As you may have heard, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt"l passed away this past Shabbat.

In addition to being the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom for over 20 years, Rabbi Sacks was an incredibly prolific writer and gifted teacher of the entire Jewish community, if not the world.

If someone knew of one great rabbi of this generation, they knew of Rabbi Sacks. He had an incredible ability to communicate Jewish ideas in a way that could reach every human, regardless of their religious affiliation. Rabbi Sacks was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, had a close relationship with former Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair, and was probably the most often-cited rabbi in any dvar Torah (sermon) ever given anywhere. In addition to being a Jewish scholar, Rabbi Sacks possessed immense secular academic knowledge. He managed to weave this knowledge effortlessly into his works. Rabbi Sacks was an absolute giant and his passing is a devastation for us all.

Rabbi Sacks is famous for saying, “A good leader makes followers. A great leader makes leaders.” Through his teaching, he absolutely made leaders. Rabbi Sacks empowered a whole generation of people to share Torah with their families, schools, and communities. And personally, he empowered me! I learned that a dvar Torah could be engaging and relevant from Rabbi Sacks. I learned that adding secular context to Jewish learning doesn't diminish the Torah being taught -- instead Torah will always elevate anything it is connected to.

Every person who has been (and still is!) a student of Rabbi Sacks can tell a story about how he has impacted their Judaism, their learning, and their lives. It’s an incredible feat that he has been able to reach such a span of people. I recently learned that Rabbi Sacks managed to prepared a full year of divrei Torah recordings and material in advance of his passing. This really moved me. Rabbi Sacks' awe-inspiring canon of work will continue to inspire and motivate people far beyond his passing.

Last year, Rabbi Sacks wrote a stunning commentary on this week's parsha, Chayei Sarah. I will speak about some of the ideas he mentioned, but I am also attaching this link here and encourage you to listen to these ideas straight from him!— https://rabbisacks.org/to-have-a-why-chayei-sarah-5780/

In this week's parsha, Sarah Imeinu (Sarah our Mother) passes away. The parsha opens with this:

“And the life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years; [these were] the years of the life of Sarah.”

וַיִּֽהְיוּ֙ חַיֵּ֣י שָׂרָ֔ה מֵאָ֥ה שָׁנָ֛ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה וְשֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֑ים שְׁנֵ֖י חַיֵּ֥י שָׂרָֽה:

In a famous comment, Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) notes the repetition of the word “years,” saying that this redundancy indicates that every single year of Sarah’s life was equally good. How can that be possible? Sarah had a trying life, full of uncertainty and volatility.

In his commentary, Rabbi Sacks explained that Avraham and Sarah encapsulate the famous remark by Friedrich Nietzsche: “He who has a why in life can bear almost any how.”

Every year of Sarah’s life was good because every year was a step in the direction of her Divine calling, of her Divine mission.

For full text, email me ([email protected]) or join my mailing list!

Listen to Rabbi Sacks' commentary for last year's Chayei Sarah.