One of Judaism’s greatest Sages, Rambam (Maimonides) offers us a deeply meaningful insight into the nature of the Seder night. In showing us the difference between how we are supposed to understand Seder night, first as children and then as adults, he teaches us a crucial lesson which we can all apply in our daily life.
Wishing you all a Chag Kasher v’Sameach!
What I’d like to do in this shiur is to take a look at the unique approach that the Rambam (Moses Maimonides) takes to what we’re actually doing when we conduct a Seder, when we tell the story of the going out of Egypt. What is it that we are doing?
Now, let’s begin first of all by reminding ourselves who the Rambam was. The Rambam was, and remains, a unique voice within Judaism. He was born in 1135, probably, in Cordoba in Spain, under that relatively benign rule of the Almoravids, who created a relatively tolerant atmosphere that became known in retrospect from Jewish perspective as the Golden Age of Spain. In 1148, when he was thirteen years old, the fanatical sect of the Almohadis took over. Jews were really faced with a threat: either convert to Islam or undergo exile or die. And, of course, the Rambam together with his family moved into exile. They wandered around the Mediterranean for something like ten years. The Rambam actually during that time visited Jerusalem, prayed on the Temple Mountain, spoke of it as one of the great spiritual experiences of his life, and eventually the family settled in Vorstadt, a little village outside Cairo. Now it’s part of the suburbs of Cairo.
Maimonides’ father had been a judge, Maimon, and Maimonides himself was an absolute prodigy, the greatest Jewish mind of the Middle Ages, and had an extraordinary breadth of interest and expertise and wisdom because he wrote one of the great commentaries to the Mishnah. He wrote the Mishnah Torah, an extraordinary work, the greatest code of Jewish law ever written. It took him ten years day and night. And then of course, towards the end of his life, he wrote The Guide for the Perplexed, one of the deepest and in some ways most perplexing of all works of Jewish philosophy.
In addition though, he was an expert in every other field. He wrote textbooks on logic, astronomy and several medical texts. For a while he was supported by his younger brother David who was a merchant, but he, on one of his business travels, drowned at sea, and Maimonides subsequently trained himself as a physician and earned a living as, among other things, physician to the Sultan in Cairo.
So we’re dealing with a towering mind, one of the great minds of all in the Middle Ages, whose influence went way, way beyond the Jewish community. But what makes Maimonides unusual, spectacular really, is that he is one end of this spectrum within Judaism. He was a rationalist as opposed to a mystic, but, in particular, he was what I would call a natural as opposed to a supernatural Jew.
There are Jews for whom the most stunning proof of God’s existence is miracles that change the order of nature, whereas for the naturalist, the biggest miracle of all is that God created the laws of nature. As Einstein put it, God doesn’t play dice with the universe.
And this split between the natural and supernatural Jew goes way back. We can find it already in the Gemara in Shabbat 53b, which speaks about a man whose wife died in childbirth. He was very poor and he had to bring up this baby on his own, and he could not afford a wet nurse. And the Gemara says a miracle was done for him, and his own breasts started sprouting milk, something called technically ‘male lactation’.
Now the Gemara quotes two absolutely opposed opinions. ‘Amar Rav Yosef’, Rabbi Yosef said, Bo ur’eh kamah gadol adam zeh shena’aseh lo ness kazeh… Come and see how great was this man for whom this incredible miracle was done. And Abaye said: on the contrary, see how lowly was this man who needed a miracle. (Shabbat 53b, paraphrased). I mean, if he’d have been wise he probably would have had health insurance, he would have created a livelihood, he would have protected himself against that eventuality. So, Rav Yosef is impressed by miracles and Abaye says that miracles only happen when we desperately need them and that shows that there may be something wrong with us. So Rav Yosef is the supernatural Jew, and Abaye, the natural Jew.
Now the Rambam was pretty extreme in this, and he lays down as an absolutely axiom of Judaism that – here it is in Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah, Chapter 8, halacha 1: Moshe Rabbeinu lo h’iminu bo Yisrael mipnei ha’ottot she’assah. People didn’t believe in Moses because he did miracles, because anyone who performs miracles, there’s always room for scepticism. To ask was it really a miracle, was it magic, was it an optical illusion, was it some random circumstance, was it just good luck? No, says the Rambam, Moses was believed in by the Israelites because of Mount Sinai where they heard and witnessed God speaking directly to Moses and through Moses. So, why then did Moses perform all those miracles? Answer, says the Rambam, because the Israelites happened to need them. They were thirsty so he gave them water from a rock. They were hungry so he brought about manna from heaven. Why did Moses divide the Red Sea? Because the Israelites needed it to get to the other side. The fact that a miracle was needed is neither here nor there, it’s just that they happened to need that. So since there was no other way, God sent miracles. But miracles aren’t proof of anything, according to the Rambam. They aren’t proof that Moses was the greatest of the Prophets. They aren’t really proof that you are a genuine Prophet at all.
So here was the anti-supernaturalist Rambam saying that miracles are really marginal in their importance in Judaism, and the question really is, what does the Rambam do with the Seder night?
After all the Seder night is all about miracles; the mighty hand, the outstretched arm, the signs, the wonders, the plagues and so on. Much of the evening is devoted just to being in awe of all those miracles. We count them one by one and say, if God had only done this and not that, Dayeinu; the Rabbis start arguing about how many plagues the Egyptians actually suffered – if they suffered ten plagues in Egypt, then they suffered fifty at the sea, every plague had four or five different plagues within it, and so on and so forth… It’s a night of miracles. So what does the Rambam, who doesn’t believe miracles are central to Judaism, do with the Seder service?
To understand this, we have to go back to a Mishnah in the tenth chapter of Pesachim and to the commentary of the Gemara on that Mishnah. The Mishnah tells us something exceptionally important, fundamental. It tells us what is the Jewish way of telling a story. Specifically the story of the Exodus, and the Mishnah tells us in four words, an axiom of Jewish narrative: Matchil bignut umessayim beshevach – you begin with the bad news and end with the good news (Mishnah Pesachim 10:4). You begin with the shame and you end with the pride, the triumph, the victory, the redemption.
And that is, for me, the essence of a Jewish story. A Jewish story is always a story of hope. We don’t see the world through rose-tinted lenses. Yes, there is bad news in the world. There’s the violence, the injustice, the oppression. But that’s only the beginning of the story, not the end. Because the end always culminates in some redemption, some deliverance. In this case, freedom itself and the Promised Land.
Now, the Talmud then moves to the third century, to the first generation of Amoraim and to two great Masters who established academies in Babylon, Rav and Shmuel. And they disagree as to what that actually means; begin with the bad news, end with the good news. And here is their disagreement: Mai Bignut – what is the shameful bit, the bad news? Rav amar m’techila ovdey avodat gillulim hayu avoteinu – Rav says the bad news was: originally in the days of Terach, Abraham’s father, Jews were idolaters, and now God has drawn us near to His service. And Shmuel says, no, the bignut is, the bad news is avadim hayinu l’Pharoah b’Mitzrayim – we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and when God brought us out with yad chazakah uvisroah netuya ve’otot vemoasim – and He brought us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and signs and wonders.
So there is a fundamental disagreement between them as to how we tell this story, and there are different ways of seeing their disagreement. One way is to say that Shmuel is giving us close-up focus on the actual events in the days of Moses itself; the slavery and then the liberation, whereas Rav is taking a wide-angled lens to the full drama and panoply of Jewish history, beginning with Abraham and Abraham’s father Terach and extending all the way to Mount Sinai and the Giving of the Torah.
Alternatively, it could be that Shmuel sees physical liberation as fundamental, whereas Rav sees spiritual liberation as fundamental. You know, Shmuel says that the important thing is, our bodies are free, we got out of Egypt, whereas Rav says, no, our minds, our souls also have to be free and that only happened at Mount Sinai.
It may be that Rav and Shmuel are going according to their very different opinions as to what the ultimate good, the Messianic Age is. Because Shmuel says ‘Ein ben olam hazeh limmot HaMoshiach rashibut malchiut bilvad.’ Shmuel holds the only difference between now and the Messianic Age is that now Jews are under the rule of foreign powers, but in the Messianic Age they will rule themselves. According to which Shmuel would, had he lived today, have said that Yom Ha’atzmaut, 1948 was the beginning of the Messianic Age. atchalte di ge’ulah. Whereas Rav held, no, in the Messianic Age, the whole world will change.
So Shmuel believes that what really matters is simply having the freedom to rule yourselves, but Rav holds that it’s much deeper and more spiritual than that. Or, finally, it could be that Shmuel is simply looking in the Torah. If you actually look in the Torah in parshat Va’etchanan it says, ‘Ki-yishalcha bincha machar lemor’ , ‘When your son asks you tomorrow saying’, ‘Mah ha’edut vehachukim vehamishpatim asher tzivah Hashem Elokeinu etchem? – (That’s the ‘Wise Son’) ‘What are all these testimonies and statues and laws that God has commanded you?’ ‘Ve’amarta levincha’, ‘and you shall say to your child,’ ‘Avadim hayinu l’Pharoah bemitzrayim’ , ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt’ – ‘veyotzi’einu Hashem mimitzrayim b’yad chazakah’ – ‘and God took us out of Egypt with a strong hand/ with a strong arm.’ (Exodus 13:14)
So Shmuel is looking at the answer given in the Torah. That’s how you answer the Wise Son, whereas Rav is quoting a verse from the book of Joshua which says: ‘be’eiver hanahar yashvu avoteichem mei’olam Terach avi Avraham v’avi Nachor v’ya’avdu elokim acherim.’ (Joshua 24:2) Rav is saying no, you’ve got to look to the book of Joshua because don’t think the Exodus ended in the days of Moses. When Moses died, the Israelites still hadn’t crossed the Jordan and built their free society.
So there are all sorts of different ways of explaining the difference between Rav and Shmuel. But what they all have in common is that, according to any interpretation, Rav and Shmuel disagreed. It’s clear they disagreed, and what do we do to make peace between two disagreeing Rabbis? (Rabbis can always disagree but must never be disagreeable) One way or another, we do both. After Ma Nishtanah we say Avadim Hayinu – that’s the answer according to Shmuel, and later on in the Haggadah, we say Mitechillah ovdei avodah zara hayu avoteinu, ve’achsav kirvanu hamakum la’avodato. We give Shmuel’s answer originally – our ancestors were idolaters.
What the Rambam does here is unique. He says, in effect, that Rav and Shmuel weren’t arguing at all. They agreed. They were just talking about two different things. And here is the Rambam in Chapter Seven of his Hilchot Chametz U’matzah – the Rambam uniquely tells us that there are two separate mitzvahs we do on Seder night when we tell the story of the going out of Egypt. Here they are: mitzvah one, the Rambam says mitzvat asseh shel torah lesaper bnisim veniflaot sh’na’asu l’avoteinu b’Mitzrayim – it’s a positive mitzvah to tell the story of all the good things, the wondrous things done for our ancestors when they left Egypt. Lesaper. And he says that is a mitzvah regardless of whether you have children, afillu hachamim, afillu nevonim, we know the story already but we still have to do that mitzvah and it’s got nothing to do with children. It’s about telling the story to ourselves. And then in the next halachah, the Rambam says there’s an additional mitzvah, mitzvah lehodiyah lebanim – it is a command to teach the story to our children, even though they didn’t ask a question. As it says, ‘v’yigadata l’bincha b’yom hahu’, ‘you shall teach your child on that day.’
So we have two different mitzvahs according to the Rambam. One is to just relate the story to ourselves; an act of commemoration, and the second is to teach the story to the next generation; an act of education. The first mitzvah applies to adults. The second mitzvah applies to children.
And what the Rambam does in halachah four of the same chapter is he says: vetzarich lechatchil bignut velassayim beshevach – you have to begin with the bad news, end with the good news. Keytzud – how? Matchil u’mesaper shevatchilah hayu avoteinu biymey Terach umilphanav kophrim veto’in acher hahevel – You begin by telling the story that originally our ancestors were idolaters and now God has brought us close to His truth, and then vechein matchil – and similarly you begin u’modiya and make known, and make known sh’avadim hayyinu l’Pharo b’Mitzrayim – you make known to the children that our ancestors were slaves in Egypt.
In other words the Rambam is saying that Rav and Shmuel aren’t disagreeing at all. Shmuel is telling us how to fulfil the mitzvah of education. Rav is telling us how to fulfil the mitzvah of commemoration. Rav is talking about adults. Shmuel is talking about how you teach your children.
And if that is so, that explains exactly why we do what we do, because immediately after the youngest child (or the youngest child who can ask) has asked Ma Nishtanah, we give Shmuel’s answer Avadim Hayinu l’pharoah b’mitzrayim, and then once we’ve answered the child, we give as it were, the adult reply which is Rav’s view, which is that the real liberation was from idolatry to monotheism, from worshipping many gods to worshipping one God, from worshipping the gods of power to worshipping the one God of freedom. So the Rambam has really done something extraordinary. He’s telling us that Rav and Shmuel weren’t disagreeing, they were just giving us each one half of the mitzvah, or one of the two mitzvot.
And now we can begin to understand the Rambam’s approach to the signs, the miracles, the wonders, all that stuff that magnifies the miraculous in the Exodus is part of the story we tell our children. Because that really excites them. You know, you can imagine the film – well, actually what is it? It’s not quite Harry Potter and it’s not quite Star Wars but you get the point. This slave nation, there is heaven doing all these signs and wonders, all the special effects, the whole works. And that excites children.
But the Rambam is telling us that that is the first level of our understanding. When we’re kids that’s how we think freedom is won. God does it all for us. With all the fireworks and all the wondrous special effects. God does it for us. But comes a time when we grow up, and according to Rav, that is the real story. Not the physical journey from Egypt to the wilderness, but the spiritual journey that took generations to realise. From the days of Terach, the father of Abraham, when Jews were sunk in idolatry, to that long, slow process of coming to believe in the one God, Creator of heaven and earth, who endowed us with freedom and asked us to create a free society.
Now, that is really remarkable. And it takes us to the heart of one of the most profound statements of the Rambam. You will find it in book three, chapter thirty-two of his great philosophical masterwork, The Guide for the Perplexed. In it he asks a simple question. If God can do miracles, if God can change nature, if He can bring water from a rock and food from Heaven and divide the Red Sea itself, if God can change nature, why can’t He change human nature? Why not make us people who are naturally lovers of freedom, of justice, of compassion, of order? Why doesn’t God change us?
And the Rambam’s answer is incredible, he says, of course God can change us. But if He were to do so, He would take away the one greatest gift that He gave us: freedom itself. We’d become robots, programmed by God. We’d have no free will whatsoever, and therefore though it’s easy for God to change human nature, God will never do so because to be free we have to make that journey ourselves. And it’s a long journey, because as the Rambam says, people don’t change from being slaves to being free human beings overnight. It may take more than a generation.
The Rambam is telling us something that I think is so important in the world today, which is, let’s just restate it, if I may. It isn’t what God does for us that changes us. It’s what we do for God. The real wonder, the real hard task of freedom was not the signs, the wonders and the miracles. For the kids that’s the main thing. But for adults the main thing is that long journey that the Israelites had to take before they understood what freedom is and the responsibilities it brings with it, and that took a very long time indeed. And that is what we do for God. Or as John F. Kennedy famously said at the beginning of his inaugural address, the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe, the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. In other words, a free society is something we create for God. It’s not something He creates for us. He gives us the template, the destination but we have to make the journey.
Now, I can’t think of any story more relevant to the twenty-first century, because we have seen that great free societies, for instance in the Middle East, it’s not enough to take people out from under the hand of a tyrant, just to schlep people out from under Pharaoh, get rid of Saddam Hussein, get rid of Gaddafi. You don’t instantly create a free society. In fact, you create what has happened today, something pretty much like chaos. What Thomas Hobbes called the ‘state of nature in which life is nasty, brutish and short.’ You create free societies by educating people in the demands of freedom.
And by educating them, that is what God wants of us. He doesn’t want us to take away people’s freedom. He wants us to create freedom, and God can only take us so far, the rest is up to us. According to the Rambam, there’s a very exciting thrill-packed story that we tell to children, but there is a tough story that we teach to ourselves, which is that God can change nature but He can’t change human nature and that is something we have to do for ourselves. Inspired by God, given strength by God, given courage and hope by God, but still, we have to do it ourselves.
I think in this year, of the hundredth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the fiftieth anniversary of the Six Day War, we should give thanks that the people of Israel and the State of Israel, the ones who built it, the ones who sustain it today, have in a strange way done just that. Yes, given strength by God and no doubt that they have created in a place that knew only tyranny and terror and the pursuit of power and the rule of force, they have created for the first time, a genuinely free society in our ancestral lands, in the land to which Abraham and then Moses and the Israelites journeyed. They’ve created and sustained a free society, and whether they consciously did so for religious reasons or not at all, but somehow the spirit of our ancestors lived on in them and somehow or other they did it nonetheless. And thus showed what the Jewish people is all about. That somehow or other, we are the people who, in ourselves, give testimony to something bigger than ourselves. And the State of Israel daily gives testimony to the fact that the God of freedom seeks the free worship of free human beings, who together create a free society.
So giving thanks for Israel, giving thanks to God for taking us there and bringing us back to there, that is the adult story of the Exodus, and one the world still needs to learn.
Chag kasher v’sameach to all of you.
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Give Your Children The Space To Give To You
Principle 13 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Be Thankful For Your Children
Principle 12 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Have Faith in Your Children and You Will Give Them Faith in Themselves
Principle 11 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Don’t Expect Your Children to be Your Clones
Principle 10 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Give Your Kids the Key to Stability in a World of Change
Principle 9 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Think Long
Principle 8 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Be in, but not of, the World
Principle 7 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Don’t Just Sit and Learn. Go and Do
Principle 6 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Make Your Judaism Sing
Principle 5 for Being an Inspiring Parent

No Need For High Walls
Principle 4 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Lead The Way, With High Ethical Standards
Principle 3 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Serve God in Joy if You Want Your Children to Love Judaism
Principle 2 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Give Children the Space to Inspire Us, and They Will
Principle 1 for Being an Inspiring Parent

Being an Inspiring Parent
Trailer

The Promise of American Renewal

Keynote Address to the Jewish Federations of North America 2016

Faith in the Future (A Templeton Conversation)
The Promise and Perils of Religion in the 21st Century

You Want it Darker
Leonard Cohen and Parshat Vayera

Interfaith
Yeshiva University’s ‘World of Tomorrow’ Conference

The Lessons of Kohelet
A shiur to launch the Koren Sacks Succot Machzor

God's Call To Us (b'Ivrit)
Rabbi Sacks’ Rosh Hashanah message in Ivrit (Hebrew)

Questions Answered - Episode Three
The “Ask Rabbi Sacks” project

Questions Answered - Episode Two
The “Ask Rabbi Sacks” project

Questions Answered - Episode One
The “Ask Rabbi Sacks” project

The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism
Keynote Speech in the European Parliament

A free society is a moral achievement
Rabbi Sacks receives The Bradley Prize

A Tale of Two Women
A Shavuot Shiur

Rabbi Sacks on antisemitism
Newsnight

Music at the Templeton Ceremony 2016
Performances by The Shabbaton Choir & The Sacks Morasha School Choir

Introduction of the Templeton Prize
Speech by Heather Templeton Dill

An Appreciation
Speech given by Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach

Gila Sacks surprises her father
Speech by Gila Sacks

Welcome Speech
Dr Pina Templeton opens the 2016 ceremony

The Templeton Prize Ceremony of 2016
Watch the speeches, musical performances and award presentation

The Danger of Outsourcing Morality (Templeton Prize acceptance speech)
Watch the presentation, and Rabbi Sacks deliver his response

Ways of Counting Time: The Omer Controversy
A shiur at Aish HaTorah

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Daniel Taub
Not in God’s Name

Europe at a Crossroad
Civil Society’s Efforts to Counter Religious Hatred and Bigotry in Europe

Religion's Place in a Religiously Violent World
A conversation between Rabbi Sacks and Prof Miroslav Volf

Purim Inspiration: Even You Can Change The World

Antisemitism: The world's oldest hatred

Are We at the End or the Beginning of God’s Creative Process?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Can we teach youth to take up duty to humanity?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Is the capacity for forgiveness intrinsic to human nature?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Templeton Prize Press Conference (highlights)
2nd March 2016

Can the Power of Love Replace the Love of Power?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

How Can I Be Committed to my Religion and Open to Others?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Why does God love diversity?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Why is religious violence a defining aspect of our century?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Does Scientific Knowledge Contradict Religious Belief?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

How Can Those Without Faith Understand Faith?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Does All the Evil in the World Show There is No God?
The Big Questions (Templeton)

Press Conference: 2016 Templeton Prize

Understanding the Middle East

The Meaning of Life, with Gay Byrne
Rabbi Sacks’ interview on RTÉ (Ireland)

The Open Mind series on PBS
Interviewed by Alexander Hefner

Violence and Law: Ancient and Contemporary Reflections
The Hildesheimer Lecture 2015

On CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria

In discussion with EJ Dionne and Bill Galston
The Brookings Institution

Not in God's Name: Rutgers event

Rabbi Sacks Interviewed by Akbar Ahmed on Jewish-Muslim Relations

A conversation with Amb. Akbar Ahmed on Muslim-Jewish relations
Building Bridges through Dialogue

Not in God's Name: University of Chicago event

First Things Interview
Religious Violence and Biblical Answers: Discussing ‘Not in God’s Name’

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Walter Russell Mead
The Council on Foreign Relations

Bridging the Divides: A conversation with Yair Lapid
On Judaism and Zionism in the 21st century

Why I am a Jew
An animated video on Jewish identity and finding your Jewish purpose

Rabbi Sacks speaks on BBC Newsnight about the European refugee crisis

The Two Voices: A New Perspective on the Meaning of Teshuvah
A Shiur with mekorot, for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Religious freedom and belief

Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence
The Andrew Marr Show, BBC One Interview

Rabbi Sacks' speech at The UK-Israel Shared Strategic Challenges Conference

Remarks at 'Britain and Israel: Shared Strategic Challenges Conference by the Jewish News

Every religion must wrestle with its dark angels, and so today must we: Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Rabbi Sacks' Interview at The University of Dallas on Judeo-Christian relationships

The Relevance of the Bible for Law and Ethics in Society Today

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Prof Oz-Salzberger
Hosted by Makom

Becket Fund for Religious Liberty - 2014 Canterbury Medalist

The Stewardship Paradigm (video)
A Thought for Tu BiShvat

Kiddush Hashem in a Complicated World
Beit Knesset Feigenson, Beit Shemesh, Israel

A Judaism Engaged with the World
Lecture at The Great Synagogue, Jerusalem

Vision-Driven Leadership in the 21st Century
An Analysis of The Pew Report

The Dignity of Difference (video)
The Mandel Leadership Institute

On Creative Minorities
Erasmus Lecture

How Forgiveness Can Change the World
Midnight Selichot 5773

A Judaism Engaged with the World

Gala Tribute Dinner for Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks

Our Journey with the Chief...

What was the Rambam controversy?
Question 13

What is Jewish leadership all about?
Question 12

The Controversy of the Omer
A Shiur at Bnei Akiva

Would the world be better without any religion?
Question 11

What is a Rabbi?
Question 10

Why do bad things happen to good people?
Question 9

What do Jews believe about the afterlife?
Question 8

What's the purpose of life?
Question 7

What does the term ‘Chosen People’ mean?
Question 6

If you could ask God one question, what would you ask?
Question 5

How can the belief in God be reconciled with science, especially evolution?
Question 4

How can the Torah be trusted?
Question 3

How do you know there is a God?
Question 2

What are the basic beliefs in Judaism?
Question One

Yom HaZikaron / Yom Ha'atzmaut address
Keynote speech at Finchley Synagogue, Kinloss Gardens

Address at National Yom HaShoah Commemoration Ceremony

From Freedom to Responsibility
A Shiur for Pesach

The Will to Life
Speech to the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference

Trust and Trustworthiness
Lecture at the Woolf Institute

Jerusalem Launch of Radical Responsibility
The International Jerusalem Book Fair

The 21st Century Challenge for Jews and Israel
Tel Hai College, Israel

Communities Together: Build a Bridge
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

The Future of Judaism
2012-13 Robbins Collection Lecture in Jewish Law and Thought at Berkeley Law

The Hidden Story of Chanukah

Role of religion in society

Universalism and Particularism
Finding your Jewish identity in a secular world

Is the Bible a Work of Philosophy?

Child development in the UK and national wellbeing

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Richard Dawkins
REThink Festival

To Live and Act as a Jew
Midnight Selichot 5772

Science vs. Religion (2012)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5773

The Revolutionary Power and Importance of Talmud Study

A Vision for Global Jewish Peoplehood

In conversation with Prof. Ron Heifetz
Highlights: On Jewish Leadership

Faith Communities and the Diamond Jubilee

Address for Yom Ha'Atzmaut 5772
Bnei Akiva service at Finchley Synagogue, Kinloss Gardens

Music: Did the Rabbis Make a Mistake?

Torah in Motion 10th Anniversary
Future Tense: Where Are Judaism and the Jewish People Headed?

Desert Island Texts
The Chief Rabbi’s seven favourite verses in Tanakh

Religion and Science
Jewish Book Week 2012

The Face of the Other: The Curious Nature of Biblical Narrative
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Humanitas Lecture 3

Truth and translatability
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Humanitas Lecture 2

After Babel: A Jewish theology of interfaith
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Lecture 1

Message for Holocaust Memorial Day (2012)

Has Europe Lost Its Soul?
Lecture at The Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

The Chief Rabbi meeting Pope Benedict XVI

Christians in the Middle East

Graduation Address at the University of Aberdeen

Address to the International Conference of Chabad Shluchim

The Great Partnership
Religion and the Moral Sense

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks at the Young Israel of Scarsdale

Religion and Democracy in America and Europe

Three Responses to Crisis
Midnight Selichot 5771

Where Will We Find God?
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

The Courage to Hope - the Greatest Courage of All
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Undoing the Knots We Tie Ourselves Into
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Where Our Speaking... Meets God’s Listening
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

How do you learn to live? By not taking life for granted.
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

When God Sheds A Tear…
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

To Be Free, You Have To Forgive
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

The Holy Place…is where you are
Preparing for the Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Don’t Get Angry… There’s A Better Way
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

St Mary's 2011 Pope Benedict XVI Lecture

Improving Interfaith Dialogue in Multicultural Britain

What's the point of religion? (2011)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5772

The One Word That Can Change your Life
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Chief Rabbi's 11th Annual Ellul Lecture at LSJS
Ellul Lecture 2011 at LSJS

Looking Towards Tomorrow: Trends, Challenges and Decisions
The Israeli Presidential Conference 2011

Address for Yom Ha’atzmaut 5771
Bnei Akiva service at Finchley Synagogue, Kinloss Gardens

Hamas and the Peace Process

The future of marriage in Britain

Human Rights

In the Room with Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom
On Being with Krista Tippett

Interfaith Summit on Happiness with the Dalai Lama
On Understanding and Promoting Happiness in Today’s Society, at Emory University

Rabbi Sacks welcomes Pope Benedict XVI to Britain on behalf of the faith communities

The Case for God (2010)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5771

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 Optimism vs. Hope
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)

Passover: A More Meaningful Holiday

Inaugural Norman Lamm Prize Lecture
Award Acceptance Speech at Yeshiva University

Introduction to the House of Lords

How to Evolve
Midnight Selichot 5769

A More Gracious Future (2009)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5770

Faith in the Family (2008)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5769

Faith and Fate: The Lambeth Conference Address

Oseh Shalom from "Israel - Home of Hope"

Keeping Faith (2007)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5768

The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
2007 Kenan Institute for Ethics Distinguished Lecture

In a Strange Land (2006)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5767

My Brother's Keeper (2005)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5766

Agents of Hope (2003)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5764

A Message for the Jewish New Year (2001)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5762

Does God Have a Place in the Marketplace? (2000)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5761

Guardians of the World (1999)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5760

More than a FunFair (1998)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5759

A Single Gesture (1997)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5758

The Tough Questions (1996)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5757

Remember us for Life (1995)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5756

Time for Caring (1994)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5755

Please Forgive Us (1993)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5754

Beginning Again (1992)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5753

The Chief Rabbi's Induction

The Unwritten Ending (1991)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5752