In tribute to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ impact on the spiritual and intellectual life of our community, TraditionOnline’s The BEST project is presenting weekly columns dedicated to aspects of his thought and teaching.

The Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves Project is presented in cooperation with the London School of Jewish Studies.

LSJS

The BEST: The Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves
December 2, 2020

The BEST: The Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves

The BEST: Moses and Monotheism
December 3, 2020

The BEST: Moses and Monotheism

Michael J. Harris, writing for The BEST's R. Sacks Bookshelves Series, introduces our readers to Alasdair MacIntyre's groundbreaking work of moral philosophy.
December 10, 2020

The BEST: After Virtue

In this week’s Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves Project, Tamra Wright considers the implications of a recent trend in behavioral science for crafting a “new musar.”
December 17, 2020

The BEST: Tiny Habits

Helena Miller, for the Saks Bookshelves Project, on the progressive era’s legacy of cultural pluralism, and its meaning for contemporary religious society.
December 24, 2020

The BEST: Democracy Versus the Melting Pot

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.
December 31, 2020

The BEST: Civility

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.
January 7, 2021

The BEST: Long Walk to Freedom

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.
January 14, 2021

The BEST: “The Idea of Covenant in American Democracy”

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.”
January 21, 2021

The BEST: Language, Truth and Logic

Robert Putnam’s well-known “Bowling Alone” is among the most cited works in the writings of Rabbi Sacks. Johnny Solomon explains how the two thinker’s ideas on civil society and social disconnection overlap. 
January 28, 2021

The BEST: Bowling Alone

Spinoza correctly identified the centrality of Jewish law for the survival of Judaism, but erred in thinking that eliminating it is the path to a moral society. Daniel Rynhold explains how R. Sacks showed that maintaining mitzvot and retaining particularity is the way to secure a just society – for Jews and for humanity in general. 
February 4, 2021

The BEST: Spinoza

“No man is an island,” wrote John Donne in “Meditation XVII.” Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz unpacks the depths of this classic prose poem and draws connections to the thought of Rabbi Sacks, who agreed that “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind.” This week in the Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves Project.
February 11, 2021

The BEST: “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions”

How are Jewish texts the overlooked and underappreciated sources of enlightenment political thought? Rafi Zarum shares with us R. Sacks’ reading of Eric Nelson’s “The Hebrew Republic” – this week in the Sacks Bookshelves Project.
February 18, 2021

The BEST: The Hebrew Republic

Daniel Rose explains the impact of Leonard Cohen’s music on R. Sacks -- for the R. Sacks Bookshelves Project. Hallelujah!
February 25, 2021

The BEST: Leonard Cohen

R. Sacks observed the United States in the spirit of Alexis de Tocqueville – admiring its institutions but knowing he had a role in helping Americans (and citizens of the world) navigate liberal democracy, the market economy, and ever-advancing science and technology. Stuart Halpern presents “Democracy in America” in this week’s R. Sacks Bookshelves Project.
March 4, 2021

The BEST: Democracy in America

Writing for the R. Sacks Bookshelves project, Chaim Strauchler examines points of intersection between Charles Taylor's
March 11, 2021

The BEST: A Secular Age

G.K. Chesterton remains one of the great writers and communicators of modern religion, combining a journalist’s flair, the literary credentials of a first-rate author, and a theology deeply considered. Writing for this week's R. Sacks Bookshelves Project, Ben Crowne looks at points of contact between the Catholic Chesterton's writing in
March 18, 2021

The BEST: Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy”

Chaim Strauchler looks back on TraditionOnline’s Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves Project, summing up the insights gained as we took a look at the array of writings in Jewish and general wisdom from which R. Sacks crafted his books, essays, and sermons.
April 8, 2021

The BEST: R. Sacks Bookshelves Project – A Closing Chapter

In this TRADITION Podcast authors from our R. Sacks Bookshelves Project discuss why R. Sacks read and quoted the books that he did and the role those works played in his leadership and philosophy. They look at some common themes emerging from the project and the optimistic view of humanity with which R. Sacks leaves us, his readers and disciples.
April 15, 2021

PODCAST: Rabbi Sacks Bookshelves Project

TRADITION shares this year’s High Holiday Reader dedicated to the thought of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l. Rosh Hashana is a time to think broadly of Hashem’s world and our place within it and Rabbi Sacks’ model is a most worthwhile framework for such thinking. In these pages you will encounter our writers presenting “The BEST” that has been thought and said in a wide array of cultural objects, and understand how their consumption is potentially profitable to us as thinking, spiritual and religious beings. 
September 2, 2021

2021 High Holiday Reader