58 quotes by Jonathan Sacks

“Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holy of holies of Jewish time. It is that rarest of phenomena, a Jewish festival without food. Instead it is a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgment when, collectively and repeatedly, we confess our sins and pray to be written into God's Book of Life.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“God's forgiveness allows us to be honest with ourselves. We recognize our imperfections, admit our failures, and plead to God for clemency.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“The Jewish festival of freedom is the oldest continuously observed religious ritual in the world. Across the centuries, Passover has never lost its power to inspire the imagination of successive generations of Jews with its annually re-enacted drama of slavery and liberation.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denial of rights to others.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Freedom is not won by merely overthrowing a tyrannical ruler or an oppressive regime. That is usually only the prelude to a new tyranny, a new oppression.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is won not on the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“While everyone else is thinking about economics and politics, executive salaries and the future of the euro, do the opposite, even if it's hard. Invest in the spirit.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“A perfect storm is in the making: financial uncertainty, economic downturn, government cuts, rising unemployment and a future that looks less clear the more we try to fathom it.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“While we can remember the past, we cannot write the future. Only our children, the future of our community, can do that.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Frequent worshippers are also significantly more active citizens. They are more likely to belong to community organizations, especially those concerned with young people, health, arts and leisure, neighborhood and civic groups and professional associations.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“If the history of the Day of Atonement has anything to say to us now it is: never relieve individuals of moral responsibility. The more we have, the more we grow.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“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.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“We need to rediscover the idea of the common good and work together to build a home.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“There's always hope. You can lose everything else in the world, but Jews never lose hope.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“If we are to negotiate the coming years safely, we may need a new kind of leadership. To put it more precisely, we need the rediscovery of an ancient kind of leadership that has rarely been given the prominence it deserves. I mean the leader as teacher.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“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.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“The people of Israel are entitled, as is any other nation, to live in peace and safety.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Technology gives us power, but it does not and cannot tell us how to use that power. Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“We from every religion feel comfortable in Britain because there is a host. The Church of England is a good host, it has been a major force in shaping England into such a tolerant society.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Since the 18th century, many Western intellectuals have predicted religion's imminent demise.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Religion survives because it answers three questions that every reflective person must ask. Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live?” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Religion creates community, community creates altruism and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious community that makes it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Science will explain how but not why. It talks about what is, not what ought to be. Science is descriptive, not prescriptive it can tell us about causes but it cannot tell us about purposes. Indeed, science disavows purposes.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“In the post-enlightenment Europe of the 19th century the highest authority was no longer the Church. Instead it was science. Thus was born racial anti-Semitism, based on two disciplines regarded as science in their day - the 'scientific study of race' and the Social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel.” — Jonathan Sacks

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“Since Hiroshima and the Holocaust, science no longer holds its pristine place as the highest moral authority. Instead, that role is taken by human rights. It follows that any assault on Jewish life - on Jews or Judaism or the Jewish state - must be cast in the language of human rights.” — Jonathan Sacks

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