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The Office of Rabbi Sacks

Freedom Means Telling the Story (Rabbi Sacks on Ki Tavo, Covenant & Conversation)

The Office of Rabbi Sacks

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Religion & Spirituality

4.8601 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2024

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to Covenant & Conversation essays, Rabbi Sacks' commentary on the weekly Torah portion, explores new ideas and sharing inspiration from the Torah readings of the week. You can find both the video and the full written article on Ki Tavo available to watch, read, print, and share, by visiting: https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/ki-tavo/freedom-means-telling-the-story/ A new FAMILY EDITION is now also available: https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-family-edition/ki-tavo/freedom-means-telling-the-story/ For more articles, videos, and other material from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks. The Rabbi Sacks Legacy continues to share weekly inspiration from Rabbi Sacks. This piece was originally written and recorded by Rabbi Sacks in 2011. With thanks to the Schimmel Family for their generous sponsorship of Covenant & Conversation, dedicated in loving memory of Harry (Chaim) Schimmel.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I want, if I may, to focus in on one law in a strange way.

0:05.0

I want you to conduct a little thought experiment.

0:09.0

Just in your mind, walk around the great monuments in Washington.

0:14.0

The first thing you see there is a 15-foot high statue of Abraham Lincoln.

0:20.0

And do you know what's on either side in the monument?

0:24.6

If you have a look, on the one side, there is the Gettysburg Address, that brilliant speech

0:29.6

of his 286 words, two minutes to say, I wish I could speak so briefly.

0:34.6

One of the greatest speeches ever given.

0:36.6

On the other side, Lincoln's famous second inaugural.

0:41.3

Walk on a little bit and you will come to the Roosevelt Memorial.

0:46.3

And on the Roosevelt Memorial, you would see it's designed in a series of rooms,

0:51.3

and on each of the walls, the key sayings of Roosevelt during that particular period of his life.

0:58.4

Like for instance, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

1:02.5

And you will see all those quotes up there on the Roosevelt Memorial.

1:07.6

Keep walking around that lovely lake there with the cherry blossom trees and you eventually get to the Jefferson Memorial. Keep walking around that lovely lake there with the cherry blossom trees and you eventually get to the Jefferson Memorial.

1:14.6

And there in the Jefferson Memorial you will see, of course, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, etc., etc.

1:23.6

In other words, every one of those memorials tells a story.

1:30.3

It's there in words, in writing, they tell a story.

1:34.3

Now, walk around London and look at all the monuments.

1:38.3

There are as many monuments in London as there are in Washington, and you will see that none of them tells a story.

1:46.0

Even the Churchill Memorial says one word, Churchill.

1:52.0

The man who delivered more memorable sentences than anyone in recent British history,

...

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