A supremely child-centered faith

Throughout history, Jews were called on to treasure children. Our entire value system is built on it. Our citadels are schools, our passion, education, and our greatest heroes, teachers. The seder service on Passover opens with questions asked by a child. On the first day of the New Year, we read not about the creation of the universe but about the birth of a child — Isaac to Sarah, Samuel to Hannah. Ours is a supremely child-centered faith.

That is why, at the dawn of Jewish time, God put Abraham and Sarah through these trials — the long wait, the unmet hope, the binding itself — so that neither they nor their descendants would ever take children for granted. Every child is a miracle. Being a parent is the closest we get to God — bringing life into being through an act of love.

Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation: Genesis