Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein

We instinctively look for the quickest most efficient path from where we are to where we want to be. But life rarely unfolds in straight lines. It twists, detours and doubles back, leaving us wondering whether we've lost time along the way. This week's parsha opens with a list: forty-two stops, forty years, for a journey Rashi says should have taken eleven days. Rashi also brings a midrash: God re...

After countless hours of searching, I thought the picture was complete. We had found the heart of Avot - the Torah of who you become, the third pillar of Jewish life - and mapped it across the whole tractate. Everything felt like it made sense. Then I noticed something I couldn't explain. Woven in among all the mishnayos about character and Torah learning, are mishnayos about action. About mitzvah...

The theory was beautiful. The Maharal, the Vilna Gaon, the Rambam, all pointing to the same conclusion: that Pirkei Avot is the third pillar of Torah, the book of who you become. But where was that picture actually visible in the text? In Part 3 of his series, the Chief opens his notebook, and lays out all 126 mishnayos of Avot. He counts. He categorises. And slowly, what had been there all along...

This episode is the next stage of my personal journey to discover the soul of Pirkei Avot. It is a search for what lies at the heart of the human being, and what Pirkei Avot empowers us to become. In the previous episode, I shared a discovery that had taken me years to reach. I thought I had finally discovered the central idea of Pirkei Avot. I assumed, at that point, that the journey was almost o...

I spent years learning it, teaching it, writing about it. Then one day I stopped and realised I had never asked what Pirkei Avot actually is.  What I found changed how I understand almost everything else. Many of us grew up with Pirkei Avot. Its teachings feel like something we have always known. If not now, when? Acquire yourself a friend. The world stands on three things. There is a warmth and f...

We are always looking for something new. A new place to go, a view we haven't seen, a fresh experience to inspire the spirit. There is a deep restlessness in being human, and no superficial experience  ever quite settles it. In this week's talk for Shavuot - the festival whose name means weeks, the festival of the journey - the Chief Rabbi opens with this restlessness, and what it tells us about w...

We all reach for structure. Routines, habits, the small repetitions that hold a day together. Without them, life can feel like chaos. In this week's talk on the Parsha of Bamidbar, the Torah describes the Israelite camp arranged with extraordinary order around the Mishkan, every tribe in its place. The Chief Rabbi argues that structure is not just helpful. It is one of the deepest psychological an...

Something astounding has just happened in America. In an official presidential proclamation marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, the President has called on Jewish Americans to observe a national Shabbat — from sunset Friday 15 May to nightfall Saturday 16 May. In over 3,300 years of Jewish history, no head of state has ever officially recognised Shabbat in this way and called on Je...

We live in an age of headlines. One event follows another so quickly. Wars and crises. History can begin to feel fragmented and almost impossible to understand. But the Torah asks us to step back and see something larger. In this week's talk on the Parsha of Behar-Bechukotai, the Torah confronts us with one of the most difficult questions in Jewish thought: how do we understand suffering, history,...

We all have values. Family. Faith. Integrity. Honesty in business. Loyalty in marriage. We list them so easily it can feel like having them is settled. In this week's talk on the Parsha of Emor, the Chief Rabbi opens with a question that sounds simple. It turns out not to be: what is a value? We begin somewhere unexpected: economics. In economic terms, something is worth only what someone is prepa...

In this Day of Remembrance address, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein responds directly to Pope Leo, and says what the world needs to hear. Yom HaZikaron is a day of remembrance. A day to mourn those who lost their lives, and to stand with the families who carry that loss. It is also a day on which something must be said. In a world of moral confusion, where religious leaders like Pope Leo fail to d...

We all have a sense of who we are. It feels obvious. Familiar. But that picture is likely incomplete. Where does the self begin, and where does it end? In this week's parsha, we encounter the command: "Love your neighbour as yourself." What is the "self" we are being asked to understand? Drawing on the teachings of Pirkei Avot and the insights of our sages, including the profound perspective of Ra...

The way we speak feels simple. We describe what we see, respond to what happens, and share our thoughts with others. Words appear to express reality. But the Torah presents a very different perspective. In this week's talk on the Parsha of Tazria-Metzora, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein explores a deeper understanding of how the way we speak shapes the world in which we live. We are taught what to...

Gratitude is one of the most familiar ideas in human life. We teach it to children, express it to others, and speak about it often. Yet the deeper meaning of gratitude is not always obvious. As Pesach approaches, the Jewish people return to the story that lies at the heart of our national memory: the Exodus from Egypt. At the Seder table we recount the miracles, the redemption, and the journey fro...

Work is often measured in terms of employment and economic survival.  To understand its deeper meaning is to begin seeing life itself in a different way. In this week's parsha, the Torah begins with a surprising image. A Kohen, dressed in sacred garments, performs what appears to be a simple cleaning task: removing the ashes from the altar. On the surface, this seems menial. Yet the Torah treats i...

Miracles captivate the imagination. But what are they? Do they still exist? What do they reveal? These may seem like distant, philosophical questions. But, to understand miracles is to discover something that changes how we see the world, and how we live within it. And Pesach is the time to do it. As the Jewish people enter the month of Nissan, preparing for Pesach, the Torah places the miracles o...

Almost everything important in life happens with other people. Marriage. Family. Business. Community. Society. These relationships shape us in powerful ways. They can bring out our greatest strengths, and sometimes our most difficult character traits as well. It is often in the presence of other people that we feel jealousy, competition, or the desire for recognition. These moments can feel uncomf...

Setbacks and mistakes are part of being human. But for many people, the real struggle isn't the failure itself. It's what comes after. Some respond with perfectionism. Others settle for mediocrity. Both of these responses miss something fundamental about life. In the Parsha of Ki Tisa, the Torah records one of the most devastating moments in Jewish history: the shattering of the first tablets. And...

To view what is happening in Iran, merely in military and political terms would be a mistake. It is Biblical. This week, as Jews throughout the world prepare to read the Book of Esther, events of historic magnitude are unfolding in the very land once known as Persia. Iran and Israel stand in direct confrontation. The Middle East has been reshaped in ways few believed possible only months ago. The...

There are moments in life when everything shifts. Circumstances change. Crisis strikes. You find yourself somewhere you never expected to be. In the story of Purim, Queen Esther faces such a moment. A decree has been sealed. The future hangs in the balance. She hesitates. Mordechai's response to her is simple, and seismic: "Who knows if it was for this moment that you became queen?" If nothing in...

A house protects us from the elements. A home provides something far deeper.  What is it about the human soul that refuses to settle for shelter alone? In the Parsha of Terumah, the Torah commands the building of the Mishkan, a sanctuary that becomes a dwelling place for the Divine Presence. Redemption from Egypt is followed not only by freedom, but by the act of building a home for Hashem. Why? W...

The recent Roedean antisemitism scandal began when they refused to play a scheduled tennis match against King David. The incident generated national uproar, investigations, and fierce public debate. But this moment is about more than a match. At first glance, it appears to be a dispute within two respected South African schools. Yet beneath the surface lies a larger tension. It is a tension that t...

Justice is easy to think of as something that happens outside of ourselves: in courts, in governments, and in society. It sounds powerful in debate, clear in principle, and noble in theory. But what happens when it is out of the public eye? What happens when there is no judge, no audience? That is where the real test begins. In this talk on the Parsha of Mishpatim, Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein...

There is a human superpower that every person possesses, yet so often it remains underutilised and underdeveloped. Not because it is difficult, but because it looks like nothing at all. It appears passive, unimpressive, almost invisible. And yet it may be the most powerful capacity a person can master. In this talk on the Parsha of Yitro, Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein explores why listening may...

South Africa's expulsion of Israel's senior diplomat is one of the most extreme diplomatic actions a government can take. It shows how much President Ramaphosa and his government hate Israel and the Jews: that the government is prepared to let its own people die rather than concede that its foreign policy on Israel is misguided.  And that is why the President is a cursed leader of a cursed party....