There is a deep psychological need to find paradise - a state of bliss without stress, duty or struggle. Entire industries are built around that longing: leisure, entertainment, escape.

Perhaps it is a yearning for the Garden of Eden we once had, and then lost. We have been searching for paradise ever since.

But what are we really seeking? And are we looking in the right place?

In this talk on Parshat Vayeitzei, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein explores Jacob's dream - a ladder planted on the earth, reaching into the heavens - and reveals the Torah's model for finding the paradise we seek.

Drawing on Pirkei Avot (2:17), "All your deeds should be for the sake of heaven," and the Rambam's introduction to Pirkei Avot, Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein shows how Jacob's dream becomes a blueprint for daily life. Yaakov was about to begin an ordinary journey: earning a living, building a family, working in the marketplace. God shows him the ladder to teach him: what looks mundane can be connected to heaven.

Viktor Frankl taught that the deepest human need is not pleasure but meaning.

The Torah taught this centuries earlier: paradise is not escape. It is purpose. It is living with direction, holiness, and connection to something higher.

Key Insights

• We're all searching for paradise, but often looking in the wrong place.

• Jacob's ladder shows that ordinary actions can connect earth to heaven.

• "All your deeds should be for the sake of heaven" - Pirkei Avot 2:17.

• The mundane can be part of a divine mission.

• "God is in this place, and I didn't know."

• Meaning, not pleasure, is the deepest human need.

• The Shechinah rests with those who live for the sake of heaven.

Life is short.

The average human lifespan of 4000 weeks is, as Oliver Burkeman says, "absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short". No increased productivity or efficiency can escape the limits of our mortality.

How do we live with this? How do we confront the fact that our time is finite, and that nothing we do can change that?

To explore this question, Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein contrasts Oliver Burkeman's book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, with the Torah's much deeper framework for understanding time itself.

In this talk on Parshat Toldot, we examine the encounter between Yaakov and Esav as a case study in how human beings respond to mortality. Esav declares, "I am going to die. Of what use is the birthright to me?" His philosophy is simple: if everything ends, then only the present matters.

But the Torah offers a radically different view.

Pirkei Avot teaches that "this world is a prozdor - a corridor - before the next," we discover that the way out of the 4,000 weeks is not by stretching them, but by using them to reach something beyond: eternity.

Time is the most precious resource we possess. It is life itself. There is much to be done. And the task is impossible to finish. Yet our lives do not need to be tragic. They can be heroic.

This is a lesson about time, purpose, mortality - and the heroic dignity of the human condition.

Key Insights:

• Life is about 4,000 weeks - and we cannot escape that limit.

• Esav's mistake: "I am going to die. What use is the birthright to me?"

• This world is a prozdor leading to Olam Haba - Pirkei Avot 4:21.

• The way out of the 4,000 weeks is through them and toward eternity.

• "If not now, when?" Rashi teaches: if I don't do it here, I cannot do it there.

• Time becomes meaningful when it becomes eternal.

• Priority is the essence of Torah time management.

• We are born in the middle of things, we die in the middle of things.

• We are mortal, but also heroic - limited beings with access to infinity.

I was invited by The Common Sense - South Africa's newest and most exciting online publication, led by Dr Frans Cronje - for a long-form interview about my journey since October 7th.

In this conversation with Gabriel Makin, I reflect on leading the South African Jewish community through crisis, and standing up to the anti-Israel campaign advanced on behalf of Iran and Hamas.

In this wide-ranging interview, the Chief Rabbi speaks about what it meant to guide the community through two years of uncertainty, pressure, and historic responsibility. The discussion explores the events after the October 7th massacre, the war that followed, the battle of ideas in South Africa, the challenge of rising antisemitism worldwide, and the moral and strategic lessons that have emerged.

This is a conversation about leadership in a time of crisis — the decisions, the dilemmas, the inner work, and the profound sense of mission that shaped these last two years.

• Leadership under pressure - what crisis reveals about values and character

• South Africa's political crossroads and the ANC's stance on Israel

• Why public mobilisation of ordinary citizens matters

• The global struggle against jihadist extremism

• The moral foundations of Western civilisation

• Faith, meaning, and the erosion of spiritual confidence in the modern world

• Lessons from Israel's resilience and miracle-filled survival

• Why true leadership demands responsibility, courage, and clarity