Daniel Rynhold shows how R. Sacks identified collective structures such as religious traditions as that which creates social meanings giving reasons to pursue one course over another. In doing so R. Sacks restores the link between ethics and reason, reading against a classic essay by philosopher A.J. Ayer – This week in “The Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves Project.”

Daniel Friedman reads H. Richard Niebuhr’s classical essay, asking what it implies for the universal value of civil society – a new entry in the R. Sacks Bookshelves Project, presented in cooperation with the London School of Jewish Studies.

As much as the biblical telling of the Israelites’ “long walk to freedom” may have inspired Nelson Mandela, his life and accomplishments inspired Jonathan Sacks – Daniel Rose explains in this week’s R. Sacks Bookshelves Project.

Jonny Lipczer, writing for the R. Sacks Bookshelves Project, reads Stephen Carter’s “Civility” and asks about our distinctly Jewish responsibilities as citizens of larger society.