I enjoyed reading the passage by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as well as the Shabbat as a Sanctuary

I enjoyed reading the passage by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks as well as the Shabbat as a Sanctuary in Time passage by Abraham Heschel. However, I am choosing to write about Rabbi Jonathan Sacks passage from the Future Tense book because it covered more aspects of Judaism in my opinion.

I found the reading very beautiful, it does a great job at explaining what Judaism believes in to people from outside this religion. It covers many many aspects of Jewish life in only about 24 pages.

I learnt that Judaism preaches that one must never give up and that the future is the golden age. I think this belief is a really beautiful belief. It encourages people to love life and not become pessimistic due to certain historical events. It gives people hope and purpose. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says: “We are free because we face an open future: open because it depends on us. We know the beginning of our story, but we do not yet know how it will end.” (page 243). I would argue that this is a great way to approach life. Even for religious people, to say that future will be beautiful just because we have God/gods on our side is not enough. People should take action and strive towards creating a better future for themselves and the world. This attitude that Judaism teaches have allowed Jews to remain strong through out the history. Jews have often been the target in the past such as years of slavery in Egypt, the Holocaust, the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Six Day War, etc. However, Jews have continued to survive and work towards creating a better future, they have never gave up. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks talks about Jews persistence and desire to create a better future when he says: “So it is no accident that in the modern world many Jews became economists fighting poverty, or doctors combating diseases, lawyers contesting injustice, or teachers battling ignorance, or psychotherapists striving to defeat despair.” (page 248)

The reading did not create any confusion for me. In fact, it simplified what Judaism believes in and made it easy to understand for someone from outside this religion.

I agree with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his thoughts about the future. One of the biggest differences between humans and other living organisms is our extensive ability to think about the future. Therefore, it is important to use that capability to create a better future through our actions.