Prayorities
Reflections for Yom Kippur
The words of Jonathan Sacks, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rav Kook, and others open a dialogue across generations. They do not always agree. Differences teach us that the moral life resists simple resolution. But all share the conviction that human life is sacred, that our choices matter. That ethics lies at the heart of religious life.
As we enter Yom Kippur, may these words challenge us to examine not only how we pray but what we prioritise: our responsibilities to our people, our nation, and to all humanity created in the image of God.
ON THE ETHICS OF WAR
Avot DeRabbi Natan 23:1
Ben Zoma would say: Who is the strongest of all? One who is able to conquer his desire, as it says (Proverbs 16:32), “Better to be forbearing than mighty, to have self-control than to conquer a city.” ... And some say: One who can turn an enemy into his friend.
INCLUSIVE ETHICS
Rav Yehuda Amital explains that some matters were deliberately not framed as binding commandments. Instead, they are left as expressions of middat chasidut - מידת חסידות - voluntary acts of righteousness, so as to cultivate moral growth.
By contrast, a prime example of a binding commandment is: “And you shall love your neighbour as yourself” - ואהבת לרעך כמוך (Vayikra 19:18). Rashi cites Midrash Torat Kohanim (Kedoshim 2:4), where Rabbi Akiva calls this “a great principle of the Torah.” Yet Ben Azzai insists that an even greater principle is found in “This is the book of the generations of Adam” - זה ספר תולדות אדם (Bereshit 5:1), for it speaks to the dignity of all humanity.
From this comparison, Rav Amital highlights that our ethical tradition, while rooted within Israel, is inherently inclusive of all humankind.
MANY NATIONS BUT ONLY ONE HUMANITY
Babylonian Talmud Gittin 61a
The rabbis taught: “Provide for the poor of the gentiles with the poor of Israel, and visit the sick of the gentiles with the sick of Israel, and bury the dead of the Gentiles with the dead of Israel; for these are the paths of peace.”
Here the Sages extend the circle of care beyond the Jewish people, grounding universal responsibility in the pursuit of peace.
Lord Jakobovits echoed this expansive moral vision in his Templeton Prize address (27 May 1991): “Religion remains our principal defence against the erosion of moral values … Religion is also the best custodian of the national value system.”
Together, these voices, rabbinic and modern, affirm that Jewish ethics is not parochial. It is rooted in Torah yet embraces the welfare of all humanity, insisting that religion must safeguard universal moral values.
Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The Dignity of Difference, 2002
“Can we recognise God’s image in one who is not in my image? … Can I, a Jew, hear the echo of Gods voice in that of a Hindu, an Indian, a Sikh or Christian or Muslim?” p. 17
“The test of faith is whether I can make space for difference. Can I recognise God’s image in someone who is not in my image, whose language, faith, ideals are different from mine? … If I cannot, then I have made God in my image instead of allowing Him to remake me in His.” p. 201
WE ARE DEFINED BY COMMUNITY
Alasdair MacIntyre
After Virtue, 1981.
Chief Rabbi Sacks considered this one of the seminal texts of contemporary ethics and quoted it on many occasions.
“The story of my life is always embedded in the story of those communities from which I derive my identity. I am born with a past; and to try to cut myself off from that past, in the individualist mode, is to deform my present relationships.”
THE UNIVERSAL GOOD
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
Orot HaKodesh, vol. III, 1943
“The universal good - the good of all and for all - does not belong to one nation or one individual alone, but to the whole of existence. Whenever a nation or an individual strives to keep this good for themselves, they sin and corrupt both themselves and the world. Love of creatures and love of humanity must extend to all, and within that, the love of one’s own nation and its uniqueness is clarified.” p. 326
THE CRISIS IN ETHICAL THINKING
Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times, 2020
“Something happened to morality. When I went as an undergraduate to Cambridge University in the late 1960’s, the philosophy course was called moral sciences, meaning that just like natural sciences morality was an objective, real part of the external world. I soon discovered though that almost no one believed this anymore: morality was held to be no more than the expression of emotion or subjective feeling or private intuition or autonomous choice; it is whatever I choose it to be. To me this seemed less like civilization than the breakdown of civilization.”
Elie Wiesel
The Judges: A Novel, 2007, p. 188
“If the only prayer you say throughout your life is “Thank You”, then that will be enough.” p.188
“Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else’s death.” p. 201
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, 1955
“Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
Traditionally Attributed to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement... get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
“It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.”
