Jonathan Sacks
Jonathan Sacks
Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks, Ktis a British rabbi, philosopher and scholar of Judaism...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionClergyman
Date of Birth8 March 1948
home ideas working-together
We need to rediscover the idea of the common good and work together to build a home.
opposites people panic
The wisest rule in investment is: when others are selling, buy. When others are buying, sell. Usually, of course, we do the opposite. When everyone else is buying, we assume they know something we don't, so we buy. Then people start selling, panic sets in, and we sell too.
imperfection honest being-honest
God's forgiveness allows us to be honest with ourselves. We recognize our imperfections, admit our failures, and plead to God for clemency.
likes stories mankind
Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.
life-changing government done
Much can and must be done by governments, but they cannot of themselves change lives.
share made
Happiness is not made by what we own. It is what we share.
prayer firsts fractals
The first of the request prayers in the daily Amidah is a fractal. It replicates in miniature the structure of the Amidah as a whole.
government needs citizens
Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
demise century 18th-century
Since the 18th century, many Western intellectuals have predicted religion's imminent demise.
technology giving doe
Technology gives us power, but it does not and cannot tell us how to use that power. Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.
oppression prelude regimes
Freedom is not won by merely overthrowing a tyrannical ruler or an oppressive regime. That is usually only the prelude to a new tyranny, a new oppression.
prayer perspective three
Part of the beauty of Judaism, and surely this is so for other faiths also, is that it gently restores control over time. Three times a day we stop what we are doing and turn to God in prayer. We recover perspective. We inhale a deep breath of eternity.
ideas age faces
Religion is the best antidote to the individualism of the consumer age. The idea that society can do without it flies in the face of history and, now, evolutionary biology.
biblical should-have years
The build-up of personal and collective debt in America and Europe should have sent warning signals to anyone familiar with the biblical institutions of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, created specifically because of the danger of people being trapped by debt.