Celebrating Life

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Celebrating Life
Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places

Publication date: 19 September 2000

“I’ve tried to say what happiness is, how was make it, how we lose it, and how we sometimes walk past it without recognising it. Happiness isn’t somewhere else. It’s where we are. It isn’t something we don’t yet have. We do. It isn’t fantasy, it’s reality experienced in a certain way. Happiness is a close relative of faith.”

Following the painful loss of his father, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks began to learn how to celebrate life in a new way. He discovered where happiness lives, often in unexpected places, through family, community, friendship and responsibilities. He also found it through a renewed relationship with God who speaks to our deepest needs.

Drawn, in part, from his columns in The Times newspaper, Celebrating Life is for people of all faiths and none. It shows us how to be more human and, in becoming so, how we can touch the Divine.

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quotemarks
British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has an extraordinary way with words – poetical, philosophical, magical, intensely personal and exquisitely inspirational. His latest book 'Celebrating Life' is a joyous discovery of the power of prayer, the majesty of faith, the landscape of beauty, the meaning of happiness, the glory of God, and, above all, the gift of life – which, he says, is nothing more than “being ourselves.” Making a blessing over life, writes the Chief Rabbi, is the best way of turning life into a blessing. God often chooses circuitous routes, “but it helps to know that where we are, here, now, is where we need to be.” And, quoting the 19th-century philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore, he adds: “We are worth what we are willing to share with others… Happiness is not made by what we own: it is what we share.” Shot through with humility, humour, and hope, this book is itself an act of sharing. Each of the 50-odd essays – the summation of Rabbi Sacks’ own tests and tribulations – provides a rich and rewarding read to anyone with five minutes or so to spare, particularly (though not exclusively) in the throes of a fraught and frustrating day. The intimate, and often courageous, reflections of one of this country’s most respected religious leaders, they constitute a powerful antidote to despair and depression, a path to happiness and peace, and a recognition, in the Chief Rabbi’s words, that “life is beautiful if we open our eyes."
Meir Persoff