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During the month of Adar, we are enjoined to increase our joy. But what is joy, how is it different from happiness, and how can we get more of it?
Join Dr Shira Weiss, co-editor of An Ode to Joy: Judaism and Happiness in the Thought of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Beyond, Dr Tamra Wright, and Gila Sacks for a conversation about the legacy of Rabbi Sacks as it is conveyed through this collection of essays and reflections by 45 educators, scholars, and members of the Sacks family.
An Ode to Joy: Judaism and Happiness in the Thought of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Beyond
Edited by Erica Brown & Shira Weiss
As Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth for over two decades, Rabbi Sacks offered a universal message cultivated from the Jewish and Western cannons he knew so well. One concept that figured prominently in his work was joy. “I think of Judaism as an ode to joy,” he once wrote. “Like Beethoven, Jews have known suffering, isolation, hardship, and rejection, yet they never lacked the religious courage to rejoice.” In this volume, organized by the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership, academics and writers explore the significance of joy within the Jewish tradition. These essays and reflections discuss traditional Jewish primary sources, including Biblical, Rabbinic and Hebrew literature, Jewish history and philosophy, education, the arts, and positive psychology, and of course, through the prism of Lord Sacks’ work.
Speakers
Dr. Shira Weiss is the Assistant Director of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. Dr. Weiss teaches Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University's Bernard Revel Graduate School and has previously taught at Stern College for Women. She holds a PhD in Jewish Philosophy from Revel, an EdD from Azrieli, a BA from Stern College, and has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment of Humanities, The Templeton Foundation, Ben Gurion and Oxford Universities. She is the author of Joseph Albo on Free Choice (Oxford, 2017), Ethical Ambiguity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, 2018), co-author of The Protests of Job: An Interfaith Dialogue (Palgrave, 2022), as well as articles in academic journals and anthologies.
Gila Sacks is a senior civil servant in the UK Government, currently Director of Medicines in the Department for Health and Social Care. Prior to working in health, she held roles in the Departments for Education, Business, Digital, and in No10, as well as in the voluntary sector. She has learnt, taught, and volunteered across the UK Jewish community.
Dr Tamra Wright is a Senior Adjunct Professor at Yeshiva University, Curriculum Development Advisor at Faith in Leadership, Senior Research Fellow at LSJS, and the founder of 2020 Torah. She is the author of The Twilight of Jewish Philosophy: Emmanuel Levinas’s Ethical Hermeneutics (1999), co-editor of Face to Face with Animals: Levinas and the Animal Question (2019) and Radical Responsibility: Celebrating the Thought of Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (2012). She has published numerous articles on contemporary Jewish thought and, more recently, on Judaism and Positive Psychology. Her article "Serve God with Joy (and Self-Actualization): Positive Psychology and the Thought of Rabbi Sacks" is included in An Ode to Joy.
Rabbi Sacks photo courtesy of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy.