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JINSIDER - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Connecting to G-d

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Author: JINSIDER
Categories: Religion Education
Tags: religion, education
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-15 19:00 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Connect with God through three distinct paths in Judaism: creation, Revelation, and Redemption. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks describes creation as seeing God's presence in beauty, Revelation as hearing God through shared Torah study, and Redemption as answering God's call through active help to others.

Key Points

  • Creation: God is encountered through natural beauty, such as the sunset light on Jerusalem's walls, spring blossoms, or a snowflake.
  • Revelation: God is heard through learning Torah, especially in groups, where students engage with the Written and Oral Torah and the commentaries of Rashi, Ramban, Rashbam, and Ibn Ezra.
  • Redemption: God is encountered in the cry of someone suffering, such as a child or a person dying of hunger in Africa, which calls people to act as God's partners in improving the world.
  • The three paths are not tied to fixed times; they may come at different stages of life, weeks, or years, while God is always present for those who know where to look.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: No step-by-step method is given. The practical guidance is to pay attention to natural beauty, study Torah together with others, and respond actively when you hear someone's cry for help.
  • Rabbi Sacks illustrates creation with a personal memory of seeing Jerusalem at sunset from Mount Scopus, where the light turns the walls to gold and the Judean Hills and Dead Sea landscape look on fire.
  • He cites William Blake's line about seeing "Infinity in a grain of sand and Eternity in a single hour" to support the idea of finding God in small natural things.
  • Revelation is framed as joining a conversation "between Heaven and Earth" that spans several thousand years, which is how he describes the Written and Oral Torah.
  • Redemption is described as the most active path, linked to Moses hearing the cry of the Israelites.

Bottom Line

Rabbi Sacks presents Jewish connection to God as a combination of perceiving beauty, studying sacred texts with others, and acting to relieve suffering, with each path available at different points in life.