People often confuse optimism and hope. They sound similar. But in fact, they’re very different. Optimism is the belief that things are going to get better. Hope is the belief that if we work hard enough together, we can make things better. It needs no courage, just a certain naivety to be an optimist. It needs a great deal of courage to have hope.
No Jew, knowing what we do about history and our own past so often written in tears, can be an optimist. But no Jew, who is a true Jew, can ever give up hope. And that is why Judaism is for me the voice of hope in the conversation of humankind.
And hope is what transforms the human situation.
SHARE
More from JInsider
Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Narrative
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: 2
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Universal Jewish Story
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Eco-Judaism Roots
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Peoplehood
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on an Engaged Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Charity Priorities
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Reconciliation
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Community Conflict
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Particularism vs Universalism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Culture of Hope
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Hatikvah
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Israel and Jewish Society
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Torah in Today's World
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Prayer
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Indifference
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Role in the World
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Torah and the Real World
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Free Market and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Love as Deed
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Combatting Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Material Loss
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Antidote to Materialism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Parenting
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Tzedakah Tale
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Family Story
JInsider (March 2010)
On the Internet and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Plato's Ghost
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Victim Mentality
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Jerusalem
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Advice for our Times
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Fundamentalism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Time
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Chosen People
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on 21st Century Israel
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Origins of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Understanding Jewish Exile
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Anger
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Historical Evolution of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Interfaith Relations
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Coincidence and Providence
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Free Will
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Family and Marriage
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Tzedakah Defined
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Daily Life
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Being Jewish
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Rebbe, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Connecting to God
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on God and Evil
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Dialogue with Atheists
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Doubt
Jinsider (March 2010)
On Tikkun Olam
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Response to Atheism
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on Finding Purpose
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life - Example
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 2
JInsider (March 2010)
Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)