10 Lessons from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l

Become co-authors with God of the world that ought to be

I just finished his fascinating book, “To Heal a Fractured World”. The book was so inspiring and thought provoking to me, I intend on writing a more detailed summary on it in the near future.

In the last chapter of the book he listed life lessons, I can’t help but sharing a few of them in this shorter post.

“I make no claim to wisdom”, he writes, “but this I have learned:

1) That each of us is here for a purpose.
2) Where what we want to do and what needs to be done, that is where God wants us to be.
3) That even the smallest good deed can change someones life.
4) That what counts is not how much wealth we make but how much of what we have we share.
5) Those who spend at least part of their lives in service of others are the most fulfilled and happiest people.
6) That there is no greater gift we can give our children than to let them see us sacrifice something for the sake of an ideal.
7) That each situation in which we find ourselves did not happen by accident: we are here, now, in this place, among these people, in these circumstances, so that we can do the act or say the word that will heal one of the fractures of the world.
8) To help others is a privilege even more than it is an opportunity.
9) That pain and loneliness are forms of energy that can be transformed if we turn them outward, using them to recognize and redeem someone else’s pain and loneliness.
10) That the best way of receiving a blessing is to be a blessing.