Jonathan Sacks

1 week ago | qoshe.com | Jonathan Sacks

1 week ago | blogs.timesofisrael.com | Jonathan Sacks

The episode of the spies has rightly puzzled commentators throughout the centuries. How could they have got it so wrong? The land, they said, was as Moses had promised. It was indeed “flowing with milk and honey.” But conquering it was impossible. “The people who live there are powerful, and the cities fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of the giant there… We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are… All the people we saw there are of great size.

2 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Jonathan Sacks

NowCNN — Is there a food more humble yet universally adored than the sandwich? And while one person’s go-to hamburger snack might be another’s katsu sando or chivito, there’s hardly a country on the planet that doesn’t turn to some type of bread with something stuffed inside it to cure a …

3 weeks ago | blogs.timesofisrael.com | Jonathan Sacks

As mentioned in a previous Covenant & Conversation, there was an ongoing debate between the Sages as to whether the Nazirite – whose laws are outlined in this week’s Parsha – was to be praised or not. Recall that the Nazirite was someone who voluntarily, usually for a specified period, undertook a special form of holiness. This meant that he was forbidden to consume wine or any grape products, to have a haircut and to defile himself by contact with the dead.

1 month ago | blogs.timesofisrael.com | Jonathan Sacks

Bamidbar takes up the story as we left it toward the end of Shemot. The people have journeyed from Egypt to Mount Sinai. There they received the Torah. There they made the Golden Calf. There they were forgiven after Moses’ passionate plea, and there they made the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) inaugurated on the first of Nissan, almost a year after the Exodus.