Meaningful Mitzvos: To Change The World Start With Why by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
In a much-watched TED Talk, Simon Sinek asked the following question: how do great leaders inspire action? What made people like Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs stand out from their contemporaries who may have been no less gifted, no less qualified? His answer: Most people talk about what. Some people talk about how. Great leaders, though, start with why. This is what makes them transformative.“What is this?” asks the rabbi. “I am a learned rabbi and he is only a taxi driver who, not to put too fine a point on it, drove like a lunatic.”
“Exactly so,” replies the angel. “When you spoke, people slept. But when they got into his taxi, believe me, they prayed!”
Torah and Teshuva: The Great Equalizers by Rabbi Pinchas Landis
Dissent and rebellion within the Jewish people is not a new thing; in fact, it goes back to the very inception of our nation. Just 40 days after the mass revelation at Mount Sinai, when every Jew was raised to the level of Prophecy, several Jews participated in the Golden Calf.
The Crown Of Torah: A Legacy For All Who Earn It by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The Torah tells us of a man named Tzelophchad who died leaving no male heirs. His five daughters went to Moshe with a question. It had been decided that sons would inherit their portion of the land of Israel from their fathers, but since this man had left no sons, his daughters asked if they might instead inherit from their father. Moshe asked God and the request was granted. Then Moshe asked a question of his own: “[Abraham], the patriarch of the legal profession: a defense lawyer for the damned, who is willing to risk everything, even the wrath of God, in defense of his clients.”
“What is this?” asks the rabbi. “I am a learned rabbi and he is only a taxi driver who, not to put too fine a point on it, drove like a lunatic.”
“Exactly so,” replies the angel. “When you spoke, people slept. But when they got into his taxi, believe me, they prayed!”
