WELCOMING SHABBAT

SHABBAT IS MORE THAN A DAY OF REFRAINING FROM WORDLY ACTIVITY 
WHEN EXPERIENCED IN ITS SPIRITUAL FULLEST, ITS HOLINESS ENGLIGHTENS ALL OTHER DAYS OF THE WEEK
WE INVITE YOU TO ENHANCE YOUR SHABBAT WITH THESE WORDS OF TORAH 

Doing and Hearing

by Sacks, Rabbi Lord Jonathan ZT"L

Then he took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said,

“All that Hashem has spoken we will faithfully do!” (Exodus 24:7)

 

“[Na’aseh Ve’nishma] has often been used to characterise Jewish faith as a whole. Judaism is a community of doing rather than of ‘hearing.’ There is an authoritative code of Jewish law. When it comes to halachah, the way of Jewish doing, we seek consensus.

 

[While] there are undoubtedly principles of Jewish faith, when it comes to spirituality there is no single normative Jewish approach. Judaism has had its priests and prophets, its rationalists and mystics, its philosophers and poets. Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, speaks in a multiplicity of voices.

 

[This] is the difference between na’aseh and nishma. We do the Godly deed ‘together.’ We respond to His commands ‘with one voice.’ But we hear God’s presence in many ways, for though God is one, we are all different, and we encounter Him each in our own way.”

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