I had mentioned earlier (when discussing the election of Joe Biden to the presidency)  that Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (A”H) succumbed to cancer a few weeks ago.  And, Rav Sacks was a towering figure- not just in Judaism, but to folks around the world.  (Here’s a link to the Erasmus Lecture he provided the First Things organization.) Until his death, he had a slot on BBC radio, was a commentator on British TV, and wrote a column for the Times of London.  Besides serving as the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, until he retired in 2013 (after 22 years), during which tenure he was knighted.  Then he taught at Yeshiva University and New York University.

As I learned about Rav Sacks over the years, I found it intriguing how he started out as an accountant and then switched; he received his smicah (ordination) as an Orthodox rabbi.  Just like the rabbi of the shul I belonged to as a child.  Rabbi Nathan Rosenbaum started out as an accountant and after consulting with my dad, he was granted smichah by my dad. Except Rabbi Rosenbaum, although ordained in the Orthodox fashion, elected to serve as a Conservative rabbi.

Rav Sacks was awarded the (John M.) Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.  Which put him in some not-too-shabby country, since other awardees included Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama.  Rav Sacks’ teachings, erudition, and elocution resonated on the world stage, not just among those of the Jewish religion.

I was thrilled when my synagogue adopted Rav Sack’s well-appointed siddur (prayer book).  It was a few years later that he released the Sfardi version of the prayerbook, which I then bought for myself and my children.

Rav Sacks railed against religious violence and the secularization of knowledge and culture. “Homo sapiens is a meaning-seeking animal…[where the states] give us choices, but don’t teach us how to choose.”  He advocated for “covenantal communities” based on “we”- where we care for one another and not following the “I” of individualism.  That also included “family”- “marriage as a commitment, parenthood as a responsibility, and the poetry of everyday life when it is etched, in homes and schools, with the charisma of holiness and grace.”

Our American forefathers recognized the concepts that Rav Sacks taught when they adopted phrases from the Tora wholesale in the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents.  “Long before Plato and Aristotle, and long before Marx, Rousseau and Hobbes, the covenant of Sinai taught the primacy of right over might, and the courage disobey immoral or illegal orders. The politics of freedom was born at Sinai.”

And, Rav Sacks understood that “blame cultures” only serve to seek out culprits and to effect violence against contrived enemies. “Hate and the blame culture go hand in hand, for they are both strategies of denial.”

One of his endearing (to me) attitudes was that he recognized that there was no conflict between religion and science.  “Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. And we need them both, the way we need the two hemispheres of the brain.  Science explains, religion interprets.  Science tells us what is, religion tells us what ought to be.”

The other stand Rav Sacks took is also one of my own.  He takes great issue when (ANY) clergy uses the pulpit to advance the case of a presidential or ministerial candidate.  Having those opinions- perfect.  Espousing them in a political atmosphere- ok.  But, on the pulpit or in the name of the establishment. NO WAY.  “You mix religion and politics, you get terrible politics and even worse religion.”

He also attempted to enlist others to conquer anti-Semitism.  Because the victim can never cure the crime by itself.  “The hated cannot eradicate the hate”.  He recognized that anti-Semitism “is a profound psychological dysfunction, a disease masquerading as a cure…” and that “Anti-Semitism has little to do with Jews– they are its object, not its cause– and everything to do with dysfunction in the communities that harbor it.”

His final book was in reaction to the craziness in the US, Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere.  Where populist and crude characters were heading up nations.  (Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times.)

May his memory always bring a smile to our faces.

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