The Life of Sarah

completely prove its truths, required higher and higher systems, and the highest system is God. The two equations above summarise Cantor’s work: the first is his attempt to prove a relationship between the countable infinity and the infinity of the continuum, and the second is the idea that there’s an infinite set (a countably infinite set?) of infinities, with each infinity enormously larger than the previous.

T h o u g h t s o n t h e p a s s i n g o f R a b b i L o r d S a c k s Rabbi Reuven Leigh The oft-asked question, as to why the portion of the Torah which immediately informs us of the passing of Sarah the matriarch is called “The Life of Sarah”, took on extra meaning this week with the news of the passing of Rabbi Lord Sacks. In a spontaneous outpouring of genuine Photograph by Jane Liddel-King grief and loss, people from the widest possible spectrum of society, from royalty and world leaders to rabbis and laymen, went beyond the usual platitudes and niceties these events usually elicit, and unguardedly displayed their sadness and shock. Yet for all the grief and sadness, the dominant feature of the obituaries and reflections in the wake of his passing has been a deepening awareness and appreciation of “The Life of Jonathan Sacks”. It is worth remembering that the life-trajectory of one of the most outstanding leaders of Jewish thought and values of our time was set in

motion when he was an undergraduate student in Cambridge. He would often recount his trip to America in 1968 where he met with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, who challenged him to become more responsible for Jewish student life in Cambridge and to make a difference. Initially, the young Jonathan Sacks demurred and tried to deflect the Rebbe’s demands, opening his defence with a polite “in the situation in which I find myself …” Immediately, the Rebbe interrupted him and explained, “nobody finds themselves in a situation; you put yourself in a situation. And if you put yourself in that situation, you can put yourself in another situation.” This proved to be the clincher and Rabbi Sacks’ orientation towards Jewish learning and responsibility and away from academic philosophy was set in motion.

One of Rabbi Sacks’ earliest projects in the 1970s was a translation and adaptation of the Hebrew and Yiddish essays of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on the weekly Parshah. These were ultimately published as Torah Studies and can be found online at www.chabad.org/110248. The essay Rabbi Sacks chose for this week’s Parshah focuses on its first verse (Genesis 23:1): “And the life of Sarah was 100 years and 20 years and 7 years: These were the years of the life of Sarah.” The Midrash wonders why the verse doesn’t simply say 127 years. Why the need to separate the numbers and repeat the word “years”? Furthermore, why does the verse need to conclude and tell us seemingly again, that “these were the years of the life of Sarah”. You can read the full essay here at www.chabad.org/110321. I would like to point out a section of the essay that I believe can serve as a reflection on Rabbi Sacks himself. In the midst of discussing the Midrash’s explanation of how the sequence of the verse serves to indicate the perfection and constancy of Sarah’s life, the essay considers what might be considered the perfected life: “When a man finds himself in an environment detrimental to his standards, there are three ways in which he can preserve his integrity: (i) He can strengthen himself inwardly not to be influenced by his surroundings. But this is an incomplete victory, for if he were to relax his self-control he would capitulate, thus implying a lowering of status. (ii) He can separate himself from those around him. But again his