find the reading beautiful? or disturbing?
• what did you learn about Judaism from this reading?
• is there something about the reading that confused you or that you would like to know more about?
• Was there an idea or opinion in the reading that you strongly agreed or disagreed with? Why do you agree/disagree with it?

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Judaism

Part (c)

What did you learn about Judaism from this reading?

During his tenure as the spokesman for a small Jewish community, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks grew to become Britain’s pre-eminent advocate for Judaism (Magonet, 2018). The growth was not only due to his strong belief in faith but also due to his idea of faith and Judaism. His view on Judaism was inspiring and refreshing since he was able to identify how the different spheres of life were utterly interwoven.

 According to him, Judaism is expressed in the way we keep our relationships, the steadfastness we bring up our children, and the way we embrace neighbours and strangers with kindness and hospitality. In other words, it’s the idea of seeing God in the people around us. Another key aspect acknowledged by Rabbi Sacks is the human element of our divine relationship with God. Faith is expressed in terms of human vulnerability and uncertainty (Daiches, 2018). Faith in Judaism means the courage to live with uncertainty. Meaning, when an individual questions their faith, it should not be expressed as a sign of weakness but as an expression of authentic and genuine faith. 

Sacks pointed out that God wanted the Jews to be different from the rest based on various aspects. One of the main aspects included faith. His main aim was to demonstrate that all human beings have the right to be different irrespective of their universal diversity. Unfortunately, Sacks failure was based on the fact that he accorded other religious groups the dignity of difference

As shown by the analysis, it’s clear that Rabbi Sacks prioritized human actions and believed that Judaism is based on the idea that we bring God into our lives through our interactions and daily acts of kindness.