Rabbi Sacksಪರಿಶೀಲಿಸಿದ ಖಾತೆ

...but in and through words – sacred words that make us co-partners with God in the work of redemption.

Already at the opening of the Torah, at the very beginning of creation, is foreshadowed the Jewish doctrine of revelation: that God reveals Himself to humanity not in the sun, the stars, the wind or the storm...

Just as God makes the natural world by words (“And God said…and there was”) so we make the human world by words, which is why Judaism takes words so seriously: “Life and death are in the power of the tongue,” says the book of Proverbs (18:21).

Creation begins with the creative word, the idea, the vision, the dream. Language – and with it the ability to remember a distant past and conceptualise a distant future – lies at the heart of our uniqueness as the image of God.

On #Sukkot we are among strangers and friends. On #SheminiAtzeret and #SimchatTorah we are with family. #ChagSameach!

There are some things we share because we are #human. But there are other things, constitutive of our identity, that are uniquely ours - most importantly our relationships to those who form our family.

Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are chamber music, not a symphony. They are quiet time with God. We are reluctant to leave, and we dare think that He is reluctant to see us go. #Justice is universal, #love is particular.

So, when all the universality of Judaism has been expressed, there remains something that cannot be universalized: that sense of intimacy with and closeness to God that we feel on #SheminiAtzeret and #SimchatTorah, when all the other guests have left.

The practical outcome of this dual theology - the universality of #God and the particularity of #Torah - is that we are commanded to be true to our #faith and a blessing to others, regardless of their faith.

There is an aspect of Sukkot - rainfall, harvest, climate - to which everyone can relate, but there is another - the long journey through the wilderness - that speaks to the unique experience of the Jewish people.