From this week’s reading, I chose the text by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. I chose this because I feel

From this week’s reading, I chose the text by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. I chose this because I feel he did an outstanding job of explaining why Judaism is the religion of the future. I also like his reasoning that Judaism is not only for Jews, but for everyone, because God is the creator of life, earth, and everything else, and because we are all descendants of Abraham.

As we’ve learned in this week’s lecture, the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, is up to interpretation for those who read it. It is to be read, discussed, and argued by the Jews. According to Rabbi Sacks, even non-Jewish people, who were a beginner in Hebrew, had their own interpretation of who God is as stated in the text. Rabbi Sacks showed that the accurate interpretation of the phrase, Ehyeh asher ehyeh, is “I will be what I will be”, meaning he is a God of the future. To me, that shows he is God now and forever, and his decision on anything will not be known until it happens.

As we’ve learned in the lecture this week, when the second temple was destroyed by the Romans, it was never rebuilt. The Jews had to change from a temple base religion to a book-based religion. As with everything in life, as time changes, so we must change with it. As Rabbi Sacks says, “Moses and the Israelites leave Egypt to found a new social order. They are about to build a future, unlike the past. That was the revolution. Without it, we would simply not have the keywords we have come to accept as oblivious, words like progress, development, advance, creativity, and originality.” (pg. 235) If we don’t make progress with changes, or advance in knowledge then why change?

I like the whole concept of Judaism being a religion of freedom. God is free to do anything and he made humans free. Now, what we chose to do with that freedom is entirely up to us. Rabbi Sacks says, “It is a fateful choice and one that brings God great grief. For we can use our freedom well or badly. We can use it to create or destroy. We can use it to deprive others of their freedom. That is the risk, but it is the risk God chooses to take.” (pg. 242)

I enjoyed this reading by Rabbi Sacks.