My Bible

In this session, the Chief Rabbi Professor Jonathan Sacks marked the launch of The Chief Rabbi’s Haggadah with a characteristic display of intellectual vibrancy and eloquence. He introduced some of the themes he explores in his commentary on the Haggadah through an exploration of how the story of the Exodus from Egypt has proved a source of inspiration to politicians and makers of history. In doing so, he showed how the book of Exodus and the festival of Pesach are both intensely political and an inspiration in contemporary struggles for freedom and human rights.

Chief Rabbi Sacks has published numerous books and articles. Some of his most recent publications include: The Chief Rabbi’s Haggadah (Collins 2003), The Dignity of Difference (Continuum 2002), Radical Then, Radical Now (Fount 2001), Celebrating Life (Fount 2000) and The Politics of Hope (Vintage 1997).

“Pesach is a prelude to a very particular kind of politics in the modern world, the politics that I have called in a couple of my books, The Dignity of Difference and The Politics of Hope, ‘covenantal politics’....The story of the Exodus, the story of the Seder night, decisively influenced the shape of freedom in the modern world.”