My short tribute to Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks begins with the closing of a circle. It begins in the Multifaith Centre at Griffith University in 2009. David and I came to Brisbane to be part of a memorial service held there, for Professor Geoff Dromey, a colleague, friend and mentor of David’s from the years in the 1990’s that David worked at Griffith.
I had no idea at the time that we would come back to live in Brisbane, and that the Multifaith Centre would be a place that I went to at least once a month for seven years.
A few months after that service, a parcel arrived for me from Aziza Dromey, Geoff’s widow. Aziza is up most nights because she is an astronomer, and when she is not star gazing, she is reading.
In the parcel were three books. One was “ The Politics of Hope” by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. I loved the title and went on to voraciously read it. The irony that my introduction to the writings of Rabbi Sacks came from one of our non-Jewish friends is not lost on me. But it is totally appropriate because Rabbi Sacks was a great Interfaith writer and worker, who became a major influence in my life.
I will share with you some of my favourite quotes from Rabbi Sacks. The first is from, “The Dignity of Difference”, a text that I love.
“The test of faith is whether I can make space for difference. Can I recognize God's image in someone who is not in my image, whose language, faith, ideals, are different from mine? If I cannot, then I have made God in my image instead of allowing him to remake me in his.”
This is a huge statement, and its truth is more urgent than ever, with many people willing to dehumanize others who are have different faiths, or different skin colour or different ideologies. Once the dehumanizing labels have been used for long enough, and accompanied by exaggerated stories or straight untruths, then killing becomes a logical step. It is never a good step for a society.
I am currently rereading the first book in Rabbi Sack’s series, Covenant and Conversation: Genesis: the Book of Beginnings. In this series of 5 books, Rabbi Sacks looks at the Parasha of each week in the Jewish calendar. Each Parasha is packed with material for discussion and insight. In this series, Rabbi Sacks writes four essays on each Parasha.
Two Sabbaths ago we read the Parasha called Vayeira, “God Appeared”. In discussing this Parasha, Rabbi Sacks points out some very important aspects on Jewish thought on hospitality and on treating strangers with love. The Parahsa begins with, “God appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, while he, (Abraham), was sitting at the entrance to the tent in the heat of the day” In that sentence we learn that God has come to pay a sick visit to Abraham, who is recovering from his circumcision. In that act of kindness, we learn what God expects of us with regard to visiting the sick.
Before a conversation can begin, Abraham sees three strangers coming towards his tent. He jumps up and says, “My Lord, if I have found favour in your eyes, please pass not away from your servant.” This can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, he could be entreating God to stay whilst he attends to his visitors. It could also be interpreted as an invitation to the strangers. Or it could be both.
What happens next is that he invites the strangers to wash their feet and “have a morsel of bread.” When they accept, he rushes to tell Sarah and one of his servants to produce a sumptuous feast of fresh roasted calf, freshly baked bread, milk and cream.
Just in this one event we can see the importance of hospitality and welcoming the stranger. Abraham knows that this task is so important he can even leave God waiting. God acceded to his request.
This is the beautiful way that Rabbi Sacks explains this episode:
“How can this be so? It seems disrespectful at best, heretical at worst, to put the needs of human beings before attending to the presence of God.
What the passage is telling us though, is something of immense profundity. The idolaters of Abraham’s time worshipped the sun, the stars and the forces of nature as gods. They worshipped power and the powerful. Abraham knew, however, that God is not in nature, but beyond nature. There is only one thing in the universe on which He has set His image: the human person, every person, powerful and powerless alike………Abraham, father of monotheism, knew the paradoxical truth that to live a life of faith is to see the trace of God in the face of the stranger.”
I will finish with another quote from “The Dignity of Difference”:
“"Nowhere is the singularity of biblical ethics more evident than in its treatment of the issue that has proved to be the most difficult in the history of human interaction, namely the problem of the stranger, the one who is not like us. Most societies at most times have been suspicious of, and aggressive toward, strangers. This is understandable, even natural. Strangers are non-kin. They come from beyond the tribe. They stand outside the network of reciprocity that creates and sustains communities. That is what makes the Mosaic books unusual in the history of moral thought. As the rabbis noted, the Hebrew Bible in one verse commands, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' but in no fewer than 36 places commands to 'love the stranger.' "
Rabbi Sacks got into some strife years ago, with some other rabbis for suggesting that each faith has a slice of the truth and no single faith has it all.
I truly love this great Rabbi who has just passed from our midst for spending so much of his life writing in beautiful, clear, succinct and eloquent English about the big moral issues of our times. That is why Queen Elizabeth knighted him.
The sad closing of this circle for me, is not only the loss of our beloved Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, but the planned closing of the Griffith University Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue in January next year. This is due to the financial constraints caused by Covid 19.
Humanity is going through a time of loss. 1.2 million people that we know about have died of Covid19 so far. Millions of people have been ill and some are suffering long-term conditions as a result of Covid19. Business have closed, uncountable jobs have been lost around the world. Over several decades, we are seeing in many societies, including our own, the breakdown of integrity in people with powerful positions, theft occurring in ever more tricky and sophisticated ways, sexual exploitation of children, even babies, the breakdown of family life in epidemic proportions.
We are very blessed to have the many books and essays of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks to help guide us into an ever more volatile future.