Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks, MBE (Hebrew: Yaakov Zvi, יעקב צבי; born 8 March 1948) is a British Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, author and politician.
It is through exchange that difference becomes a blessing, not a curse.
A survey carried out across the U. S. between 2004 and 2006 showed that frequent church- or synagogue-goers are more likely to give money to charity.
A society in which there are high levels of voluntary activity will simply be a better, happier place than one where there are not.
Jews survived all the defeats, expulsions, persecutions and pogroms, the centuries in which they were regarded as a pariah people, even the Holocaust itself, because they never gave up the faith that one day they would be free to live as Jews without fear.
Religious ritual is a way of structuring time so that we, not employers, the market or the media, are in control. Life needs its pauses, its chapter breaks, if the soul is to have space to breathe.
God is back and Europe as a whole still doesn't get it. It is our biggest single collective cultural and intellectual blind spot.
Some years ago there was a study to discover the most stressful occupation. It turned out not to be the head of a large business, football manager or prime minister, but rather: bus driver.
Jews read the books of Moses not just as history but as divine command. The question to which they are an answer is not, 'What happened?' but rather, 'How then shall I live?' And it's only with the exodus that the life of the commands really begins.
The people of Israel are entitled, as is any other nation, to live in peace and safety.
The market economy is deeply congruent with the values set out in the Hebrew Bible. Material prosperity is a divine blessing. Poverty crushes the spirit as well as the body, and its alleviation is a sacred task. Work is a noble calling.
Britain, relative to the U. S. , is a highly secular society. Philanthropy alone cannot fill the gap left by government cutbacks. And the sources of altruism go deep into our evolutionary past.
Just as the natural environment depends on biodiversity, so the human environment depends on cultural diversity, because no one civilization encompasses all the spiritual, ethical and artistic expressions of mankind.
Follow your passion. Nothing - not wealth, success, accolades or fame - is worth spending a lifetime doing things you don't enjoy.
Yom HaShoah is a vital day in the Jewish calendar, providing us with a focal point for our remembrance. We cannot bring the dead back to life, but we can bring their memory back to life and ensure they are not forgotten. We can undertake in our lives to do what they were so cruelly prevented from doing in theirs.
Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent.
Values are tapes we play on the Walkman of the mind: any tune we choose so long as it does not disturb others.
After the destructionofthe Second Temple Jewslived by an ancient and fundamental insight, that God does not live in buildings but in the human heart.
Make space in your life for the things that matter, for family and friends, love and generosity, fun and joy. Without this, you will burn out in mid-career and wonder where your life went.
ISIS is a terrorist entity whose barbarities have been condemned by all those who value our common humanity. In the current political climate, when hate crimes are rising and political rhetoric is increasingly divisive, this is all the more shocking.
The market economy is very good at wealth creation but not perfect at all about wealth distribution.