Reflecting on Judaism

          It is widely accepted that the main purpose of a book review is to summarise and analyse. I like this definition. The book now under review is 'To Heal a Fractured World' written by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sack. It is very compact only 274 pages long. Rabbi Sacks starts the book by admitting that at the heart of the story he tells is a difficult idea but he has tried to make it as simple and as readable as he could. He wrote, ‘There is little that is self evident in the interpretations I offer. They can be challenged at almost any point.’ It is obvious that an enormous amount of thought, time and effort has gone into the authorship of this book and I hope that this short review does it justice because it is a very worthwhile read.

          There are a number of themes running through the book but the main one, as I understand it, is that Man has absolute Freewill and freedom of action. ‘God trusts us and empowers us. That means necessarily that He empowers us to make mistakes, to get it wrong. That is what it is to be human and God does not ask us to be superhuman.’ ‘To believe that we are accountable to no one, or that God will somehow intervene to save us from ourselves, is consistent but irresponsible, and this is not how I read my faith or understand the human condition’ he wrote.

          Rabbi Sacks recognises the inequalities in the world, poverty, illness, homelessness, starvation, unemployment and so forth. How could he not? But he continues ‘There is nothing inevitable or divinely willed about social and economic inequality. Judaism rejects the almost universal belief, in antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages, that hierarchy and divisions of class are written into the structure of society. What human beings have created, human beings can rectify.’ Indeed, he argues, the Laws of the Torah put an obligation, and the responsibility, on us to rectify them. The ethics of responsibility is the subtitle of the book.

          He then allocates several chapters to subjects such as, Charity as Justice, Love as Deed, Sanctifying the Name, all illustrating how you and I can undertake the task of healing this fractured world. He then gives examples showing that becoming involved in this enterprise of ‘Healing’ need not be considered a chore. He relates from his experience that the most fulfilled persons he has ever met have been those involved in helping the poor and the needy and he describes the life of several people and the work they do to emphasise this point. When people die, he writes, the memories people retain, and relate, of them are of the good things they have done; not the size of the car they drove or the expensive holidays they have had.

          One aspect of the book that surprised me is that it contains little mention of ‘Prayer’. The subject is not even listed in the index of the book and only one aspect of prayer is mentioned throughout, namely, in connection with Abraham’s argument with God to save the people of Sodom. ‘How can you, the God of Justice, destroy the town if there are fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, ten good persons living there? Rabbi Sacks calls this argument a prayer, which I suppose it is in a way. This is a special kind of prayer for it asks God himself not to act unjustly, it does not ask God to intervene in Mans’ Freewill behaviour.

          I can understand this omission for Rabbi Sacks believes without qualification, as stated above, that God does not intervene in Mans’ Freewill acts. But his belief runs counter to the sentiments which are to be found throughout our prayer books and also in his introduction to the new Singers Prayer book.

          The concept of Prayer is that it consists of two essential elements, namely supplication and petitions on the one hand; praise and thanks-giving on the other. Predetermination goes hand in hand with Petitional prayer. Petitional prayer sustains the belief that God predetermines our future and petitions that He should either provide for our good or reverse an adverse decision to our advantage.

          I wonder how Rabbi Sacks reconciles his belief that, on the one hand, Man is responsible for this Fractured World and has the responsibility to heal it, whilst on the other hand, he recommends prayer which implies that God has a hand both in our future and also for the fractured world, contrary to the theme of his book.

          Another aspect of the book reveals Rabbi Sacks’ gratitude to the late Lubavitch Rebbe and admiration of the Lubavitch movement. He explains that he was introduced to him when, as an undergraduate, he went to America seeking answers to questions about religion. It was as a result of these meetings that Rabbi Sacks decided to enter the ministry. This may explain, what is to many, the unwelcome shift of the religious ‘centre of gravity’ to the right that they feel has occurred in the United Synagogue over the past few years since his ordination as Chief Rabbi.

          Another interesting and related story, not mentioned in his book, is one that Rabbi Sacks told during a course of a series of lectures given at Jews’ College some years ago. He said that the late Chief Rabbi Jakobovits visited the Cambridge University Jewish Students’ Union whilst he was an undergraduate there. The students attacked the Chief Rabbi for what they considered to be shortcomings in the Jewish Establishment and the Chief Rabbi’s response was that if you think that you can do better, become a rabbi?