The Pursuit of Joy (Rabbi Sacks on Ki Tavo, Covenant & Conversation)

The Rabbi Sacks Legacy

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to Rabbi Sacks' commentary on the weekly Torah portion. This series of Covenant & Conversation essays examines the ethics we can derive from the Torah, week-by-week, parsha by parsha. You can find the full written article on Ki Tavo available to read, print, and share, by visiting: www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/ki-tavo/the-pursuit-of-joy/ For more articles, videos, and other material from Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org and follow @RabbiSacks. The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust continues to share weekly inspiration from Rabbi Sacks. This piece was originally written and recorded by Rabbi Sacks in 2015. Covenant & Conversation on Ethics is kindly supported by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation in memory of Maurice and Vivienne Wohl z”l.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Pursuit of Joy.
0:02.8	Happiness, said Aristotle, is the ultimate good at which all humans aim.
0:08.8	But in Judaism, it isn't necessarily so.
0:12.6	Happiness is a high value, Ashrey.
0:16.0	The closest Hebrew word to happiness is the first word of the book of Psalms. We say the prayer known as
0:22.6	Ashra three times each day. We can surely endorse the phrase in the American Declaration of Independence
0:29.2	that among the inalienable rights of humankind are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
0:36.0	But Asheray is not the central value of the Hebrew Bible.
0:40.3	Occurring almost ten times as frequently is the word simcha, joy.
0:46.3	It's one of the fundamental themes of Deuteronomy as a book. Therutzerac appears only once.
0:53.3	In Genesis, once in Exodus, once in Leviticus and once in
0:57.7	numbers, but no less than 12 times in Deuteronomy.
1:01.7	It lies at the heart of the mosaic vision of life in the land of Israel.
1:07.0	That is where we serve God with joy.
1:14.5	Joy plays a key role in two contexts in this week's parishes.
1:19.4	One has to do with the bringing of Bikurim first fruits to the temple in Jerusalem.
1:23.8	After describing the ceremony that took place, the terror concludes,
1:28.3	then you will rejoice in all the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family, along with the Levites and the stranger in your midst.
1:32.5	The other context is quite different and actually astonishing.
1:36.0	It occurs in the context of the curses.
1:38.3	There are two passages of the curses that Tohaka in the Torah, one in Leviticus 26 in
1:44.0	Parshad Bukhotho Kota and the other here in Deuteronomy 28.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.