Focus on the mind and the soul. Read. Study. Enrol in a course

Jonathan Sacks, teacher of nations and shepherd of souls, exhorts with fervor: “Focus on the mind and the soul. Read. Study. Enrol in a course of lectures. Pray. Become a member of a religious congregation. Study the Bible or other ancient works of wisdom.” In these words he unveils a path both ancient and enduring—the cultivation of the mind and the soul as the true labor of a human life. Not wealth, nor conquest, nor fleeting pleasure, but the pursuit of knowledge, the practice of prayer, and the fellowship of the faithful lead man into wholeness.

The ancients themselves revered such a balance. Plato declared that the soul must be trained as carefully as the body, lest it fall into disorder. The prophets of Israel, whom Sacks knew well, called men not only to justice in their deeds but to meditation upon the Torah, the living word that fed both intellect and spirit. Thus Sacks continues this lineage, urging modern men and women to sit at the feet of both study and prayer, where wisdom is deepened and the soul made strong.

History shows us luminous examples. Augustine of Hippo, restless in youth, sought satisfaction in pleasure and ambition. Yet it was through reading sacred texts, through prayer, and through joining himself to a community of believers that his soul was transformed. His Confessions stand as eternal witness that the life of the mind and soul, pursued together, can lead one from darkness into light.

Sacks’s counsel also strikes against the shallow distractions of modern life. He bids us to study ancient works of wisdom not because they are old, but because they are enduring. Civilizations rise and fall, yet the words of prophets, sages, and philosophers remain as lanterns in the night. To neglect them is to wander blindly; to embrace them is to anchor oneself in truths that time cannot erode.

Let the generations remember: to read, to study, to pray, to join in fellowship, is not weakness but strength, not retreat but renewal. For the man who nourishes both mind and soul becomes like a tree planted by living waters, unshaken by storm and fruitful in season. He who turns to ancient wisdom walks not alone, but with the company of ages, guided by voices that whisper still across time. And this is the legacy Sacks leaves: a call to live deeply, to seek truth tirelessly, and to let the eternal shape the fleeting days of our mortal journey.