Why did God create mankind? Because God likes stories.

We have lots of heroes today - sportsmen, supermodels, media personalities. They come, they have their 15 minutes of fame, and they go. But the influence of good teachers stays with us. They are the people who really shape our lives.

In our interconnected world, we must learn to feel enlarged, not threatened, by difference - that is what I have argued.

Israel is a democratic state with an independent judiciary, a free press and a diverse population of many cultures, religions and creeds.

Happiness is not made by what we own. It is what we share.

Religious ritual is a way of structuring time so that we, not employers, the market or the media, are in control. Life needs its pauses, its chapter breaks, if the soul is to have space to breathe.

The message of Passover remains as powerful as ever. Freedom is won not on the battlefield but in the classroom and the home. Teach your children the history of freedom if you want them never to lose it.