The Office of Rabbi Sacks

Tazria. Covenant and Conversation 5776 on Spirituality is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l. To join Rabbi Sacks’ mailing list, please subscribe via www.rabbisacks.org. You can also follow him on Twitter @RabbiSacks.

Shemini. Covenant and Conversation 5776 on Spirituality is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l. To join Rabbi Sacks’ mailing list, please subscribe via www.rabbisacks.org. You can also follow him on Twitter @RabbiSacks.

The world, it seems, might be better off without religion. Witness the horrific violence of the Islamic State, or look across the ages and see crusades, inquisitions, and a European world awash in violence, all done in the name of religion. But what if, as Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks argues, religion is not the problem? What if the very potent idea of "religion" is often hijacked and abused by those who wield it with violence? Religion belongs here. This event by Cardus was recorded on 15th March 2016 at The Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Canada. Rabbi Sacks was in conversation with Convivium Editor and National Post Columnist Father Raymond de Souza.

Tzav. The Covenant and Conversation 5776 series on Spirituality is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l. To join Rabbi Sacks’ mailing list, please subscribe via www.rabbisacks.org. You can also follow him on Twitter @RabbiSacks.

Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth evaluates the effects of combining religious revival with nationalism in his fifth Reith Lecture. Reviewing the topic of religious fanaticism in his lecture entitled 'Fundamentalism', he argues that when faith and national identity are united they create an explosive mix. Yet, paradoxically, he believes secularism does not provide a solution either.

Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth explores the importance of the family relationship in his third Reith Lecture on 'The Persistence of Faith'. In this lecture entitled 'The Family', Dr. Jonathan Sacks investigates the persistence of the religious institution of marriage in the modern secular age. He explores the values of the nuclear family as a framework for how we understand society and wonders how the new age of increased divorce, co-habitation, single parents and same sex relationships, will affect the concept of the family. He evaluates whether it is a good or bad thing for the family unit be eroded.

In his sixth and final Reith Lecture, Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, explains why faith will survive. Dr. Jonathan Sacks explores in his lecture entitled 'A Community of Communities' the bond of religion. He explains that although the numbers of religious believers seems to be dwindling, religion will never totally fade away. He believes that the values it provides communities are still needed by the individual and the nation.

Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth explores the language of religion in his fourth Reith Lecture on 'The Persistence of Faith'. In this lecture Dr. Jonathan Sacks puts forward the idea of a society which speaks both a public language of citizenship as well as a local language of community in this lecture entitled 'Paradoxes of Pluralism'. Expanding on this concept of pluralism, he asks whether it has diluted religion or created cultural space for the individual.

Dr Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, explores religious ethics in his second Reith Lecture in the series 'The Persistence of Faith'. He investigates whether today's moral dramas centre more on the free-self than the saint or the hero. In this lecture entitled 'The Demoralisation of Discourse', Dr Jonathan Sacks focuses on how modern morals are founded in faith. It is his belief that without the objective standards of religion we would have no coherent language of ethics.

Dr Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, lectures in his first Reith Lecture on the 'The Persistence of Faith'. Explaining how he believes that the moral framework provided by religion is still the best alternative to the personalised, free-market ethics which prevail today. In this lecture entitled 'The Environment of Faith', Dr Jonathan Sacks considers the state of Britain's religions. He asks; have modern cultures forgotten their faith forever?