Jerusalem Launch of Radical Responsibility

Moderator Gila Fine, Editor-in-Chief of Maggid Books, opening remarks, followed by talks from Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau and Professor Moshe Halbertal. 

Rabbi Sacks: [in Hebrew, translated in the subtitles] Dear Rabbi Benny Lau, dear Professor Moshe Halbertal, rabbis and dear kind audience, I gladly accept the rebuke of Rabbi Benny Lau, and so I will try and say a few words in Hebrew. In Hebrew I am not fluent, but there is a story of a rabbi - I don't recall his name - but he spoke 10 languages and every one was Yiddish. I speak three languages, every one of them is English.

But in my broken Hebrew, first of all, I want to say, heartfelt thanks to Rav Benny Lau, Rav Moshe Halbertal, for their contributions this evening, and to the book, and to all the contributors of the book. 

This is the nicest gift I’ve ever received in my life.

Why?

Rabbi Yosef Dov Solveitschik zt”l wrote a famous article in “The Lonely Man of Faith.” When you go against the current, it is very easy to feel that you are alone. Are you all familiar with this feeling? “Eicha esa levadi”?

When I read this book, with these great people, giants of our generation, who have read my books and sometimes agree with what I’ve written, I don;t feel alone any more.

It is said [in the Talmud] “Or chevruta or mituta,” Chevruta or death. You’ve given me life, really… I really bless you, and mainly God, and I say “Shechechiyanu.”

As you know, I have… how do you say in Hebrew?...  a day job. I’m a rabbi. I’m even the Chief Rabbi.

But during the wee hours of the night, I read books. And sometimes, I write books. Why? 

This is my confession.

Since I deal with religious politics - and religious politics contaminates the hands, and I need to purify myself in the mikveh. And for me, to read books is a mikvah which purifies man from all the politics and the chaos of the rabbis, etc. etc.

I believe that most of the civilisations in history and in contemporary society believed in the idea of power.

Jews believe in the power of the idea, of ideas. And the idea for me, the essence of Judaism, is that Judaism is God’s call to us, God’s call to the responsibility of humankind. To be Jewish is not to see poverty, suffering, hardship, exploitation and mourning, and say, “Such is the way of the world,” or “Such is God’s will.”  

To be a Jew is to say, “No! I hear God calling to me. To be His partner in the act of creation.”

Judaism is Hashem’s call to us to change the world, to turn the world upside-down, to heal a fractured world.

This I believe with complete faith. And I thank Rabbi Benny Lau, Rabbi Moshe Halbertal… this is our common ground between us.  And I thank them.

And now I begin to speak in English so that at least I can understand what I'm saying. 

I also thank Gila Fine for her wonderful words. And I am reminded of an American ambassador who once said, “Compliments are fine so long as you don't inhale.”

But let me share with you the idea that lies behind my work. Here it is. In 1756, Voltaire published, that great defender of liberty, a violently antisemitic article on the Jews, in which he said, “The Jews were ignorant and a superstitious people who had contributed nothing to human civilisation.”

Within two centuries of his uttering those words, Jews had transformed the civilisation of the West. They created between them many of the most foundational concepts of modern thought. In physics, Einstein. In sociology, Durkheim. In anthropology, Levi Strauss. In philosophy, Spinoza, Bergson, Wittgenstein. In music, Mahler and Schoenberg. In literature, everyone from Proust to Kafka to Agnon to Isaac Bashevis Singer to Bellow to Philip Roth. 20% of Nobel Prizes in chemistry. 26% of Nobel Prizes in physics. 27% in medicine. 41% in economics.

When it comes to apikorsim, we gave the world many of its biggest apikorsim. This is something. Three of the four great apikorsim of the modern world were Jewish. Spinoza, Marx and Freud. The only one who wasn't Jewish was Charles Darwin. Why Charles Darwin wasn't Jewish, I have no idea.

He had every qualification. Big beard, total apikores. It must have been a random genetic mutation.

Everything from Irving Berlin to Isaiah Berlin. We gave the world all the psychoanalysts except Jung. Freud, Adler, Menelikin, Arthur Rank. The Jews had all the psychoanalysts. Mind you, who except Jews needs a psychoanalyst? 

The truth is that a great British writer, actually a Catholic, the late Lord William Rees-Mogg, former Editor of the Times, wrote, ”Jews have taught Christians how to think and anyone who does not think as a Jew cannot be said to think at all.”

Extraordinary thing for a non-Jew to say.

But now I ask you a very simple question. How many of those great intellects were connected positively with their Jewish identity or their Jewish heritage? Just a handful. For two centuries, Judaism has lost many of its finest minds.

Paul Johnson, a great non-Jewish historian, who wrote a terrific book called “A History of the Jews,” described rabbinic Judaism as “An ancient and highly sophisticated social machine for the production of intellectuals.” For two centuries, Judaism has lost its intellectuals. 

Now, in the other direction, those Jews who remained faithful to Judaism - with some exceptions - by and large, turned inward.

Their connection between the rabbinical minds and chochmat haOlam, the culture of the world, I mean, the Midrash says, “Im yomru lecha yesh tora baGoyim al ta’amin, im yomru lecha yesh chochma baGoyim, ta’amin.” There is wisdom in the world. 

But for two centuries, many of them have not wanted to open their minds, their eyes, their hearts, to the wisdom of the world. And as a result, that creative encounter between the particular and the universal, between Torah and Chochma, represented by Sa’adia Gaon or Yehuda Halevi or the Rambam, that world has almost disappeared.

Today, there are more Jews at university than ever before in the whole of Jewish history. There are more Jews at yeshiva today than at any time hitherto in Jewish history. More in yeshiva today than in the great days of Mir and Ponovitch and Volozhin. More Jews in yeshiva today than in the days of the yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita where the Talmud Bavli was born. I have to tell you, more Jews in university, more Jews in yeshiva, but the connection between university and yeshiva is weaker than it has been at least in my lifetime. 

There is a rare form of cerebral lesion in which the right and left hemispheres of the brain are both intact, but the connection between them is broken. And the result is a dysfunction of the personality. I believe the whole Jewish people today is suffering from that cerebral lesion. And that is at an intellectual level.

At an existential level, this translates out into two very powerful phenomena. What are the biggest movements in Jewish life over the last two centuries? Number one, the huge movement of Jews engaging with the world, contributing to the world, by turning their backs on their Jewish identity. They only wanted to be universal. They didn't want to be particular. They didn't want to be Jewish. As Jackie Mason always says, “They laugh at my jokes and then they say, too Jewish.”

They don't want to be too Jewish. Shlomo Carlebach, the late, beloved Shlomo Carlebach, who spent a lifetime going around to American campuses, summed up the experience of a lifetime when he said, “I go around to students and I ask them, ‘What are you?’ And if somebody gets up and says, ‘I'm a Protestant,’ I know that's a Protestant. And if somebody gets up and says, ‘I'm a Catholic,’ I know that's a Catholic. And if somebody gets up and says, ‘I'm just a human being,’ I know that's a Jew.” 

So they are the universal. 

On the other hand, the remarkable fact today is that the fastest growing group in the Jewish world, in Israel and everywhere else that there are Jews, are the Jews who are completely segregated from the world. The Jews who have turned inward. Those Jews have performed a miracle. They lost 90% of their numbers in the Shoah. All that remained was an ud mutzal m’eish, a brand plucked from the burning. But today their communities are growing phenomenally and are becoming a major, major force in Jewish life throughout the world. 

And that, on the one hand, is a tremendous achievement of faith, and I don't belittle it in the slightest.

But on the other hand, were we meant to turn our back on the world? 

Those are the two great tendencies in Jewish life today. Assimilation on the one hand, segregation on the other hand. Jews are either engaging with the world at the cost of losing their Judaism, or they're engaging with Judaism at the cost of turning their back on the world.

Now, I think those are two defensible options. I'm not going to criticise anyone. Actually, does it help when a Chief Rabbi criticises? In England, it doesn't. Maybe in Israel. Maybe I should come to Israel. But the truth is, I leave all judgments to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. I always say he judges people much better than we do. Heinrich Heine, you know, who abandoned Judaism, said on his deathbed, “Dieu me pardonnerait, c'est son métier.” God will forgive me. It's what He does for a living. So I leave all judgments to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. 

But I believe there have to be some people, some people, who say that to be Jewish is to fight against the evils of this world, to engage with the world, to transform it, to become, as I said, a “shutaf leHakadosh Baruch Hu b’ma'aseh bereishit.”

And that, I believe, is why, almost without knowing it, Jews are disproportionately represented among doctors fighting disease, lawyers fighting injustice, teachers fighting ignorance, economists fighting poverty, therapists fighting depression and despair, and in so many other ways. Jews know that our job is to heal the fractures of a world. Jews know, as I call it, I call Judaism “The voice of hope in the conversation of humankind,” because we have never accepted the world. We have always said it is our job to bring the world that is closer to the world that ought to be. 

I believe, as I said in Ivrit, that Judaism is the world's standing protest against the idea of power. And Jews have protested against the idea of power throughout the ages by talking about the power of ideas.

And that is why, in addition to my work as Chief Rabbi, I began a private journey of ideas. I engaged in that dialogue between the particular faith of Judaism, Torah, and the universal wisdom of humankind, Chochma. And that's what I did, as it were, when I wasn't being Chief Rabbi, sometimes even when I was.

I tried to do this as an experiment. I tried to do it nationally - oOn television, on radio, on the national press, in books.

I tell you, it's very easy for a rabbi to speak to an entirely non-Jewish public, because they know I'm not their local vicar, so I won't ask them, ‘Why weren't they in church on Sundays?’ It's much easier for a rav to do it. But I found, to my amazement, that when you speak Torah to the world, the world listens. This is the extraordinary fact.

And so I had the zechut of advising three British Prime Ministers and a great number of government ministers. I had the privilege of establishing strong and good relations with the leaders of all the faiths in Britain - Christianity, Islam, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, James, Zoroastrian, Baha'i, and the faiths throughout the world. It is an extraordinary thing to see how inspired sometimes they are by the Jewish message.

It really is. “Hee chochmatchem uvinatchem l’einei ha'amim.” Moshe Rabbeinu was right.

This really is our wisdom in the sight of Hashem. Thanks to Alon. Where is Alon? Alon who is there. Thanks to Alon, Elaine and I spent some days some years ago in Amritsar, the Yerushalayim of the Sikhs, the city of the Golden Temple, and we had the zechut - did we not, Alon? - of listening to one of the world's leading Sikhs in Amritsar addressing 2,000 Sikh students and what does he say to them? “What we need is what the Jews have. We need Shabbat.” 

He said, you couldn't believe this. ‘You know what Jews have? They have a day, a week, they don't work, they spend time with their families. It's beautiful. We must keep Shabbat.’

I was going to ask him to come and give this drasha in all our shuls, it might have been…

I'm speaking in the United Nations 12 years ago. I give a little speech and a Hindu guru comes up to me. It's a gathering of Kol Ma’aminim shehu, all the leaders of all the faiths in the world called the Millennium Peace Summit. When you bring all those religious leaders, it's probably sufficient that World War III didn't break out immediately. 

After I spoke, a Hindu guru came up to me and said, “Rabbi Sacks, would you please be my keynote speaker in my counter-conference in Delhi?” I said, “What's your counter-conference?” He said, “The World Conference of Non-Evangelising Faiths.”

Then I began to realise just how important we are to Hindus who have been assaulted by some of the proselytising monotheisms of the world and we have a connection with them. I will tell you something extraordinary. The Queen, she should live bis hundert un tsvantsik. Actually, we wished her that. It's actually a true story. We have the privilege as the Jewish community of presenting a loyal address to the Queen. So we did in April of this past year for her Diamond Jubilee. We wished her until 120. It's a true story.

She never heard this before. And she looks at Prince Philip and Prince Philip looks at her and they wink. After this is all over, all the formality is over and there's a little reception in Buckingham Palace, Prince Philip comes up to me and says, “Does that mean I've got to put up with this lot for another 30 years?” Ma’ase shehaya. Strange things happen when you're around…

Anyway, but for her 50th anniversary in May/June 2002, she gave a celebration for all the faiths, for all the faiths to celebrate her Golden Jubilee, and during this celebration, a very, very Charedi Muslim came up to me and said, “Are you the Chief Rabbi?” And I couldn't deny it. He said, “My wife wants a word with you.”

Now I want you to remember May 2002. You remember we had just gone through that horrendous bombing in the Park Hotel, Netanya where 29 people were killed as they sat down to make Seder. Then the Israelis did their action and there was this whole horrendous misrepresentation of Jenin.

So this was not a great moment for Jewish-Muslim relations and I was dreading what she was going to say to me. She came up with a big hijab and this is what she said to me: “Chief Rabbi, I just want to thank you for your book “Radical Then, Radical Now.”

Now tishma, “Radical Then, Radical Now” is a book about Jewish pride. It has nothing whatsoever about Islam. It's not universalistic. It's being proud to be a Jew. And suddenly, I realised if we stand up confident in our faith, we help other people stand up confident in their faith too. And that is why every experience I've had is telling us Ribbono shel Olam wants us to engage with the world and when we do so it is a Kiddush Hashem.

Not because of us but because of “Moshe Emet uTorato Emet.” This is a fantastic, fantastic thing. 

And therefore I beg to differ with the assimilationists who say to engage with the world we have to be keChol haGoyim,  like all the world. We have to be universalists. And I beg to disagree with those who say in a very, very understandable and holy way, to preserve the purity of faith we have to disengage with the world. 

I honestly believe neither is what Hashem wants of us. He wants to engage us to engage with the world as Jews. And if we are strong in what makes us different we will make other people strong in what they make us different. And I really believe - you know Moshe Halbertal spoke about scarce resources…

There is a conceptual mistake here. People will tell you if you engage with the world your own Yiddishkeit will be diminished and diluted. Nahafochu. The opposite is true. 

I always do this basic arithmetical sum. If you have a thousand shekels and you decide to share it with nine other people, how much do you have left? One-tenth of what you began with. If you have total power, like the president of my shul, who had this rule who said “‘All those in favour, say ‘aye,’ all those against say ‘I resign’,” and you're crazy enough to share this power with nine other people, you only have a tenth of the power with which you began. 

Material goods, wealth and power, politics, economics and politics, the more you share the less you have. But tell me if you have a certain amount of love and you share it with nine other people, do you have less or more? If you have a certain amount of knowledge and you share it with others, do you have less or more? If you have a certain amount of friendship or influence you share it with, do you have less or more? 

The truth is spiritual goods are the opposite of material goods because with spiritual goods the more you share the more you have.

The more Yiddishkeit religious Jews would share with secular Jews, if they are totally non-judgemental, they would have more Yiddishkeit not less Yiddishkeit. 

Do not think that to preserve our holiness we need to disengage from the world. It's our job to go and be mekadesh et haChol, to transform the world.

And if that was so, we would have fewer Jews saying we have to assimilate or disappear, fewer Jews who'd be embarrassed to be Jews, and we would have fewer Jews saying that to protect Judaism, you have to disengage from the world. 

And that is the third option that I chose to articulate in everything I've written. And though I felt very much alone, this wonderful book for which I thank all the contributors I no longer feel alone. 

I thought I was going to have a nice little session with Rav Benny and Rav Moshe and Professor Halberstal and Gila and a half a dozen friends. They didn't tell me you were all coming I'm afraid. So now I definitely don't feel alone and I hope we feel together on this one way or another, whether it is confronting the challenge of antisemitism or confronting the isolation and unacceptable and appalling delegitimation of Israel, or whether it is building a more Jewish society within Israel itself, or whether it is simply inspiring young Jews to grow up to be proud to be Jews, we are going to have to engage with the world.

We cannot disengage from the world and turn our back and expect them to come to us or them to like us. We have to engage with the world and therefore let us do it with grace, with pride, and with total humility. And you don't have to be arrogant to believe that we have something to contribute.

And therefore I end with a very very ‘unrabbanish’ story, the only reason I even remotely think of telling it is because it happens to be true and here it is. Elaine and I - you know you don't… you So, this is more than 30 years ago I'd only even just begun becoming being a rav, it was a really miserable English winter and I said to Elaine - this is 35 years ago maybe 30 years ago - I said to Elaine “Let's go to somewhere where even in the winter there's sun,” - and this is 30 plus years ago - I said, “Let's go to Eilat,” and we had never been to Eilat before and somebody said to me, “Rabbi Sacks, you really don't want to go to Eilat. It's not rabbanish. Tzniut is not the thing for which Eilat is known for, and you know it was it was true, I have to say. And I spent a whole week without my glasses on. 

And we searched for something that was vaguely acceptably rabbanish to do in Eilat and we found one of these glass-bottom boats - I don't know if they still have them - where you see all those beautifully coloured fish swimming around. And we went on this boat - we were the only passengers - the captain of the boat heard us speaking in English came over and said, “Are you from England?” 

And we said, “Yes, why do you ask?”

He said, “Oh, I've just been on a holiday in England!”

And we said to him, “How did you like it?”

And he said, “Ah wonderful,” he said, “The grass so green, the buildings so old, the people so polite,” and then he looked around him.

I'm sure Eilat has been built up since then but then it was a little bit of a barren wilderness and he flung his arms out as if to embrace those barren hills, and a huge smile came on his face and he said, “Aval zeh shelanu.” [but this is ours]

Friends, there are many great civilisations in the world and we don't belittle any of them. Aval zeh shelanu. Let us go out to the world and wear our identity with pride.

Final remarks