In his series “Covenant and Dialogue,” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (1948–2020) demonstrates that the rich rabbinic tradition of biblical exegesis is the result of years of meticulous inquiry and intense study.
In this book, the author not only reveals the symmetrical structures of Exodus and Genesis as a single unit, but also easily explains their civilizational significance according to the weekly reading text.
Frequently quoting prominent rabbis and contemporary scholars, the author illuminates the specific form of human freedom and just society that God desires in a world still rife with violence, and actively suggests a path to salvation for humanity, which is currently spiraling toward self-destruction.
In a reality where war, massacre, oppression, exploitation, consumerism, and destruction of nature are becoming more severe, and hostility and fake news are rampant, threatening democracy and putting human civilization on the brink of collapse, this book gives us a new understanding of the historical significance of God's liberation of slaves and the creation of a new nation, and how "Moses set fire to the souls of the Jews, and Aaron transformed that flame into 'eternal light.'"


It explains how to overcome hostility, violence, nihilism, and despair, what principles a just society must uphold, and why the construction of the tabernacle and the Sabbath are so important in the history of human civilization.
In particular, the author, who interprets the Pentateuch from the perspective of “the world’s greatest protest against imperialism,” sees the reason Moses “was afraid to see the face of God” as an inevitable choice of a believer confronting the atheistic nihilism of the meaninglessness of life and history, explains supernatural “miracles” in terms of existential “events,” and interprets the practical meaning of “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” in connection with the danger of priests’ vested interests brought about by Max Weber’s “ordinariness of charisma,” thereby showing the characteristics of post-Holocaust theology by suggesting the reason why God passed the responsibility for the salvation of the world onto God’s people instead of supernatural miracles.

By 2024, the world's forests and coral reefs have been destroyed at record levels (80% more forests than the previous year, and 84% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed).
The global average temperature has risen 2.5 times compared to the previous year, exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark, the disaster threshold.
The current rate of temperature rise is the first in 65 million years.
It is said that the temperature rise is accelerating and will rise by 2 degrees by 2045.
Scholars warn that this will gradually lead to the collapse of global agriculture, fisheries, and ocean circulation, leading to food and water shortages, rising sea levels, and wars before the temperature rises by 3 degrees Celsius, ultimately leading to the collapse of human civilization.
In exactly three years, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations will reach a 3-degree increase (550 ppm CO2e).

--- p.11

So Exodus tells a double story.
Yes, that's right.
God saved his people through a series of miracles.
But for those miracles to have a lasting impact on the people, the people themselves had to contribute to the liberation process.
There is an eternal message here.
People can be freed by external causes, in this case, by the intervention of God.
But they maintain that freedom through their own efforts.
It is not what God does for us, but what we do for God.
That changes us.
--- p.33

This is what Moses feared.
If he could “see the face of God,” if he could understand history from a heavenly perspective, he would have to come to terms with human suffering.
He will learn why suffering here is necessary for gain there, why bad things now are essential for good things later.
He will come to understand the ultimate justice of history.
That is precisely what Moses refused to do.
Because the price of such knowledge is too high.
He could understand the course of history from God's perspective, but only at the cost of ceasing to be human.
…such knowledge is divine, not human.

--- p.61~62

At the heart of most visions of the human condition is what Mircea Eliade (in his book Universe and History) calls “the terror of history.”
The passage of time is fraught with disaster, apparent randomness, and radical chance, posing a grave threat to human endeavors for order and consistency.
History seems to have no meaning.
…the universe gives no sign that it is interested in our existence.
If this was true in ancient times when people believed in God, how much more so must it be true today for neo-Darwinists who see life as nothing more than the workings of “chance and necessity” (Jacques Monod) or “the blind watchmaker” (Richard Dawkins).

--- p.92~93

Why on earth would they need silver and gold? The Israelites had to leave in a hurry, and the Egyptians were so urging them to leave that the dough didn't even have time to rise.
So why on earth did God force them to ask for a parting gift? What use could they possibly have had on their long journey through the wilderness? Our perplexity deepens when we remember what they actually did with the gold.
They used it to commit the worst sins of their time.
Soon they made a golden calf.


Editor's Note: During the New Kingdom period (1550-1070), Egypt was the world's leading producer of gold, enabling it to become a dominant power in the Mediterranean through trade.
In Egypt, gold not only had exchange value, but its eternal brilliance was also linked to the sun god (Ra), symbolizing divine power, eternity, and purity.
It was believed that offering gold to the gods would please them.
The famous “gold mask of Tutankhamun,” weighing over 10 kg, was intended to make the pharaoh a god in the afterlife.
--- p.126

The modern world was shaped by four revolutions.
That is, the British (1640), American (1776), French (1789), and Russian (1917) revolutions.
…in France it was “terrorism”, in Russia it was Stalinist communism.
The difference is that the English and American revolutions, led by the Puritans, were inspired by the Hebrew Bible.
The French and Russian Revolutions were inspired by philosophy.
…the reason revolutions fail is because we believe that changing power structures can change human behavior.
There is some truth to this, but there is also a fair amount of falsehood.

--- p.137

In other words, miracles do not necessarily suspend the laws of nature.
… more importantly, the moral message that such events convey.
…Emil Fackenheim spoke of “epoch-making events” that change the course of history.
… In a similar vein, French philosopher Alain Badiou proposed the concept of the “event” as a “rupture in ontology” in which an individual is confronted with a truth that transforms both himself and the world.

--- p.143

But the symbolism of the sea doesn't end there.
It reminds us of the ancient covenant-making ritual.
The key verb in the covenant is “to cut.”
One or more animal carcasses were cut open, and the covenant parties stood or sat between them.
The division of things that were generally integrated or whole symbolized the unification of previously divided entities (people, tribes, nations).
In this context, the key passage is the “splitting” of the covenant between God and Abraham in Genesis 15.
--- p.154

There is nothing like this in the history of human religious experience.
Ultimately, in Judaism, study will be a higher religious experience than prayer.
When most of Europe was illiterate, Jews were educated.
Through their research, Jews created a new and still fascinating form of human dignity and equality, made possible by the creation of the alphabet.
That is how the Jews became a “nation of priests.”
--- p.181

Editor's Note: According to a March 13, 2025 Atlantic article, about 70% of Israelis believe Prime Minister Netanyahu should resign, and according to the Jewish Policy Institute, 53% of American Jews distrust Prime Minister Netanyahu.
--- p.192

Throughout history, philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Kant, Bentham, and Mill have attempted to reduce the moral life to a few broad principles: rationality, sympathy, duty, or the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
But however important these principles are, if morality is to become the essence and structure of society, it must be translated into a code of conduct.
We are morally shaped by our daily actions and by the actions of others.
--- p.222

We do not believe in the idea of ​​“render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
We believe in the separation of powers, but not in the secularization of law or the spiritualization of faith.
The Sanhedrin or the Supreme Court must be located close to the Temple to teach that the law itself must be guided by a religious vision.
--- p.224

It is no coincidence that Judaism arose from two journeys away from two of the great civilizations of the ancient world.
That is, Abraham escaped from Mesopotamia, and Moses and the Israelites escaped from Pharaoh's Egypt.
The Torah is the world's greatest protest against empires and imperialism.
There are several dimensions to this protest.

--- p.235

Neither Kant's reason nor Hume's emotions were powerful enough to prevent Europe from mass murder.
…it is horrifying to think back on how seriously the Torah took xenophobia, that is, hatred of foreigners.
The Torah seems to be stating with the utmost clarity that reason is insufficient.
Empathy is lacking.
Only the power of history and memory is strong enough to form a counterweight to hatred.
--- p.237

Therefore, the creation of the tabernacle was a cosmic event.
In other words, it was a return to Eden and a repair to the exile between humans and God.
God will once again have a home, a dwelling place, among mankind.
It will be in the middle of the camp of the Israelites, so that they can travel there when they travel and rest there when they rest.
The people of Israel will no longer feel God's presence and intimacy only in moments of miracle or crisis.
It will be a daily occurrence and a constant awakening.
Only by doing so can we understand the parallels between the tabernacle and creation.
But clear questions remain.
--- p.256

The genius of Judaism was that the most important social good was knowledge.
…The symbol of this was the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the most important of all knowledge, the Torah.
The Torah is the written constitution of Israel as a nation under God's sovereignty.
If everyone has knowledge of the law, then everyone is a citizen in the fullest sense of the word (it is no exaggeration to say that Israel is a nation of constitutional experts).
…so that in the list of elements of the sanctuary, the Torah changes from the second person singular to the third person plural only here.

--- p.266

The foundation of everything else was the daily, undramatic, but essential service of the priests in the sanctuary and temple.
That was the living relationship between the Jewish people and God.
Judaism is at its core a priestly religion.
We can see this through the very composition of the Pentateuch.
The books of the Pentateuch are structured in a chiastic or mirror-image structure in the ABCBA format.
--- p.280

What is the essence of worship in Judaism? On this question, there was a fundamental disagreement between Maimonides (1138-1204, Spain) and Nahmanides (1194-1270, Spain), two of the greatest sages of the Middle Ages.
This will provide clues that will help us address key questions about the nature of Jewish spirituality, both in the distant past and in the living present.
--- p.282

Because the Jews as a whole, individually and collectively, were to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).
If the priest represents the routinization of charisma, Judaism, through the halakhic sanctification of everyday life, ultimately became the charismatization of routine.
--- p.310

How could Moses cite the people's stubbornness as the very reason God needed to be present among them? "Go with us, Lord.
What does Moses mean by “because” in the sentence “(because) it is true that this people are a stubborn people”?
--- p.314~315

The wise men said, “Adam bahul al mamono”, that the pursuit of wealth can lead us to do self-destructive things.
What happened in the tulip craze in the Netherlands in the late 16th century, the South Sea Bubble in the 1720s, and the Florida real estate boom in the 1920s all led to the Great Depression of 1929.
Exaggerated expectations lead to a wave of investment, fueled by rising prices, until the boom can no longer be sustained.
Like Jonah's gourd, it flourishes overnight and dies the next day.
Losers are usually those with the least economic power.
--- p.325

What is interesting is the treatment that the Torah suggests for the Golden Calf Syndrome.
Just before and after that incident (Exodus 31:12-17; 35:1-3), Moses gives commands to the Israelites.
Both times the command is the same: keep the Sabbath.
So why was this order given?
--- p.326~327

Ironically, the first stone tablets God created did not survive intact.
The second set of stone tablets, a joint work of God and Moses, remained intact.
Of course, it should have been the other way around.
That is, the greater the holiness, the more eternal it had to be.
Why on earth did the more sacred objects break while the less sacred ones remained intact? This question isn't limited to the stone tablets.
In fact, this is a powerful example of a fundamental principle of Jewish spirituality.
--- p.339

However, there is a marked difference between what God instructed Moses to build the sanctuary and what Moses instructed the people.
In the first case, in Parasha 'Ki Tisa', the Sabbath command appears at the end, after the details of the construction.
In the second case, in 'Bayakhel' the Sabbath command appears first, before the details of the construction.
Why is that?
--- p.347

Utopia has never been realized (the word “utopia” itself means “no place”).
There is one exception.
It is “the world to come.”
The reason is that we rehearse once a week, every week.
The Sabbath is not yet realized, but it is a full-fledged rehearsal for the ideal society that will come to pass.
Because we know what we are aiming for, and we experienced it firsthand.
--- p.350

The story of the creation of heaven and earth is only 34 verses long, but the story of the construction of the tabernacle is about 500 verses long.
It is not difficult for the Almighty God to create a home for mankind.
The difficulty is for finite and fallible humans to create a home for God.
This tells us that the Bible is not man's book about God, but God's book about man.
In other words, what God cares about is how we create, not how He creates.
--- p.361

Why on earth would Exodus, which focuses on the formation of a nation, include such a lengthy account of the construction of the tabernacle? It would more naturally belong in Leviticus, which deals with the service of the tabernacle itself.
In the Book of Exodus, which is dedicated to the liberation of the Israelites from slavery and their birth as a nation under God's sovereignty, what does the story of the tabernacle building do now?
--- p.362

This brings us to perhaps the deepest and most controversial issue contained in Exodus, and one that is central to the entire Tanakh.
In other words, without God, humans are bound to fail to create a just society.
Without God's presence, symbolized by the tabernacle at the center of the camp, humans would continue to oppress, fight, and exploit one another as they always have.
A just society cannot exist without some form of “yirat shamayim,” or “reverence for heaven.”

--- p.386