by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
A small selection of meaningful quotes from Rabbi Sacks, of blessed memory.
“For Judaism, the criterion of the good society is not wealth, power or prowess but the simple question: does it respect the individual as the image of God?”
◦ Radical Then, Radical Now (2004)
“Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism, and they are embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed by Judaism.”
◦ Radical Then, Radical Now (2004)
“There is no life without a task; no person without a talent; no place without a fragment of God’s light waiting to be discovered and redeemed; no situation without its possibility of sanctification; no moment without its call.”
◦ To Heal a Fractured World (2007)
“You achieve immortality not by building pyramids or statues – but by engraving your values on the hearts of your children, and they on their theirs, so that our ancestors live on in us and we in our children, and so on until the end of time.”
◦ The Chief Rabbis’ Haggadah (2003)
“Making a blessing over life is the best way of turning life into a blessing.”
◦ Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places (2004)
“The very existence of Israel is as near to a miracle as we will find in the sober pages of empirical history.”
◦ Future Tense: Jews, Judaism and Israel in the Twenty First Century (2012)
“The supreme religious challenge is to see God’s image in one who is not in our image.”
◦ The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations (2003)
“Love is what redeems us from the prison cell of the self and all the sickness to which the narcissist self is prone – from empty pride to deep depression to a sense of nihilism and the abyss.”
◦ The Great Partnership: Science, Religion and the Search for Meaning (2012)
“The more friendship I share, the more I have. The more love I give, the more I possess. The best way to learn something is to teach it to others.”
◦ Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places (2004)
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