The Book Depository Covenant and Conversation: Genesis, the Book of by Jonathan Sacks
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Price: £21.98
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Description: Covenant and Conversation: Genesis, the Book of Beginnings v. 1 : Hardback : Toby Press Ltd : 9781592640201 : 1592640206 : 22 Jul 2010 : In this first volume of a five-volume collectionof parashat hashavua commentaries, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks explores these intersections as they relate to universal concerns of freedom, love, responsibility, identity, and destiny. Chief Rabbi Sacks fuses Jewish tradition, Western philosophy, and literature to present a highly developed understanding of the human condition under Gods sovereignty. Erudite and eloquent, Covenant & Conversation allows us to experience Chief Rabbi Sacks sophisticated approach to life lived in an ongoing dialogue with the Torah. The Book Depository Covenant and Conversation: Genesis, the Book of by Jonathan Sacks - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9781592640201
MPN: 1592640206
GTIN: 9781592640201
Author: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5
Review: Highly recommended. Rabbi Sacks really helped me understand and get to grips with Genesis. What a wonderful start, looking forward to the next installment
Author: Saartje
Rating: 5
Review: What is so special about this book? For me it is its lucidity. With seemingly great ease the rabbi discusses often abstract thoughts. For instance when he explains what kind of book Genesis is: It is philosophy (ontology, epistemology, ethics) written in a deliberately non-philosophical way. Where philosophy is truth as system, Genesis is truth as story. It’s not cosmology/ myth/ science (how did it happen?), it’s not history (what happened?). If we seek to understand the Torah, we must read it as Torah – as law, teaching, guidance. Torah is an answer to the question: how shall we live? By telling the story of a family it answers questions about who man is (free, fickle, seeking teshuvah), what truth is (hidden in layers of ambiguity and depth) who God is (someone who prefers the personal). For me the rabbi is at his best when he delves the waters of that ambiguity and depth in human interaction. His understanding of the Hebrew text helps him understand the nuances that stay hidden in translations. In that way we get an in depth view of not only what happens between characters but also what has caused this action and how the action influences the future. A beautiful example is the unravelling of the question why Judah and not Joseph is the brother who is the forefather of king David. Judah is the man who repents. The story of Judah is the basis for the practice of teshuvah (repentance). Judah the son of the rejected wife Leah starts his life by choosing badly: he wants to kill Joseph, he sleeps with his daughter in law Tamar. But change sets in gradually when he admits that she is more righteous than he is. This path to redemption ends when he trades his life for that of his brother Benjamin. It is that act that changes history. He wanted evil for Joseph, he wanted him dead. That didn’t happen, his brother saved his family. By wanting to kill him he inadvertently saves his family. But can he credit himself with that. No, he can’t, because his intent was to kill his brother. Now he repents. His deed stays the same, but his intent changes. Now the good that came from the deed can be attributed to Judah. So in this view we are not slaves of our fate or of our freedom (we don’t know the outcome of our deeds). By repenting we can change history. ‘In a lovely phrase, he (Harold Fisch) speaks of the Jewish imagination as shaped by ‘the unappeased memory of a future still to be fulfilled.’ (p. 353)
