From the Rabbi's study

    From the Rabbi's Study

           Rabbi J.B. Sacks

Passover 2026

LINK to the Current Edition (Passover related)

PURIM 2026

Rabbi Sacks has three Purim articles on Exploring Judaism,
the digital home for Conservative Judaism:
"16 Facts about Purim and the Book of Esther," 
 "Descendants of Kings and Scholars: Leading the Revolution," 
 and "Purim: Embracing the Unconventional." 
 You can find many other articles on EJ's Purim home page.

Winter 2026

Starting Over    

Every morning, weekday or Shabbat, we Jews traditionally praise G!d as m’ḥadesh ma’asei v’reishit, “the Renewer of Creation.”1 G!d fashions something new each and every day. That includes renewing us, so that we can live out in wholeness what life may bring us this day, and every day. We can really feel this at the turn of a calendar year, because each New Year, Jewish or secular,renews within us our hopes and possibilities for our lives. A new year is a new opportunity, a new beginning.

An angry reader stormed into the newspaper office waving the current edition,asking to see the author of the obituary column. He was referred to a cub reporter and showed the reporter the column, which contained the reader’s obituary! He declared, “You see I am very much alive. I demand a retraction!”

The reporter responded, “I never retract a story. But I tell you what I’ll do; I’ll put you in the birth column and give you a fresh start!” With the new calendar year, we are all being given the opportunity for a fresh start.

Let us, then, not only reflect on the vagaries and challenges of 2025; let’s justify the gift of life, and the possibilities of 2026.

We can do this in many ways:

● by being aware of life’s preciousness and its fragility

● by leaning away from bitterness and remorse and leaning toward kindness and joy

● by developing to the fullest the potentialities and sensitivities that come with life

● by putting the whole of our intelligence to work in sustaining and enhancing the conditions that make life not only possible by good and worthwhile;

● by cherishing the human habitat and shielding it from further depletion and devastation;

● by engaging with our CBS community, on Shabbat and at events, so that we can get the spiritual support and emotional grounding of our tradition and fellow CBS’ers;

● by using our free will to the utmost in advancing the cause of life;

● and, finally, by celebrating and enjoying life itself.



I send out prayers and positive energy to all of you for a 2026 that is filled with holy moments, good health, joy, meaning, togetherness, and peace.

1 It is in the second sentence after the Bar-chu, just after the Yotzer Or prayer.

Hanukkah 2025

First Comes Courage

Which act of heroism stands out for you in the Hanukkah story? For me, it was an act of Mattathias. He was a priest from the rural town of Modi’in. He served in the Jerusalem Temple, but returned home in 167 B.C.E. after the Seleucid Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes enacted persecutions against the practice of Judaism. The Seleucid officials in Modi’in set up altars to the Greek gods in the public square and required Jews to come and show obeisance to them and their gods. When the first Jew went, Mattathias went and killed him, and then he turned and killed the Greek officials administering the altar area. He then shouted, “Whoever is zealous for Torah and supports the covenant, come with me!”1 Mattathias took his five sons and went to the Gophna Hills (northeast of Modi’in), where he immediately set up headquarters to begin the guerilla-type warfare to fight against the Syrian Greek tyranny.

I do not picture Mattathias as reacting impulsively, out of anger or contempt. Rather, I picture him as having planned the insurrection and employed his thoughtful courage at precisely the right time. His act sent a message to his fellow Jews that they did indeed have other options than to quietly capitulate. As a community leader, he put the government’s scrutiny directly on himself and his family, thus giving cover and encouragement to others. As a politico-religious figure, he clearly sent a message that Judaism consisted of more than mere rituals, as precious as they might be. But because there was much more, giving up a Jewish way of life was already a death of both the mind and spirit. If not for Mattathias, there would be no rebellion. And without the rebellion, there would be no Hanukkah, no miracle of the oil--and our collective story would be, if not over, then quite different. Instead, one single courageous act of one man rescued an entire people from ignominy and oblivion. No wonder that it is Mattathias, and not Judah Maccabee or anyone else, who merits explicit mention in the amidah (central daily prayer) for Hanukkah and in the insertion for Birkat HaMazon (blessing after meals).

Whence Mattathias’ courage? His act reminds me of the incident recorded in Herodotus’ history of the Greek wars. One Athenian soldier was lame, and some of his fellow soldiers laughed at him because of his disability. After trying to tolerate their derision for a while, he finally could stand it no longer. He silenced them, asserting, “I am here to fight and not to run.”

This evinces the same spirit as Mattathias, and it is the animating philosophy of all those who have the courage of their convictions:

This was the courage of the first surgeon who dared to cut into a heart in order to repair it.

This was the courage of the first psychiatrist who plunged into the dark pit of the emotions and opened a new door of healing for the emotionally struggling.

This was the courage of

• the first airplane pilot;

• the first person to let a mosquito bite their arm to test an anti-malarial drug;

• the first printer to set type for a free press;

• the first person to call for a strike for living working conditions in the sweat shop;

• the first person to break through a glass ceiling that broadened our human understanding;

• the first person to challenge traditional ideas, norms, and values--not to undermine them but to rescue them and elevate them;

• the first person to say to their family member or friend, “Enough already,”

and all the “firsts” that have helped our lives become more productive, more soulful, and more worthwhile.

That outlook, that fortitude, that grit, can sustain us. As Charles Reznikoff wrote in his poem, “Hanukkah,”2




Mattathias’ example thus reminds us that courage is the first lesson in the advancement of life. For all of us are here to fight and not to run.

May this Hanukkah remind us that we are all descendants of Mattathias.

May this Hanukkah we find that the lights of the candles ignite our hearts with clarity of purpose.

May this Hanukkah ignite us with thoughtful courage.

Ḥag ha-urim samei-aḥ! A joyful and meaningful, Hanukkah!


1 Maccabees 2:27.
2 Reprinted in Rubin, Steven J. Celebrating the Jewish Holidays: Poems, Stories, Essays. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2003, p. 228.

              Rabbi J.B. Sacks

9/03/2025

What’s Your Hurry?

High Holy Day preparations have begun recently, on the first of Elul (August 24-25)--precisely one month before Rosh HaShanah. This is done primarily by sounding the shofar at every morning service (except Shabbat), along with the reading of Psalm 27 (the High Holy Days seasonal psalm), and some other liturgical variations--all of which are meant to compel us to confront ourselves as we confront a New Year:

     What meaning do these impending holy days hold out for us?
     What will life bring to us?
     What will we bring to life?

A chassid once hurried past his rebbe on the first day of Elul. The rabbi asked him, “Why are you hurrying?”

“Well,” he replied, “I must look in the Mahzor (High Holy Day prayer book) and put my prayers in order.”
 
The rabbi rejoined, “The prayer book is the same as it was last year. It would be a far better use of your time to look into your deeds and your character, and put yourself in order.”
 
Rabbi Chaim Halberstam (1797-1876), founder of the Sanz Dynasty of Chassidim, famously taught:
 
      In my youth, I thought I would convert the whole world to G!d and to goodness. But soon I discovered that it would be enough if I could just convert the people in my town, and I tried that for a time, but did not succeed. Then I realized that my program was still too ambitious, and so I concentrated on the persons in my household. But I could not convert them either. Finally it dawned on me: I must work upon myself, so that I may give true service to G!d, and create more goodness in the world….
 
One primary purpose of our interfacing with the Mahzor is to evaluate ourselves in light of its contents. It is not there to provide a nice, easy, or comfortable couple of hours. Rather, it is our willingness to concentrate on our own selves--our own worth, our own reality, our own potential--if religion and spirituality is to have a value in re-tracking our vision, regaining our footing, and reenergizing our spirits to move forward. This self-scrutiny is the mature person’s life work, for as we continue to evolve, the Mahzor holds out new wisdom each year. But engaging the Mahzor the High Holy Day experience is necessary to achieve the hoped-for cathartic effect.
 
The moral of this story may be obvious, but, if so, it is often missed by many of us. The hardest people to reach, the ones most in need of connection, the ones best served by self-reflection, the ones who would most benefit by stopping and regrouping, are the good people, not those who don’t engage because they are either self-righteous or self-negating.
 
Sometimes we are so complacent about ourselves that we cannot imagine any flaws in our character. And sometimes we are so used to seeing the cup as half-empty and with an insuperable leak, that we have despaired of the world getting better or our lives as deserving better.
 
But this gift of the month of Elul, and the tweaks in the services that tradition asks, and those that we have added, are intended to help us to take a time out, so that we can re-track: our mood and our mode, our perspective and our presence, our Jewishness and our joy. But, as the High Holy day seasonal psalm suggests, it takes courage to do the internal work so that we can live authentically and artfully, 
 
May we have the courage to confront this New Year now and throughout the High Holy Days in order to see ourselves more clearly, and work to better ourselves more deeply, so that we can help ensure that 5786 will truly be both a good year and a sweet one.
 
לשנה טובה ומתוקה ומלאה ברכה תכתבו בספר חיים טובים.
L’shanah tovah u-m’tukah um-lei-ah v’rakhah tikateivu,
atem umish-p’choteichem b’Sefer HaChayim.
May you and yours be inscribed in the Book of Life for a good, sweet, healthy, productive, meaningful year.

        Rabbi J.B. Sacks

Listening with the Heart

 I used to read the Ziggy cartoon strip avidly. I recall one wherein Ziggy passed a rather shabby-looking character who was sitting on the sidewalk propped up against a building. Beside him was a sign that announced: “Good Listener–25 cents for 5 minutes.”
 
The sidewalk solicitor had greatly under priced his services, for we happen to be suffering from a terrible shortage of good listeners. Like the biblical woman of valor, a good listener’s worth more accurately, “ is far above rubies.”
 
Almost any day, blogs, webinars, and programs promised to make us better speakers. But where are the courses and projects to make us better listeners? At commencement exercises, we have often witnessed a prize awarded to the graduate who has shown excellence in public speaking. But have you ever heard of a prize awarded to the student who has shown excellence in private listening?
 
When a prominent TV personality decided to quit a popular network program, he gave this explanation for his surprising act: “I’ve become increasingly aware of late that for the past 10 years I’ve been on the air doing a great deal of talking. I want to start looking, thinking, and listening to people.”
 
Anatomically speaking, you and I are so constructed that we should devote more time to listening than to speaking. The Divine Architect endowed us with two ears, but only one mouth. Yet for many of us, the mouth is a sorely overworked organ and the ears are in a state of semi-retirement.
 
A bartender who was breaking in a young apprentice saw the novice hard at work trying to be witty and humorous with the customers. Unhappily, he wasn’t making much of an impression. Finally, the veteran called the young man aside and gave him the distilled wisdom of years of experience: “Listen, kid, listen. Don’t talk. These guys come here to talk. If they wanted to listen, they’d go home.”
 
That veteran bartender knew a lot more than how to mix a drink. He was a keen student of human nature. He understood how desperately we each need someone who will listen to us, someone to whom we can speak of our fears and frustrations, our loneliness and our despair, our angers and our anxieties, our defeats and our disappointments; someone to whom we can recount our occasional triumphs and our self-enhancing accomplishments. We each need someone to release us from the isolation cell to which we are so frequently consigned because no one cares enough to liberate us by the simple act of listening.
 
A good listener is worth considerably more than twenty-five cents for five minutes. Psychiatrists’ offices are crowded with people willing to pay substantial fees to satisfy their hunger to be heard. Many a family breakup is directly traceable to a failure in communication. There’s a great deal of talking and even shouting, but very little listening.
 
One family therapist who has achieved much success in their work explained their method, “I really don’t do much of anything to get families together. I simply give each member a chance to talk while the others listen–without interrupting. Often, it’s the first time they’ve listened to each other in years.”
 
Those words have the sharp sting of recognition. The next time we are sorely tempted to give someone a good “talking to,” let us first pause to ask ourselves when was the last time we gave that person a good “listening to.”
 
Listening is not easy. If is were, there wouldn’t be such a shortage in that department. Listening to another, really listening with our whole person and entirely focused being, requires discipline, patience, and, above all, lots of caring. But how great are the rewards of listening. Through creative listening we exercise the magic that makes the other person feel so important, and at the same time we ourselves break out of our own isolation. We open channels of communication that enable us to touch and be touched, to expand others while we ourselves are enlarged.
 
When G!d appear to King Solomon in a night vision and offered him any gift he wished, the wise monarch asked for neither power, nor wealth, nor glory. He asked instead for a לב שומע, “a listening heart.” It is a gift worth cultivating. For, ultimately, true listening is not done with the ears. It is done with the heart.

 
     Rabbi J.B. Sacks

8/19/2025