Hamizrachi | Commemorating Rabbi Sacks' Yahrzeit

UK EDITION VOL 4 • NO 6

‫ַה ִּמ ְז ָר ִחי‬ WITH GRATEFUL THANKS TO THE FOUNDING SPONSORS OF HAMIZRACHI THE LAMM FAMILY OF MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

Remembering

Rabbi Sacks MARKING THE FIRST YAHRZEIT

OF A GLOBAL JEWISH LEADER

(PHOTO: DAVID SCHLACHT )

COMMEMORATING RABBI SACKS’ YAHRZEIT

To the greatest teacher, to a genuine tzaddik and to an irreplaceable friend, From Joshua and Michelle Rowe

The Legacy of Rabbi Sacks

www.mizrachi.org www.mizrachi.tv office@mizrachi.org +972 (0)2 620 9000

CHAIRMAN

Mr. Harvey Blitz EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

Rabbi Doron Perez DEPUTY CEO

Rabbi Danny Mirvis E D U C AT I O N A L D I R E C TO R S

Rabbi Reuven Taragin Rabbanit Shani Taragin

World Mizrachi is the global Religious Zionist movement, spreading Torat Eretz Yisrael across the world and strengthening the bond between the State of Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

Based in Jerusalem and with branches across the globe, Mizrachi – an acronym for merkaz ruchani (spiritual center) – was founded in 1902 by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines, and is led today by Rabbi Doron Perez. Mizrachi’s role was then and remains with vigor today, to be a proactive partner and to take personal responsibility in contributing to the collective destiny of Klal Yisrael through a commitment to Torah, the Land of Israel and the People of Israel.

www.mizrachi.org.uk uk@mizrachi.org 020 8004 1948 PRESIDENT

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

Steven Blumgart CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Rabbi Andrew Shaw BOARD

Michelle Bauernfreund Matti Fruhman Andrew Harris Grant Kurland Sean Melnick David Morris Alex Pfeffer

Rabbi Andrew Shaw

R

Rabbi Sacks’s final book, Morality, published in March 2020, is a tour de force explaining the seismic shifts shaking the Western world. As Rabbi Sacks writes, “Liberal democracy is at risk in Britain, Europe and the United States. So is everything that these democracies represent in terms of freedom, dignity, compassion and rights.”

Since last March the problems highlighted in the book have gotten worse. We need Rabbi Sacks more than ever. Yet, little could we have known, that just a few months after it was published, its author, one of the world’s greatest moral voices, was no longer with us. He leaves a gaping hole, and one that is impossible to fill. But we are comforted by the trove of books, lectures, articles and videos that he left us, so that we may continue to learn from his immense wisdom.

I remember his final event as Chief Rabbi, when he launched his new vision for Judaism – A Judaism Engaged with the World – with a booklet. In this important pamphlet he wrote: “Today the two most powerful movements in Jewish life are assimilation and segregation. Jews are either engaging with the world at the cost of disengaging from Judaism, or engaging with Judaism at the cost of disengaging from the world.” His clarion call was to strengthen and promote a Judaism that engaged with the world. “Can it be that when Jews engage with the world they have to hide their identity, acting as if they were 21st-century equivalents of the Marranos of

Spain, Jews in secret but not in public? Are Jewish faith and practice so fragile that they can only be sustained by being screened from all contact with other cultures? It was once so but it is not so today. The Jewish situation has changed decisively. Israel exists. Jews have a home. In most countries in the Diaspora, Jews are no longer even the most conspicuous minority. For the first time in 4,000 years, Jews have sovereignty and independence in Israel, freedom and equality in the Diaspora. Shall we act as if we were still in the 19th-century, not the 21st?”

These sentiments drive Mizrachi to train rabbis, educators and teachers who represent Torah in the 21st century and who represent a blend of Religious Zionism and Modern Orthodoxy.

We must realize that the world has changed and that the Torah can and must speak in a modern voice.

There is no question that for an assimilating Jewish Diaspora, the role models they desperately need are those who can relate to the world they live in and who can, simultaneously, inspire them with the timeless teachings of the Torah and open their eyes to see the miracle of Medinat Yisrael.

Through our Mizrachi Fellows, our shlichim, our shows, our speakers and our programmes such as Yehudi, Mizrachi’s mission is to continue the legacy of Rabbi Sacks to create a Judaism engaged with the world.

Rabbi Andrew Shaw is the Chief Executive of Mizrachi UK.

Rabbi Elie Mischel editor@mizrachi.org | A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R Esther Shafier Rabbi Aron White | C R E A T I V E D I R E C T O R Jonny Lipczer & D I S T R I B U T I O N M.H. Media Ltd. ms75pr@gmail.com

EDITOR

A S S O C I AT E E D I TO R PUBLISHED BY WORLD MIZRACHI IN JERUSALEM

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FROM THE

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even years ago, just before the Yamim Noraim, the New Jersey communities of Livingston and West Orange had the honor of hosting Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l for a lecture on the topic of repentance.

As a rabbinic couple in the community, my wife and I had the privilege of meeting with Rabbi Sacks at a small reception before his lecture. We were awed by his wisdom, humor and humility.

We took our seats in the large auditorium following the reception, eagerly anticipating Rabbi Sacks’ lecture.

He did not disappoint, delivering an extraordinary talk on the difference between King David and King Shaul and why David’s repentance was accepted, while Shaul’s was not. There was only one problem: I had also prepared a Yom Kippur sermon about the very same topic, which was now destined for the trash bin!

As you might expect, Rabbi Sacks’ lecture on the subject was infinitely more profound and powerful than my speech, sending me back to the sermon drawing board only a few days before Yom Kippur. All I was left with was a new understanding of the verse in the book of Iyov: The L-rd giveth and the L-rd taketh away!

The most significant and most impactful thinker of our generation, Rabbi Sacks’ passing one year ago left a void that will not easily be filled. Possessed with an uncanny ability to speak persuasively to Jews and gentiles of all backgrounds, Rabbi Sacks was particularly beloved within our own Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist community as the Gadol B’Yisrael who best exemplified our deepest held beliefs.

Editor

Though immersed in the philosophical teachings of our tradition, he refused to remain in the ivory tower of academia. He was not only the greatest thinker of our generation but also our Rebbe, guiding us through the murky complexities of modern life.

In his incisive book, The Great Partnership: Science, Religion and the Search for Meaning, Rabbi Sacks argues that global challenges such as economic equality and global warming, though important, are political issues – vast, distant, global and remote. By contrast, moral issues are always personal, requiring each individual to live with wisdom, faith, charity and love.

Rabbi Sacks explains that the political is always secondary to the moral in the Torah’s value scheme.

The book of Bereishit, which is about personal relationships, precedes the book of Shemot, which is about politics, liberation and nation-building.

In the same way, Megillat Ruth begins with an intensely moving story of personal loyalty and kindness, only

revealing at the very end of the book that Ruth is the great grandmother of King David, the father of Israel’s monarchy.

In Rabbi Sacks’ words, this is the Torah’s “literary way of establishing the primacy of the personal over the political…

Politics makes the headlines. It always did...But what the world thinks large the Bible thinks small, and what the world dismisses as of minor account the Bible focuses on and frames with minute attention” (The Great Partnership, p. 165).

At HaMizrachi, much of our writing is appropriately devoted to the greatest miracle of our generation – Am Yisrael’s national rebirth in the Land of Israel.

At the same time, Rabbi Sacks reminds us never to lose sight of the remarkable personal stories and moral issues at the heart of our people’s return to our Land. Individual stories of courage and sacrifice, of love and faith, too often ignored by the media, must take center stage within these pages, for these stories are the foundation of our redemption.

In marking the first yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, we mourn his loss and celebrate his extraordinary achievements. But most of all, we give thanks for the blessing that he brought to our lives and for helping our people stand taller and prouder all over the world. May his teachings continue to inspire our nation for generations to come.

Elie Mischel Rabbi Elie Mischel Editor

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the SACRED and the secular Four Role Models of Integration Rabbi Doron Perez

T

he four rabbinic leaders who have greatly shaped my perspective on life are Rabbis Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Jonathan Sacks.1 All were role models in the quest to integrate ancient and eternal Torah values with contemporary challenges.

Rabbi Hirsch grappled with Western European secularism, Rabbi Kook with Zionism and national revival, Rabbi Soloveitchik with 20th-century modernity and Rabbi Sacks with globalization, anti-Zionism and the challenges of the postmodern world.

An iconic story expresses what is collectively unique about these four great leaders and why their legacies have made such a profound impact on me.

A journalist looking for a scoop once asked Dr. Yosef Burg, Head of Israel’s National Religious Party, a challenging question: “Dr. Burg, in the equation of Dati-Leumi (National-Religious), often used to categorize the Religious Zionist community, which term is more important – dati or leumi, religious or national?”

It was a tricky question. If Dr. Burg claimed that religion came first, the journalist could argue that Zionism was of secondary importance to him and his party; if he replied that the national component of Jewish identity came before Torah, the journalist could argue that Religious Zionists are watered-down religionists. Dr. Burg thought for a moment and replied

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brilliantly, “Most important is the hyphen that joins them.”

The hyphen represents linkage, integration. Without question, the Torah is the core of our values system, the source of our spiritual life and the foundation of our destiny. Nothing could be more critical. But the Torah is also a Torat Chaim, a Torah of Life, which uplifts our lives while integrating its values in the sweep of the human experience.

Torah is relevant to all of life, speaking to all challenges and situations in every generation and epoch.

The hyphen in Dati-Leumi represents that quality of Torat Chaim which can reconcile timeless Torah values with timely modern challenges: religion with nationhood, mesorah with modernity, Torah with technology, universalism with particularism, scientific and spiritual and sacred and secular.

Rav Hirsch and emancipation As secularism and emancipation spread across Western Europe in the 1800s, the ghetto walls came tumbling down. Equal rights and greater opportunities beckoned, and many Jews were swept up in the attraction of this newfound freedom. Faced with the lure of the burgeoning secular world, many could not remain loyal to their Torah lifestyle, and acculturation and assimilation began to take root.

Understandably, others responded with segregation. Buttoning down the religious hatches and creating more separated communities was their way to survive the tempests of change. Out

of the storm emerged the towering personality of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, a great talmid chacham, a gifted community leader, prolific writer, and an effective activist for Orthodoxy in the Prussian and Austrian Parliaments.

He blazed a different trail. A trail of integration which he termed Torah im Derech Eretz. He was able to find many points of coalescence while embracing both traditional Torah learning and secular studies. He welcomed new job opportunities that became available to Jews and believed they did not contradict their deep commitment to a Torah-true lifestyle. In his community, modern secular European life could be reconciled with authentic Torah Judaism.

Rav Kook and Zionism Rav Kook fully embraced the national revival of the Jewish people and the founding of Herzl’s World Zionist Movement, but did so from a deeply spiritual perspective. It was clear to him that Zionism was not another passing “ism,” but rather a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, an inextricable part of the redemption process and the fulfillment of Jewish and human destiny.

It was of major significance that Rav Kook, one of the great Talmudic scholars and Rabbinic leaders of his time, embraced the Zionist movement so enthusiastically. After all, he was the outstanding student of the famed Volozhin Yeshiva. Indeed, the Netziv, the Rosh Yeshiva, remarked that the entire existence of the yeshiva would

have been worthwhile just to have produced Rabbi Kook.2 Not only could Zionism be reconciled with authentic Torah Judaism, but it was also one of its most genuine modern expressions – the revival of Am Yisrael and the resurgence of its national Jewish identity, which had lain dormant for 2,000 years.

In Rav Kook’s view, the secularism of contemporary Zionism was merely external. At its core, Zionism was pure, expressing a holy people’s longing to return to their holy land and to speak their holy language. Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael and Torat Yisrael are complementary parts of a seamless sacred synthesis.

Rav Soloveitchik and modernity Rav Soloveitchik’s writings, and particularly his Lonely Man of Faith, are masterpieces of integration, offering deep religious expression to both the human and holy components of life.

With intellectual brilliance, philosophical genius and gifted articulation, Rav Soloveitchik profoundly validated the dualism of the human experience, famously interpreting the duplication of the story of Creation (chapters 1 and 2 in Bereishit, describing creation in general and the creation of man) as depicting the essence of our dual life purpose.

All at once, Adam feels totally at home in this world and yet entirely alone.

He is the majestic man of science and invention, creating and conquering, but also the covenantal man of the spirit, vulnerable and searching for meaning. Simultaneously living in both this world and the next, Rav Soloveitchik’s Adam embraces the positives of temporal life while striving for connection to the Infinite.

Rav Soloveitchik gave eloquent expression to the philosophy of Torah u’Madda3

and the modern Jew’s struggle to live in both worlds while refusing to give up on either. But Rav Soloveitchik also personified the integration of these worlds. One of the gedolei hador and a scion of the Brisk dynasty, Rav Soloveitchik was both an extraordinary Torah scholar and a brilliant academic and doctor of philosophy, integrating both into one complex yet complementary worldview.

Rabbi Sacks and postmodernity Of these four role models, the only one I had the privilege of meeting and knowing personally was Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and I am grateful to have had the great merit of living in the Rabbi Sacks era.

Rabbi Sacks embodied this life of integration. He was always bridging and blending – G-dliness and morality, science and religion, Halacha and humanism, philosophy and ethics, law and life, unity and diversity, ceremony and celebration, covenant and conversation – playing his part to heal a fractured world. He possessed an unmatched ability to communicate Torah wisdom entwined together with a vast breadth of philosophical scholarship and insight. He had the rare gift of making the most complex ideas seem simple and intricate issues engaging, inspiring and relevant.

Living in a postmodern world caught between the extremes of moral relativism and religious fundamentalism, he taught moderation and morality.

When others focused only on individual rights, he championed the ethics of obligation and responsibility, moving from ‘I’ to ‘We.’ As others rejected morality and absolute truths, he stood for objective moral truth, but a truth that is inclusive and accommodating through the dignity of difference.

The reach of his impact was remarkable, extending far beyond the Jewish community. Rabbi Sacks emerged as a voice of moral conscience sought out by prime ministers, presidents and princes, all of whom were drawn to the politics of hope. His life was a continuous Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of G-d’s name.

He was deeply liberal and pluralistic, yet at the same time passionately particularistic, with a deep love for the Jewish people and our mission. He saw every Jew as a letter in our unique scroll. Pained by the rise of antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the global demonization of Israel, he became a proud and vocal defender of his people and the Jewish State.

We sorely miss Rabbi Sacks, to whom we have dedicated this special edition of HaMizrachi on his first yahrzeit. His teachings, talks and writings will continue to enrich, uplift and inspire for generations. In our generation, the need for Torat Chaim, for integration of Torah and modern life, is as critical as ever. Let us learn from the lives and legacies of these four luminaries as we navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead. They have laid the foundations; it is our job to build upon them.

Rabbi Reines also had a great impact and I will write about his unique life and contribution in the next edition of HaMizrachi (Chanukah 5782).

1

Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neriah, Bisdei HaRe’iyah (Hebrew), p. 23 (republished by Machon HaTorah VeHa’Aretz, 2015.

2

This is the motto of Yeshiva University and literally means Torah and Worldly Knowledge/ Science but also refers to involvement with the wider society. Rav Soloveitchik served as both the Spiritual leader of Mizrachi in the US and as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University’s Rabbinic Seminary ordaining 2,000 rabbis and transforming a generation.

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Rabbi Doron Perez is the Executive Chairman of World Mizrachi.

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A Life Worth Living I

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ‫זצ״ל‬

spend a lot of time with young people – pupils about to leave school, students at university and graduates about to start a career.

Often they ask me for advice as they begin their journey into the future.

Here are some of the ideas worth thinking about as we begin our journey into a new calendar year.

The first idea is to dream. Seemingly the least practical activity turns out to be the most practical, and most often left undone. I know people who spend months planning a holiday but very little time planning a life. Imagine setting out on a journey without deciding where you are going. However fast you travel, you will never reach your destination because you never decided where you want to be. In fact, the faster you travel, the more lost you will become.

Dreams are where we visit the many lands and landscapes of human possibility and discover the one where we feel at home. The great religious leaders were all dreamers.

Within my own tradition there was Moses, who dreamed of a land flowing with milk and honey, and Isaiah, who dreamed of a world at peace. One of the greatest speeches of the twentieth century was Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream.’ If I were to design a curriculum for happiness, dreaming would be a compulsory course.

The second idea is, follow your passion.

Nothing – not wealth, success, accolades or fame – justifies spending a lifetime doing things you don’t enjoy.

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I have seen too many people enter careers to earn money to give their partners and children everything they want, only to lose their partners and become estranged from their children because they never had time for them.

People who follow their passion tend to lead blessed lives. Happy in what they do, they tend to spread happiness to those whose lives they touch. That is a life worth living.

The third idea I learnt from the psychotherapist who survived Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl, whose Man’s Search for Meaning is one of the most widely read books of our time. Frankl used to say: ‘Don’t ask what you want from life. Ask what life wants from you.’ The great lives are ones where people heard a call, had a sense of vocation. That is what set Abraham, grandfather of monotheism, on his journey and eventually it changed the world. Moses might have lived a life of ease as a prince of Egypt, but he heard the cry of his people as they suffered under slavery, and G-d’s call to him to lead them into freedom.

There is a well-known story about three men who spent their lives quarrying rocks. When asked what they were doing, one replied, ‘breaking rocks.’ The second said, ‘earning a living’. The third said, ‘building a cathedral.’ We don’t need to ask which of the three had the most job satisfaction. The late Steve Jobs spent his life making technology people-friendly. The creators of Google sought to make the world of information available to all. An overarching sense of the ‘Why’ preceded the ‘How’.

Where what we want to do meets what

is crying out to be done, that is where we should be.

The fourth idea is: make space in your life for the things that matter, for family and friends, love and generosity, fun and joy. Without this, you will burn out in mid-career and wonder where your life went. In Judaism we have the Sabbath, a dedicated day of stillness each week, where we make space for all the things that are important but not urgent. Not every culture has a Sabbath, but life without dedicated time for renewal, like a life without exercise or music or a sense of humour, is a lesser life.

The fifth idea is: work hard, the way an athlete or concert pianist or cutting-edge scientist works hard.

The American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, calls this the principle of ‘flow.’ By this he means the peak experience you have when you are working so hard at a task that you are unaware of the passing of time. No great achiever – even those who made it seem easy – ever succeeded without hard work. The Jewish word for serving G-d, avodah, also means hard work.

There are many other ideas, but these are some of the most important. Try them and you will be surprised by joy. n  Extracted from The Power of Ideas: Words of Faith and Wisdom by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Hodder Faith, 2021). ‘A Life Worth Living’ was originally published in The Times on 5 January 2013.

The Power of Ideas

Words of Faith and Wisdom “Although this volume represents a mere fragment of his contributions during his lifetime, it demonstrates, once again, Rabbi Sacks’ unique capacity for interpreting the present and predicting the future through a profound understanding of the past.” - hrh the prince of wales From his appointment as Chief Rabbi in 1991, through to his death in 2020, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks made an incalculable contribution to the religious life of the Jewish community, to the national conversation, and increasingly to the global community, on issues of faith, ethics and morality.

This new volume brings together a compelling selection of Rabbi Sacks’ broadcasts, columns and articles, along with some of his House of Lords speeches and keynote lectures.

These words shine as a beacon of enduring light in an increasingly conflicted cultural climate, and prove the timeless nature and continued relevance of Rabbi Sacks’ thought and teachings, and the power of his ideas.

The Power of Ideas can be purchased at https://linktr.ee/powerofideas

www.RabbiSacks.org

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COMMUNITIES IN CONVERSATION

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To continue to learn and be inspired by Rabbi Sacks, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org where you will find his Covenant & Conversation commentaries, articles, videos and other free educational resources. You can also follow The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust on social media (@RabbiSacks).

‫זצ‬

Thank you to the hundreds of individuals, schools, communities and organisations from 14 countries that came together for Communities in Conversation, a day of worldwide learning in memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ‫זצ"ל‬.

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COMMUNITIES IN CONVERSATION

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Thank you for taking part in the inaugural

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@RabbiSacks

The mission of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust is to ensure Rabbi Sacks zt”l’s ideas and teachings continue to inspire ours and future generations. To make a donation towards our work, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org/Support.

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Chayei Sarah and the Legacy of Rabbi Sacks Rabbi Reuven Taragin

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vraham succeeded. He faced daunting challenges and passed great tests culminating in Akeidat Yitzchak, where he showed the willingness to sacrifice his beloved son. But he is not done. In the wake of Sarah’s death, Avraham faces two more challenges: securing a foothold in the land and ensuring the continuity of his and Sarah’s legacy.

Acquiring Eretz Yisrael First, he endeavors to purchase a burial plot for Sarah. Hashem had promised the land to Avraham, and he had also conquered it in war. And yet despite his status as a great leader of the generation, the purchase of the Me’arat HaMachpelah was no easy task.

Though willing to offer burial, the residents of Chevron seek to avoid selling Avraham land. Avraham must struggle and persevere to succeed.1

Scan here to join Rabbi Taragin’s daily Divrei Torah WhatsApp group

Both the challenge and Avraham’s efforts in response are precursors to the challenges the Jewish people have faced and the perseverance we have needed throughout the ages in realizing our rights to Eretz Yisrael. Though promised to us, Eretz Yisrael is secured only through yisurin2 – through sweat and tears. The challenges test our faith and ensure we appreciate the gift.

Ensuring continuity

A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau mizrachi.org/ speakers

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Avraham’s future was precarious.

Sarah is barren, a painful reality that ultimately caused Avraham to question Hashem’s promises that his children would inherit Eretz Yisrael.

Though Hashem promises Avraham that his children will be as numerous as the stars, Avraham’s path to realizing this promise was long and arduous.

Avraham marries his wife’s handmaid Hagar who conceives a child, but she flees after conflicting with Sarah. After

Hagar returns and gives birth to Yishmael, Hashem informs Avraham that his future will only be realized through Yitzchak. Amazingly, Hashem then commands Avraham to cut off both of these children. Avraham is commanded to banish Yishmael from his home, and later to sacrifice his beloved Yitzchak to Hashem. Avraham’s tests begin with Lech Lecha, when he must abandon his past, and climax with the “sacrifice” of Yishmael and Yitzchak, when he must be willing to abandon his future. Avraham’s willingness to give everything to Hashem solidifies his legacy, a legacy Yitzchak will continue in the next generation.

As Avraham grapples with Sarah’s passing and his own mortality in Parashat Chayei Sarah, he works to ensure Yitzchak’s continuity. For Jews, death does not bring despair; it drives us to prepare those who will carry on our legacy for success. Sensing his own days are numbered and fearing that marriage to a daughter of Canaan will cause Yitzchak to turn astray,3 Avraham sends his servant to find a proper bride for his son.

Avraham’s experiences help us appreciate how challenging it can be to raise the next generation of committed Jews – a challenge we continue to struggle with today. Avraham’s tireless efforts to ensure continuity inspire us to invest our hearts and souls in educating our own children.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt”l: the path of Avraham Avinu Rabbi Jonathan Sacks dedicated his life to both of these ideas: “A land: Israel. And children: Jewish continuity.

The astonishing fact is that today, four thousand years later, they remain the dominant concern of Jews throughout the world – the safety and security of Israel as the Jewish home, and the

future of the Jewish people. Avraham’s hopes and fears are ours.”4 In our generation, Jewish continuity faces the great danger of cultural assimilation. Though we have merited to see our people’s return to Eretz Yisrael, our relationship with and right to the land are constantly challenged by our enemies.5 Rabbi Sacks understood the modern manifestations of these ancient challenges and spoke, wrote, and acted to confront them.

Rabbi Sacks understood the modern manifestations of these ancient challenges and spoke, wrote, and acted to confront them.

Avraham taught us that death must not bring despair, but rather motivate us to strengthen our eternal values and pass them on to the next generation. May the passing of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who worked tirelessly on behalf of our people, inspire us to play our own part in ensuring the legacy of Am Yisrael.

Rabbeinu Yonah (Avot 5:4) sees this as Avraham’s 10th test. See also Rashi, Shemot 6:9.

1

Berachot 5a.

2

3

Derashot HaRan 5, Rav Hirsch, Bereishit 24:3.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation: Genesis (Maggid Books), p. 126.

4

Chazal anticipated that our rights to Eretz Yisrael would be challenged, predicting that we would even be accused of stealing places the Bible records our ancestors had purchased, like Me’arat HaMachpelah (Bereishit Rabbah 79:7).

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Rabbi Reuven Taragin is Educational Director of Mizrachi and Dean of the Yeshivat Hakotel Overseas Program.

VOLUME

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Creating Leaders Engaged with Torah and Engaged with the World

I

n 2016, Rabbi Sacks zt”l met with Rabbi Shaw and urged Mizrachi UK to create the leaders of the future who were engaged with Torah and engaged with the world.

We took that request very seriously and launched our Mizrachi Rabbinic Fellows programme as well as our

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Shlichut programme, which now supplies Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist couples to communities all across the UK. Recently Mizrachi UK launched Yehudi with its first leadership weekend where 70 sixth form and university students held an inspirational Shabbaton. Through Yehudi they are

(PHOTOS: TAMARA KAY)

going to become the role models that the children and teenagers of British Jewry desperately need.

Working with nearly 500 children across our Jewish primary schools, we believe the power of our ideology combined with the vision and inspiration of Rabbi Sacks can transform the community. n

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Do Not Accept Evil:

Make the World a Better Place Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon

I

first met Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks about twenty years ago, when he invited me to spend a few days in England at a rabbinical conference and to speak on matters of halachah and Shemitta. At that time, Rabbi Sacks was not yet broadly known in Israel, nor did I know him personally. But at the conference, I discovered a rabbi who spoke a new language, something different from the way of Rav Kook and Rav Soloveitchik. There was something new here!

During those few days, I heard empowering ideas and clear explanations of the eternal nature of our people and our role in the world, and the role of the other nations. It was a language of Torah that brought a new life and spirit to people in Israel and around the world.

Most of all, Rabbi Sacks gave enormous strength to Jews living in exile, reminding them of G-d’s love for us, strengthening their Jewish identity and observance of the mitzvot and helping them feel a part of the unique mission of the Jewish people.

Beloved by the Jewish people, he was also accepted and revered by gentiles worldwide – an extraordinary and unlikely accomplishment! To the other nations, he taught a Torah that A member of succeeded in sanctifying the name of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau Heaven and glorifying Judaism. mizrachi.org/ speakers

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Rabbi Sacks breathed new life into age-old questions and ideas where

it previously seemed that all that could be said had already been said.

A powerful example of Rabbi Sacks’ fresh perspective is his treatment of the problem of evil. For millennia, religious believers have struggled with the problem of evil in the world. So much has been written on this subject in the words of the prophets, Chazal and our Rishonim and Achronim. But Rabbi Sacks approached this ancient problem with a new spirit.

Why do we struggle so mightily with the question of evil? For G-d is good and His world is good! Over and over again, we are told that G-d created the world for good: “When G-d began to create heaven and earth... G-d saw that the light was good... And G-d said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...’ And G-d saw all that He had made and found it very good...”

(Bereishit 1).

If G-d is good, why must good people suffer from evil? Rabbi Sacks explained that G-d consciously hides the answer to this question from humanity. But why? Only in the final months of his life did Rabbi Sacks offer an answer: Let us imagine what would happen if we clearly understood why there is evil in the world. We would not fight it! We would watch evil occurring before our eyes but remain passive; we would say that evil is understandable and logical.

G-d is completely good, and he wants us, humanity, to refuse to take evil for granted! We must not accept evil; we must rebel against evil and do everything in our power to fight it!

Throughout history, we have tried to answer the riddle of why bad things happen to good people. But Rabbi Sacks understood that G-d wants us to have questions! We don’t need to search for answers, for it is the questions that will push us to fix the world.

The questions are the main thing; they are what drive us to make the world a better place! G-d did not reveal to us the reason for evil in the world so that we will never come to terms with evil, to understand that G-d, Who is all good, wants us to struggle and strive to eliminate evil!

G-d did not create a completely good world but rather a world that man can transform into good! G-d created a world with the tools to change the world for the better. This is our mission; this is why each of us is here!

May we be privileged to bring good to the world, and may the beautiful ideas of Rabbi Sacks continue to sanctify the name of Heaven in the world.

Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon is Head of Mizrachi’s Educational Advisory Board and Rabbinic Council. He serves as the Rabbi of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and is the Founder and Chairman of Sulamot.

Our Light unto the

Nations Rabbi Hershel Schachter

I

n Parashat Ki Tavo, we are commanded ‫וְ ָה ַל ְכ ָּת ִ ּב ְד ָר ָכיו‬, “And you should go in His ways” (Devarim 28:9). What does this mean? How and why should we go in the ways of Hashem?

Rabbi Sacks addressing the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference.

(PHOTO: THE RABBI SACKS LEGACY TRUST)

Hashem created humanity ‫ְ ּב ֶצ ֶלם ֱאלוֹ ִקים‬ – “in the image of G-d” (Bereishit 1:27) and He wants us to preserve that ‫צ ֶלם‬,ֶ even here in this complicated, physical world. So He commanded us to “go in His ways,” for by following His example, we will preserve our G-dliness.

But to truly understand the ways of Hashem and how to follow them, we must study the Tanach and learn the Gemara.

The verse continues ‫– וְ ָרא ּו ָ ּכל ַע ֵּמי ָה ָא ֶרץ‬ “And all the peoples of the earth shall see that Hashem’s name is proclaimed over you” (Devarim 28:10). The other nations will see that Bnei Yisrael have succeeded in preserving the ‫צ ֶלם ֱאלוֹ ִקים‬.ֶ The Navi Yishayahu says that we are an Or LaGoyim – “A light unto the nations” (Yishayahu 49:6). But our role as a “light unto the nations” was not discovered by Yishayahu, for all the teachings brought forth by the prophets must be rooted in the Torah. The original source for our people’s role as “light unto the nations” comes from the verse ‫וְ ָרא ּו ָ ּכל ַע ֵּמי ָה ָא ֶרץ‬.

What does it mean to be a “light unto the nations”? When all the nations of the world will see that we have

succeeded in preserving our ‫צ ֶלם ֱאלוֹ ִקים‬,ֶ they will learn from our people how to live with yirat shamayim – with fear of Heaven.

Rav Soloveitchik explains that being an Or LaGoyim does not result from our keeping the mitzvot of Shabbat, kashrut and taharat hamishpacha (family purity), but rather by preserving our ‫ ֶצ ֶלם ֱאלוֹ ִקים‬following the ways of Hashem with honesty, integrity and work ethic.

This is one of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’ extraordinary accomplishments. For so many years, the Jewish people did not function as an Or

LaGoyim. But Rabbi Sacks published and spoke so much in public about the meaning of ‫צ ֶלם ֱאלוֹ ִקים‬,ֶ and how to live with midot tovot and derech eretz. Rabbi Sacks represented the Jewish people to the nations of the world, and through his teachings and the way he lived his life, taught humanity the meaning of ‫צ ֶלם ֱאלוֹ ִקים‬.ֶ

Rabbi Hershel Schachter is Rosh Yeshiva and Rosh Kollel at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University.

A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau mizrachi.org/ speakers

| 13

Writing Our Own

Chapter Sivan Rahav Meir

R

abbi Sacks passed away on Shabbat morning, just as Jews throughout the world read the Torah portion of Vayeira. What did Rabbi Sacks teach us about this portion? That the most fundamental priority of the Jewish people is education.

“Who was Avraham, and why was he chosen?” he asks and answers: “Avraham is not described as a righteous man, as Noach is, or as one who protests injustice, like Moshe, or as a warrior, like David, or a prophet, like Isaiah. There is only one place, in Parashat Vayera, where the Torah mentions why G-d chose Avraham: ‘For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the L-rd by doing what is right and just.’ To translate this into our vernacular, it is as if G-d is saying: I know this guy. I know what he’s all about. And do you know what he is? He is a good teacher.

A good parent. A good educator. And I know that I can trust him in the area that is most important to Me. Not the army, not money, not territory, not charisma – but education. He will know how best to pass the flame on to the next generation and to ignite the same spark in their eyes. The point is not to amass knowledge. Avraham is not meant to compel his children to read many books but to live their lives in accordance with these books.

Avraham succeeds in his task, and for this reason, to this day, we all call him ‘our father.’”

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something to be learned by rote, and its students are not meant to be robots.

Rabbi Sacks passed away on the Shabbat that reminds us all to continue the path of our father Avraham by directing our sons and daughters to safeguard G-d’s ways. Although Rabbi Sacks was a man of many interests and talents, his commitment to this ideal was his greatest accomplishment.

Rabbi Sacks understood that the most pressing problem of our times is the ignorance of the Jewish people and the assimilation and disappearance that has inevitably followed. Recognizing this tragedy, he changed his life course to dedicate himself to the cause of Jewish education. Although he was a Lord, a professor, a scholar and a commentator, he was first and foremost a rabbi and a teacher. Above his studies of the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Nietzsche, he placed Jewish continuity.

He taught us how to pass on our heritage to the next generation: through discussions, questions and answers, with curiosity and passion, and with a spark in our eyes (who can forget the spark in Rabbi Sacks’ eyes when he learned and taught?). He would constantly remind us that Judaism is not

This is why it moved me so deeply to hear how his wife, Lady Elaine, began the memorial ceremony marking one month since his passing. Participating in the worldwide virtual ceremony were Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Prince Charles and the Archbishop of Canterbury. And yet Lady Elaine’s opening words were these: “We received so many letters and stories this past month. People told us that they sent their children to get a Jewish education because of my husband.”

This was her message before all of the eulogies delivered by honored guests because this truly was Rabbi Sacks’ greatest passion. Although he had the opportunity to sit in lavish mansions with kings and princes, Rabbi Sacks understood that it was far more important to ensure that one more Jewish child would continue on the path of their ancestors.

We all loved Rabbi Sacks very much, and we were deeply pained when he was suddenly taken from us. But the great vacuum that has been created in the Jewish world by his parting will not be filled by merely loving and missing Rabbi Sacks. It will only be filled if we strive to be like Rabbi Sacks. The task that he left us is not to purchase his books but to adopt his path. As he said about the Lubavitcher Rebbe: “Good leaders create followers.

Great leaders create leaders.” Rabbi Sacks did not want people to quote his ideas by copying and pasting. He wanted people to take responsibility,

(PHOTO: BLAKE EZRA PHOTOGRAPHY / THE RABBI SACKS LEGACY TRUST)

transcend themselves to change the Jewish world and bring the Torah to every Jew. When Rabbi Sacks’ final book on the weekly Torah portion was published posthumously, I discovered that his commentary on the final portion was missing. Sadly, Rabbi Sacks did not finish formulating his insights on the portion before he passed away. Let us try, humbly, to look at it for a moment through his eyes. Undoubtedly, he would have focused on one of the first verses: Torah tziva lanu Moshe, morasha kehillat Yaakov, “Moshe charged us with the Torah, heritage of the community of Yaakov.” This was his life’s motto.

The best inheritance that we pass on

to subsequent generations is the Torah, our identity, our heritage.

But at the very end of the portion, after Moshe blesses all of the tribes, the Torah describes his passing.

According to some commentators, Yehoshua, and not Moshe, wrote the final verses of the Torah after his teacher passed away.

This, perhaps, is the most potent message that Rabbi Sacks could have left us. The fact that this book lacks a commentary on the final portion says to us: Do not be followers. Be leaders. Do not be fans or spectators, be players.

The Torah awaits our commentary as well.

 Adapted from the Foreword to “Studies in Spirituality,” by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Maggid Books, 2021).

Sivan Rahav Meir is a media personality and lecturer. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Yedidya, and their five children, and serves as World Mizrachi’s Scholar-inResidence. She is a primetime anchor on Channel 2 News, has a column in Israel’s largest newspaper, Yediot Acharonot, and has a weekly radio show on Galei Tzahal (Army Radio). Sivan was included by Forbes magazine in their list of the 50 most influential women in Israel, and listed by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world.

A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau mizrachi.org/ speakers

| 15

JEWS with VIEWS We asked five accomplished Jews from around the world to reflect upon an influential personal memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt”l

16 |

Rabbi Gideon

Dr. Erica

M

T

Black

uch has been written about Rabbi Sacks’ remarkable skills as an orator.

He was the 21st century’s leading spokesman for Judaism – both within the Jewish community and beyond.

That his remarkable speaking style should give voice to his own equally powerful writings was a blessing for so many and made him an even rarer treasure. But where I found his voice to be most profound was during prayer.

Simply put, Rabbi Sacks loved davening.

When he would daven, he would do so loudly, often belting out phrases from pesukei dezimra with real gusto. His magisterial translation and commentary on the siddur transformed davening for so many of us, not just because of his scholarship, but because he applied his scholarship to an aspect of Jewish life that he truly loved.

Rabbi Sacks loved to sing zemirot on Shabbat and did so with the same enthusiasm with which he would daven. In February 2000, Rabbi Sacks led 2,000 teens in song at a Bnei Akiva National Shabbaton in Wales. To our amazement, he leaped up onto his chair at Friday night dinner, waving his hands in the air and encouraging us all to do the same. He was in his element, even insisting that the police officers in his security detail get up on their chairs to join in the zemirot!

The energy in the room was incredible, all of us enthralled by the fact that the otherwise very dignified Chief Rabbi had seamlessly transitioned into a head madrich role as he electrified the Shabbaton with his ruach and song.

Rabbi Gideon Black is the CEO of New York NCSY. Born in Scotland, he grew up in London, and received his law degree from University College London before moving to New York to study at YU, where he received semicha and an MA in Jewish Philosophy.

Brown he first year I lived in London, I didn’t have a driver’s license (or licence, as the Brits spell it). We lived on Victoria Road that curved into Albert Road, the location of Jews’ College, University of London.

Because my world was so narrow, the College became my sole focus. I taught, studied and did a Master’s thesis there under Rabbi Sacks’ tutelage, where he served as its principal.

Those with a front seat in Rabbi Sacks’ classes witnessed his extraordinary spiritual and intellectual gifts; the relatively small classrooms could not contain his ideas, passionate pedagogy, and aristocratic bearing.

A friend visiting from America accompanied me to the college one Friday afternoon. I rang the bell; Rabbi Sacks opened the door. My friend, with the enthusiasm of an American not in keeping with a typical British temperament, casually introduced himself and then said, “And what’s your name?” Rabbi Sacks smiled widely and replied: “I’m Jonathan.”

“Hi Jonathan,” he responded as my face turned beet red. Jonathan? It would never dawn on me to call him anything but Rabbi and some years later, Lord. But in 1988, Rabbi Sacks’ teachings had not yet made it across the pond. Soon enough, his name and face would become iconic, associated throughout the world as a steward of our faith and all faith.

The night Rabbi Sacks died, this friend was the first to console me. I was inconsolable. He reminded me of that moment and the flush on my face that told him without words that we were in the presence of greatness.

Dr. Erica Brown, the director of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership and an associate professor of curriculum and pedagogy at The George Washington University, is the author of 12 books on leadership, the Bible and spirituality.

Jonny

Tanya

David M.

I

M

W

Lipczer t was Erev Yom Kippur. As ever, I felt thoroughly unprepared and was frantically getting organized for the holiest day of the year.

My phone rang, I answered it, and I listened to the words I had heard several times previously. But today, just hours before Kol Nidrei, it was particularly unexpected.

“This is the Office of the Chief Rabbi. The Chief Rabbi would like to speak with you. Can I put him through?”

“Yes, of course,” I replied.

After a few moments, I heard the familiar tones of Rabbi Sacks’ inimitable voice. He had called simply to thank me for my work on a project we had been working on during the year.

I was stunned. If today was a busy day for me, I could only imagine how demanding it must have been for the Rabbi of Rabbis.

That day, Rabbi Sacks taught me a transformative lesson: Giving thanks is a priority. On the eve of the single most supremely sacred day in our calendar, I was one of a number of people on the receiving end of a “thank you” call from the Chief Rabbi.

Rabbi Sacks once wrote a list of life-changing principles, the first of which was ‘Give Thanks’: “Yes, we have problems, fears, pains; but they can wait until we have finished giving thanks; and once we have given thanks, our problems seem a little smaller and we feel a little stronger… Giving thanks brings happiness even in hard times.”

Underlining the Jewish essence of thankfulness, Rabbi Sacks wrote elsewhere: “Descartes said: I think therefore I am. A Jew says: I thank therefore I am. To stand consciously in the presence of G-d involves an attitude of gratitude.”

Jonny Lipczer is Director of Communications at World Mizrachi. He was raised in the UK, is a former Shaliach for Bnei Akiva of Toronto, and leads educational Jewish journeys to Poland.

White y story, I’m sure, is one of thousands; just one example of this great man’s impact. In 2003, Rabbi Sacks suggested I read the writings of Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, in which I found a dialectical faith that spoke to me existentially, and which became the subject of my doctoral studies.

In 2011, I again sought his advice while working on my doctorate at a particularly challenging stage of life.

His advice was accurate and astute: a doctorate will expand your horizons and engender personal growth, but shouldn’t come at the expense of your teaching.

While sitting opposite him in a room filled with books, I realized that he not only echoed the knowledge encased on those shelves but embodied the verse in Tehillim 90: “So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom.”

He spoke with politicians, royalty and leaders in every field but always found time and devoted his interest to young educators, channeling each and every one of us towards our potential.

Through personal example, he taught us the meaning of humility, reverence and deep unbridled faith, leaving us with the urgent imperative to do something transformative.

May we succeed in spreading the light of his teachings and continue down the path this great giant strode. For on his shoulders there are undoubtedly hundreds of thousands that stand.

Tanya White is an international lecturer, writer and educator currently completing a doctorate in Jewish Philosophy. A collection of her thoughts can be viewed at contemplatingtorah.wordpress.com.

Weinberg hen he retired in 2013 from the post of British Chief Rabbi, people began asking whether Rabbi Sacks was going to make Aliyah. In fact, there were questions raised about the degree of his Zionist commitment, since the great classics of Western literature, philosophy, and science seemed to loom more prominent in his oeuvre than Zionism.

This was unfair. Rabbi Sacks’ religious excitement about the return of sovereignty to the Jewish people in Zion was palpable in many of his written works. Furthermore, it was clear to me why Rabbi Sacks nevertheless decided not to move to Israel. The Haredi-influenced Israeli Rabbinate would brook no understanding of his broad intellectual horizons and liberal weltanschauung.

I remember the day all the doubters were put to rest, when Rabbi Sacks received the Guardian of Zion award from Bar-Ilan University’s Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, in June 2014. His mesmerizing address, about “three epiphanies” he experienced in Jerusalem, was a Zionist masterpiece!

Rabbi Sacks concluded his remarks thus: “We have had the privilege to be born in a generation that has seen Jerusalem reunited and rebuilt.

We have seen the Jewish people come home.

Now G-d is calling on us all to be ‘Guardians of Zion.’ We must all stand up for the one home our people have ever known and the one city our people have loved more than any other. We are all shagrirey Medinat Yisrael (ambassadors for the State of Israel) and we must all make Israel’s case in a world that sometimes fails to see the beauty we know is here.”

David M. Weinberg has been a distinguished diplomatic and defense affairs columnist for The Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom newspapers for 25 years.

| 17

What I Learned From My Father Gila Sacks

In 2016, Rabbi Sacks won the Templeton Prize, an annual award granted to a person, in the estimation of the judges, “whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton’s philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it. At the award ceremony, Rabbi Sacks’ daughter, Gila Sacks, surprised him by giving a moving and personal speech about what she and her siblings had learned from their parents.

I

was asked to say a few words about what my father taught us, his children. I thought that would be easy. But it turns out that it is next to impossible to separate what a parent has taught you from the ‘you’ that you are. To know where to start; to find the words. So let me just tell you three things about our dad.

18 |

But before I do, it may be a cliché, but it’s the truest one I know. I don’t think he would mind me saying that whatever he has done, he could not have done any of it at all without the strength which he and we get from our amazing Mum.

great book hasn’t lessened with time in any way. The more he knows, the more he wants to learn. He is absolutely committed to learning everything, to seeing all knowledge as important, to taking as seriously a conversation about business as one about ethics or science or art, to taking the search for excellence in any field seriously. When I was younger, no matter what I was studying at school or university, no matter what the essay topic, if I mentioned it to my dad, he would immediately walk over to the bookcase and pick out the exact book I needed. He learns from everyone. And we learned this from him.

Ben Zoma famously asks in the Mishnah (Avot 4:1) “Who is wise? One who learns from everyone.” And that’s the first thing I want to tell you about my father. He learns and learns and learns from everyone. His excitement about discovering new ideas, meeting somebody interesting and discovering a

Ben Zoma continues, “Who is rich?

One who is happy with what he has.”

When I thought about my father and what he has taught me, I don’t think I expected happiness to be what came to mind. I’m not sure his happiness is what most immediately stands out about him or what many people see.

And yet, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he has, in fact, taught me some crucial things about how to be happy. He taught me that happiness is as much something we choose as something we find. That it can be hard work, but it can be worked at. And I learned from the happiness he finds in the world, even when the world is a difficult place to be. His joy at a beautiful view, a great walk, a moving piece of music. His undiminishing joy in spending simple happy times with my mum, and the happiness he gets from each of his grandchildren.

To be happy with what one has, teaches Ben Zoma, does not mean settling for what you have – but rather finding happiness where you are, enjoying the fruits of this world each day. And that is the second thing we learned from my father, and perhaps something he also learns from us.

Thirdly, and most importantly of all, we have learned from his faith; not just in G-d, but in the ability and responsibility of each of us to make a difference in some way. Not to accept the world as we find it, but to always believe it can be different. And to believe that there is no reason at all that that difference can’t be something to do with us.

This was not for us some grand calling to go out and change the world.

It was simply a way of looking at the world, to always see in it the potential for good, the potential for change. And to always see ourselves as having the ability to make a difference; that we must never be passive observers.

My father’s faith – in the ability of things to change and of people to change them – is what I am most grateful for.

Because sometimes when it is hard for me to believe, it is enough for me to know that he does.

And because he is the cleverest person I know, he is probably therefore right.

And I think his faith is, in this way, empowering for so many people whose lives he has touched – even when they might not always be able to believe that things can change, knowing that he does, helps them to do more to make that change happen.

Ben Zoma concludes the Mishnah with “Who is honored? One who brings honor to others.” By believing in us, in our potential for good and our responsibility for good, my father brings honor to so many. And in the life that he leads and the Torah that he teaches, he brings honor to G-d.

Gila Sacks is a senior civil servant in the UK government, currently Director of Prevention Services in the Department for Health and Social Care.

| 19

Learning to Live and Living to Learn RABBI SACKS’ APPROACH TO STUDYING THE PARASHA

Rabbanit Shani Taragin Covenant and Conversation, and living with the times Although Rabbi Sacks was proficient in all of Tanach, his Torah scholarship was most manifest through his study of Chumash and its commentaries. He quotes the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe 2 as teaching that “We must live with the times… with the parashat hashavua,” explaining that events in his life have granted him deeper insight into the Torah text. “Torah is a commentary on life, and life is a commentary on Torah. Together they constitute a conversation, each shedding light on the other… [G-d signals the way] through the words of the Torah, to which every Jewish life is a commentary and each of us has our own annotation to write.”

F A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau mizrachi.org/ speakers

20 |

or Rabbi Sacks zt”l, the study of Torah was not to be treated “just as words read, but also as a melody sung. The Torah is G-d’s libretto, and we, the Jewish people, are His choir, the performers of His choral symphony”1. Rabbi Sacks himself did not simply sing a melody of Torah; he harmonized with multiple voices. The dissonance of his dialectical thought did not resonate with cacophony but rather with depth and complexity, creating a symphony of integrity and inspiration. This essay will share a few of the motifs in Rabbi Sacks’ “unfinished symphony” of Torah teachings.

Rabbi Sacks shares the perspectives of medieval and modern Torah commentaries through the Torah prism of “70 face[t]s.” His goal is to engage in dialogue with the Torah, listening to the text given to us at our covenantal betrothal at Sinai (i.e. pshat) and simultaneously inducing the text to speak to us today (i.e. drash). Together, these different forms of dialogue continuously shape our individual and national destiny.

Rabbi Sacks’ approach to the Biblical text is to set the words in the broader context of ideas. “Many traditional commentaries look at the Torah through a microscope: the detail, the fragment of text in isolation. I have tried to look at it through a telescope: the larger picture and its place in the constellation of concepts that make

Judaism so compelling a picture of the universe and our place within it.”3 He explains that his parasha studies are called Covenant and Conversation because “The text of the Torah is our covenant with G-d, our written constitution as a nation under His sovereignty. The interpretation of this text has been the subject of an ongoing conversation… that began at Sinai thirty-three centuries ago and has not ceased since. Every age has added its commentaries, and so must ours.

Participating in that conversation is a major part of what it is to be a Jew. For we are the people who never stopped learning the Book of Life, our most precious gift from the G-d of life.”4

Universalism and particularism: two covenants In approaching the structure of Tanach, Rabbi Sacks often notes that although the subject is the people of Israel – the descendants of Avraham and Sarah – the Torah does not begin with Avraham. It begins with Adam and Chava and their descendants, Noach and his family, Nimrod and the builders of Babylon – universal archetypes of the human condition.

G-d first forges a covenant with all of humanity (Bereishit 9) followed by a specific covenant with Avraham and his descendants (Bereishit 17) that is later forged with 613 commandments at Har Sinai.

“Judaism is built on a dual structure.

It has a universal dimension and a particularistic one, neither of which

negates the other. G-d has a general relationship with all humanity and a particular relationship with the Children of Israel. Rabbi Akiva expressed this, simply and beautifully, in his statement in Pirkei Avot: ‘Beloved is humanity, for it was created in G-d’s image... Beloved are Israel for they are called G-d’s children’ (3:14)”.5

Chochmah (wisdom) and Torah (guidance): two modes of being and knowing

Morality: idealism and realism In his analysis of Biblical characters, Rabbi Sacks powerfully presents the layers of complexity inherent in the human condition and the Torah’s morally perplexing and ambiguous narratives. Rabbi Sacks cites three reasons7 presented by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes to explain why the Torah teaches ethics through characters fraught with complexity and ambiguity: 1.

Moral life is not something we can understand all at once; the most effective means of education and instruction is to present stories that may be read at different levels based on various stages of moral development and exposure.

2. Decisions and people are complex: Noach, the only person in Tanach to be called righteous,

3. Lastly and most importantly, more than any other religious literature, the Torah makes an absolute distinction between earth and heaven, between G-d and human beings. “Because G-d is G-d, there is space for humans to be human. In Judaism, the line dividing them is never blurred…

No religion has held a higher view of humanity than the Book that tells us we are each in the image and likeness of G-d. Yet none has been more honest about the failings of even the greatest. G-d does not ask us to be perfect. He asks us, instead, to take risks in pursuit of the right and the good, and to acknowledge the mistakes we will inevitably make.”

Rabbi Sacks approaches Torah as an instruction guide in proper ethical living and teaches that “In Judaism the moral life is about learning and growing, knowing that even the greatest have failings and even the worst have saving graces. It calls for humility about ourselves and generosity towards others. This unique blend of idealism and realism is morality at its most demanding and mature.”8

only learn to live; we live to learn. In study, we make Torah real in the mind so that we can make it actual in the world”9. He has left us with a legacy and responsibility to weave our Torah covenant into daily conversation and to continue learning, teaching, singing and living the song of Torah.

Covenant & Conversation: Deuteronomy (Maggid Books, 2019), “The Torah as G-d’s Song”, p. 305.

1

Covenant & Conversation: Genesis (Maggid Books, 2009), “Living with the Times”, pp. 1–3.

2

3

Ibid.

Ibid.

4

Future Tense (Hodder & Stoughton, 2010), pp.

211–212.

5

Future Tense (Hodder & Stoughton, 2010), pp.

219–222.

6

Essays on Ethics (Maggid Books, 2016), “How Perfect Were the Matriarchs and Patriarchs?”, pp. 15–20.

7

Ibid.

8

Ten Paths to G-d: A curriculum based on the teachings of Rabbi Sacks (2018).

9

Rabbanit Shani Taragin is Educational Director of Mizrachi and the Director of the Mizrachi–TVA Lapidot Educators’ Program.

(PHOTO: BLAKE EZRA PHOTOGRAPHY / THE RABBI SACKS LEGACY TRUST)

Rabbi Sacks brilliantly wove together philosophy, world history, anthropology, literature, and psychology in his approach to Torah study and simultaneously distinguished between them: “Chochmah is the truth we discover; Torah is the truth we inherit.

Chochmah is the universal heritage of humankind; Torah is the specific heritage of Israel. Chochmah is what we attain by being in the image of G-d; Torah is what guides Jews as the people of G-d. Chochmah is acquired by seeing and reasoning; Torah is received by listening and responding. Chochmah tells us what is; Torah tells us what ought to be. Chochmah is about facts; Torah is about commands. Chochmah yields descriptive, scientific laws; Torah yields prescriptive, behavioral laws. Chochmah is about creation; Torah is about revelation...”6

ends up drunk and disheveled.

Moshe, Aaron, Miriam and King David are all punished for their sins. “No religious literature was ever further from hagiography, idealization and hero-worship.”

Conversely, even the non-heroes have their saving graces. Esav is a loving son, Levi, condemned by Ya’akov for his violence, counts Moshe, Aaron and Miriam among his grandchildren. The descendants of Korach sang psalms in the Beit HaMikdash.

Rabbi Sacks taught us how to read and sing the words of the Torah; how, like poetry, it contains deep reservoirs of meaning, sometimes hinted at by using an unusual word or sentence construction. Through his intellect and passion, chochmah and Torah, Rabbi Sacks has taught us how to approach the Torah with the mind and the soul, how the particular may become universal, and to appreciate complexity and diversity. “In Judaism, we not

| 21

Israel The Religious Significance of

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks ‫זצ״ל‬

T

he long journey is nearing its close. The Jordan is almost within sight. We have read the long itinerary of stops along the way. Finally, we are reaching the end of the list of encampments, and G-d tells Moshe: “Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess” (Bamidbar 33:53). This, according to Ramban, is the source of the command to dwell in the Land of Israel and inherit it.

With this, we come to one of the central tensions in Judaism and Jewish history: The religious significance of the Land of Israel. Its centrality cannot be doubted. Whatever the subplots and subsidiary themes of Tanach, its overarching narrative is the promise of and journey to the land.1 Jewish history begins with Avraham and Sarah’s journey to it. The four subsequent books of the Torah are taken up with the second journey in the days of Moshe. Tanach as a whole ends with Cyrus, King of Persia granting permission to Jews, exiled in Babylon, to return to their land – the third great journey.

The paradox of Jewish history is that although a specific territory, the Holy Land, is at its heart, Jews have spent more time in exile than in Israel; more time longing for it than dwelling in it; more time traveling than arriving.

Much of the Jewish story could be written in the language of Parashat Masei: “They journeyed from X and camped at Y.”

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Hence the tension. On the one hand, monotheism must understand G-d as non-territorial. The G-d of everywhere can be found anywhere. He is not confined to this people, or that place – as pagans believed. He exercises His power even in Egypt. He sends a prophet, Yonah, to Nineveh in Assyria.

He is with Yechezkel in Babylon. There is no place in the universe where He is not. On the other hand, it must be impossible to live fully as a Jew outside Israel, for if not, Jews would not have been commanded to go there initially or to return subsequently. Why is the G-d beyond place to be found specifically in this place?

The Sages formulated the tension in two striking propositions. On the one hand, “Wherever the Israelites went into exile, the Divine Presence was exiled with them.”2 On the other, “One who leaves Israel to live elsewhere is as if he had no G-d”3. Can one find G-d, serve G-d, experience G-d, outside the Holy Land? Yes and no. If the answer were only yes, there would be no incentive to return. If the answer were only no, there would be no reason to stay Jewish in exile. On this tension, the Jewish existence is built.

What then is special about Israel?

The Kuzari says that different environments have different ecologies.

Just as there are some countries, climates, and soils particularly suited to growing vines, so there is a country, Israel, particularly suited to growing

prophets – indeed a whole Divinely-inspired people. “No other place shares the distinction of the Divine influence, just as no other mountain produces such good wine.”4 Ramban gives a different explanation: Though every land and nation is under the overarching sovereignty of G-d, only Israel is directly so. Others are ruled by intermediaries earthly and heavenly. Their fate is governed by other factors. Only in the Land and People of Israel do we find a nation’s fortunes and misfortunes directly attributable to their relationship with G-d.5 The Kuzari and Ramban both expound what we might call mystical geography.

The difference between them is that the Kuzari looks to earth, Ramban to heaven. For the Kuzari, what is special about the Land of Israel is its soil, landscape, and climate. For Ramban, it is its direct governance by G-d. For both of them, religious experience is possible outside Israel, but it is a pale shadow of what it is in the land. Is there a way of stating this non-mystically, in concepts and categories closer to ordinary experience? Here is one way of doing so.

The Torah is not merely a code of personal perfection. It is the framework for the construction of a society, a nation, a culture. It is about what Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein called, in a memorable phrase, “societal beatitude.” It contains welfare legislation, civil law, rules governing employer-employee

relationships, environmental provisions, rules of animal welfare, public health, and governmental and judicial systems.

A moment of reflection at the Kotel. (PHOTO: THE RABBI SACKS LEGACY TRUST)

The Torah stands at the opposite end of the spectrum from Gnosticism and other world-denying philosophies that see religion as an ascent of the soul to ethereal realms of the spirit. For Judaism, G-d lives here, on earth, in human lives, interactions, and associations. The Torah is terrestrial because G-d seeks to dwell on earth. Thus the Jewish task is to create a society with the Divine Presence in its midst. Had Judaism been confined to matters of the spirit, it would have left vast areas of human concern – the entire realms of politics, economics, and sociology – outside the religious sphere.

What was and is unique about Israel is that it is the sole place on earth (barring short-lived exceptions like the Himyarites in the sixth century and Khazars in the eighth, whose kings converted to Judaism) where Jews have had the chance to create an entire society on Jewish lines. It is possible to live a Jewish life in Manchester or Monsey, Madrid or Minsk. But it is always a truncated experience. Only in Israel do Jews conduct their lives in the language of the Bible, within the time defined by the Jewish calendar and space saturated in Jewish history.

Only there do they form a majority.

Only there are they able to construct a political system, an economy, and an environment on the template of Jewish values. There alone can Judaism be what it is meant to be – not just a code of conduct for individuals, but also and essentially the architectonics of a society.

Hence there must be some space on earth where Jews practice self-government under Divine sovereignty.

But why Israel, specifically? Because it is and has always been, a key strategic location where three continents – Europe, Africa, and Asia – meet.

Lacking the extended flat and fertile space of the Nile Delta or the Tigris-Euphrates valley (or today, the oil fields of Arabia), it could never be the base of an empire, but because of its location, it was always sought after by empires.

So it was politically vulnerable.

It was and is ecologically vulnerable, because its water resources are dependent on rain, and rains in the region are always unpredictable (hence the frequent famines mentioned in Bereishit). Its existence could never, therefore, be taken for granted. Time and again its people, surviving challenges, would experience this as a miracle.

Small geographically and demographically, it would depend on outstanding achievement – political, military, and economic – on the part of its people.

This would depend, in turn, on their morale and sense of mission. Thus the Prophets knew, naturally as well as supernaturally, that without social justice and a sense of Divine vocation, the nation would eventually fall and suffer exile again.

These are, as it were, the empirical foundations of the mysticism of the Kuzari and Ramban. They are as true today as they were in ancient times.

There is a directness, a naturalness, of the Jewish experience in Israel that can be found nowhere else. History tells us that the project of constructing a society under Divine sovereignty in a vulnerable land is the highest of high-risk strategies. Yet, across forty centuries, Jews knew that the risk was worth taking. For only in Israel is G-d so close that you can feel Him in the sun and wind, sense Him just beyond the hills, hear Him in the inflections

of everyday speech, breathe His presence in the early morning air and live, dangerously but confidently, under the shadow of His wings.

See D. J. Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch (Sheffield: JSOT, 1978).

1

Mechilta, Parashat Bo 14.

2

3

Ketubot 110b

Judah Halevi, The Kuzari, II:9–12.

4

5

See Ramban’s commentary to Vayikra 18:25.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 until his retirement in 2013. He spent decades bringing spiritual insight to the public conversation through mass media, popular lectures, and more than 30 books. Rabbi Sacks passed away in 2020, leaving behind a legacy as one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of our generation, one who bridged the religious and secular world through his remarkable and ground-breaking canon of work.

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Following Mizrachi’s success in the last World Zionist Congress, Mizrachi specifically requested the portfolio of the WZO’s Education Department as it dispatches the largest number of educators and teachers benefiting schools around the world. We are privileged and grateful that one of our senior representatives at the National Institutions, Mr. Gael Grunewald, heads this prestigious department.

Rabbi Doron Perez

Executive Chairman, World Mizrachi

The Department of Education of the World Zionist Organization wishes its Shlichim around the world a fruitful and successful school year.

Gael Grunewald

Deputy Chairman, World Zionist Organization Head, Department of Education Representative of World Mizrachi in the National Institutions

ARGENTINA David Saied BUENOS AIRES

BELGIUM Barak Yitzhak Yael Yitzhak ANTWERP

BRAZIL Ben Tzion Tauber Shira Tauber SÃO PAULO

CANADA Sarah Getnu MONTREAL

Daniel Lecuont Shoshana Lecuont Esther Shor TORONTO

CHILE Rivka Gordon SANTIAGO

COLOMBIA Miri Shtaigmann MEDELLIN

COSTA RICA Nocham Tal Shira Tal SAN JOSE

FRANCE Dina Ashrof MARSEILLE

Asaf Weisman PARIS

GERMANY Avi Fingerhut Hagit Fingerhut Tehila Sadiel Yehoshua Sadiel BERLIN

GREECE Shira Moyal ATHENS

HONG KONG Achiya Eliav Avital Eliav Akiva Emanuel Michal Emanuel HUNGARY Ariela Sabag BUDAPEST

IRELAND Omer Shalev Timna Shalev DUBLIN

ITALY Michal Betesh-Kremer Michal Efrati Shai Efrati MIL AN

MEXICO Heinig Hila Boanish Shmuel Boanish-Heinig Erez Hemo Sivan Hemo Ronen Rasin Shlomit Shachar Yuval Shachar Peleg Shalom Hodaya Shpitzer Shay Shpitzer MEXICO CIT Y

MOROCCO Noemie Blum CASABL ANCA

ROMANIA Keren Kivi BUCHAREST

SOUTH AFRICA Yuval Bakal Lior Fradkin-Harlev Michal Parchi Tzemach Parchi JOHANNESBURG

SPAIN Israel Rozisky Tanya Rozisky MADRID

UNITED KINGDOM Meital Ben Sasson Oren Ben Sasson LONDON

UNITED STATES Guy Amit Roei Kfir Avishag Levi Reut Mussan Adiel Nachshoni Rachel Nachshoni Rina Pitkis CALIFORNIA

Daniel Levian Tal Levian Eli Lifschitz Shimi Pearl Tzipi Pearl COLORADO

Roni Noyman CONNECTICUT

Sahar Amiri David Kleinman FLORIDA

Arava Kapach Eilon Kapach Michal Lashansky Matan Magen Elyashivi Spielman Reut Spielman GEORGIA

Noa Brief Haim Helman Lior Helman Hadas Shimon Shai Shimon ILLINOIS

Rafi Izbicki Matan Shefler Shani Shefler MARYL AND

Danielle Himi Meital Simhi Oren Simhi

MASSACHUSET TS

Noam Vishkin MICHIGAN

Irit Saville

MISSOURI

Shiran Drayer Yoni Drayer Moriah Uzi Tal Uzi NEBRASKA

Adi Abebe Aviv Abebe Eti Adgeh Aharon Akilov Meytal Akilov Rivka Axelrad Shirli Cochav Yoav Cochav Chana Moriya Dahan Netanel Dahan Oshrat Frydman Tova Halevy Naor Halevy Avital Huri Eyal Madjar Alon Nagar Kareen Nagar Ido Swisa Odelya Swisa NEW JERSEY

Dana Atias Aviya Bargil Gilad Bargil Yossi Ben Harush Hodaya Benchamu Moshe Benchamu Inbal Blum Jonathan Blum Adar Cohen Hadas Dadon Liran-Cheirut Elcharat Meitav Feldman Yochai Feldman

Aviva Kasay Snir Knimach Bat-El Levin Roy Meron Shenhav Omesi Reut Perlstein Tehila Sakat Elyasaf Sharabi Evyatar Shamsiev Hadas Stiglitz Leah Uchitel Nirit Wallerstein Ami Weisberger Tsvia Weisberger Dganit Weiss NEW YORK

Ariel Ben David Zfiya Ben David Altina Buchris Helene Gersh Ayala Goren Atara Karabello Sarit Ost Ezra Pachino Tehila Pachino Esther Shemla Talya Weiss Dror Ziner Ronit Ziner OHIO

Talya Frochsad David Kanotofsky Noam Ohayon Orel Ohayon Oren Poria Rotem Shamay Shiran Shamay Shir Zamir PENNSYLVANIA

Nechemya Rosenfeld TENNESSEE

Aviva Friedmann Ori Friedmann Hila Tambur TEXAS

Zoe Calahorra UTAH

Tamar Bar Ilan Yuval Beir Shani Heinrich Ilan Politzer Shira Politzer Yaara Robinzon Liat Shmerling

WASHINGTON D.C.

Shlomi Ishak Zehavit Ishak

WISCONSIN

URUGUAY Odeia Preschel Itzjak Preschel

MONTEVIDEO

TWO NEW COURSES! — ‫— מכון מזרחי‬

MACHON MIZRACHI THE MIZRACHI ACADEMY

FOR ADVANCED EDUCATION

RABBANIT SHANI TARAGIN

RAV YOSEF ZVI RIMON

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Four-part course: November 17, November 24, December 1 and December 8, 2021 9:00 pm Israel time | 2:00 pm Eastern time Each online session is 60 minutes

Leading halachic expert, Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon, will explain the different ways fruits and vegetables are grown in Israel and how to bring holiness into your fruit bowl this Shemitta year.

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Registration and payment: mizrachi.org/machon

Rabbi Sacks: Friend to the Educators Dr. Daniel Rose

I

t is hard to believe it has been a year already since we lost our Rav. The feelings of bereavement and loss without his guiding voice has hardly lessened. So many have and will continue to write about the impact he made on their lives and the wider world. I would like to focus on the impact of Rabbi Sacks on my profession, as a Jewish educator.

Champion of Jewish education Jewish education as a core and central value in Judaism permeated all of his writings, from his weekly Covenant & Conversation to his most sophisticated and universal philosophical volumes.1 In Rabbi Sacks’ words, “for Jews, education is not just what we know. It’s who we are.”2 He was deeply proud of the role he played in the exponential growth in Jewish schools in Britain during his tenure as Chief Rabbi.

Of all the titles he deservedly held, he was proudest of the title ‘Rabbi’, which he explained in its essence means simply ‘teacher.’

He wrote extensively on the role of Jewish education in history, which he noted was a universal right in Jewish civilization 18 centuries before Britain became the first country in the world to legislate universal compulsory education. He believed that this was the secret of Jewish survival and continuity.

For Rabbi Sacks, educators are the heroes of the Jewish people: “The people who really shape our life.”3 It was always Rabbi Sacks’ sincere wish to be a resource to Jewish educators across the world, and his efforts on this front intensified during his last years when he commissioned several projects aimed at younger and broader audiences.4

A role model educator Rabbi Sacks was an exemplary role model to Jewish educators. As Gila, his daughter, noted on the occasion of his being awarded the Templeton Prize in 2016, he embodied the statement of Ben Zoma “Who is wise? He who learns from every person.”5 He found spiritual and religious relevance in all areas of knowledge and culture, from secular philosophy to behavioural economics, from Beethoven to Eminem, and from contemporary cinema to sports.

Of all the titles he deservedly held, he was proudest of the title ‘Rabbi’, which he explained in its essence means simply ‘teacher.’

Rabbi Sacks also modelled creative pedagogy, including masterful storytelling, the strategic use of humour, the communication of complex ideas in diverse ways for diverse audiences and the harnessing of the most up-todate technology to spread his ideas.

As any educator knows only too well, no one approach to religious development will fit all. Despite epitomising an intellectual approach to Judaism, Rabbi Sacks also advocated other more spiritual and emotional paths to G-d.

For example, he often spoke of music as the language of the soul, taking us to places that words, as the language of the mind, are not able to.

In the weeks and months since his death so many stories of Rabbi Sacks as a personal ethical role model have been shared, painting a picture of a

true mensch who made himself available to anyone that sought him out.

This may be the most important lesson he modelled for Jewish educators.

Big picture Judaism For me, the most important contribution Rabbi Sacks made to my work was his thought itself. I often work with young Jews who struggle to find personal meaning in their Jewish education on offer to them; all too frequently they are only taught to see the trees, but not the forest.

Rabbi Sacks’ thought presents a ‘big picture Judaism’ that gives a broader meaning to Jewish life. He dedicated many books and speeches to address the simple question “why be Jewish?”

He gave us a philosophy of mitzvot that help us understand the bigger picture behind the minutiae of halachah. And he showed that Judaism is not only about building a personal relationship with G-d, but also about our national mission and our people’s contribution to the broader world.

Rabbi Sacks has left us so many rich resources to help our work, as educators and parents. Now we must live up to his example, and continue his legacy.

For example, an entire chapter in his book The Dignity of Difference.

1

Letters to the Next Generation, Letter 4: Jewish Education.

2

From Optimism to Hope (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2004), p. 132.

3

Continuing this is a central element of the vision of the work of The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust.

4

Avot, 4:1. (See the transcript of Gila’s speech on page 18.)

5

Dr. Daniel Rose is Director of Education at The Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust.

| 27

Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren?

JEWISH CONTINUITY AND HOW TO ACHIEVE IT Rabbi Andrew Shaw

I

n 1993, Rabbi Sacks published a series of pamphlets entitled Studies in Renewal.1 They were followed in 1994 by the book Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? Jewish Continuity and How to Achieve It, published alongside the launch of the Jewish Continuity project. As a final year student at Leeds University, I had just been voted in as the Education Officer for the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) for the coming academic year, and I eagerly read the book from cover to cover. It motivated and inspired me throughout my year in UJS and ever since.

Simply put, Rabbi Sacks’ central idea was to create a revolution in Jewish education, especially for young people and students.

He wrote about the appearance of a new challenge: We are entering a new era in modern Jewish history. The past two hundred years have been dominated, for Jews, by two concerns: integration into the societies of Europe and survival against the onslaughts of antisemitism and the Holocaust. The 1990s will be seen in retrospect as the beginning of a new phase, one in which the predominant concern became the continuity of Jewish identity against the background of assimilation and intermarriage in the diaspora.2

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Holocaust is a black hole in human history, and if we stare at it too long, we will turn to stone.3 A few months later, I sat down with Rabbi Sacks to discuss the launch of 50 Days for 50 Years, a UJS project inspired by two drivers to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. The first driver was Rabbi Shapira in Kiryat Sanz, Israel, who in 1985 had launched a project to study 6,000,000 mishnayot (Jewish legal texts) in memory of Holocaust victims. My rabbi in Kingsbury, Rabbi Maurice Hool, told me about this and a repeat of the project in 1994. The second driver was Rabbi Sacks’ vision to make Holocaust education about Jewish learning and Jewish living.

As Rabbi Sacks wrote in the foreword to the 50 Days for 50 Years book, which provided study material for the project: Commemorating the 50 years that have passed with 50 days of study, linking students with individuals and J Socs (university Jewish societies) with communities that perished – this is the Jewish way of remembering. Few things could do more to give those who died a living memorial.

Rabbi Sacks was not shy to comment on areas of education that he felt were not achieving the complete ideals of Jewish continuity:

But Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? was more than just a book. It was a challenge for the community to step up and realise that it was in crisis.

With rising levels of assimilation and falling numbers of synagogal marriages, Rabbi Sacks powerfully argued for more investment in innovative outreach initiatives, especially for young people.

Unlike traditional Jewish education, Holocaust education in itself offers no meaning, no hope, no way of life.

Unaccompanied by faith, it recapitulates the error of Lot’s wife. The

In tandem with this, Jewish Continuity (the professional organisation to support Rabbi Sacks’ initiative) sought to invest in future rabbinic leaders for the UK Jewish community. After

my year in UJS, I applied to and was accepted for five years of funding for semicha (ordination) studies, on the condition that I returned to the UK for a minimum of five years. Several other current rabbis were part of this scheme and are still in the UK rabbinate today.

Through the book and the organisation, Rabbi Sacks helped the community become more open to new ideas.

When, for example, an idea for a new synagogal youth organisation was proposed five years after the book was published, the United Synagogue was ready to embrace the plan to “secure the future of Anglo-Jewry by creating a vibrant community of proud, knowledgeable and committed Jews”4 and Tribe was born.

Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? may have been written 27 years ago, yet the changes it helped create still significantly impact our community and are central to the United Synagogue’s programming and vision today.  Reproduced with permission from

“Rabbi Sacks And The Community We Built Together,” published by the United Synagogue in London.

These are available at www.rabbisacks.org/ studies-in-renewal-1.

1

2 Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? (Valentine Mitchell, 1994), p. 3.

3

Ibid. pp. 45–46.

Ibid. p. 107.

4

Rabbi Andrew Shaw is the Chief Executive of Mizrachi UK.

“So many friends and colleagues have opened their hearts and joined in making this a very special tribute.”

Lady Elaine Sacks SCAN HERE TO VIEW OUR SHORT YOUTUBE VIDEO TO SEE INSIDE THE BOOK

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the UK and Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, during which time his expositions of Judaism and community in particular helped him to become one of the most influential rabbinic figures globally.

In this book, family members along with colleagues from his rabbinate and teams during that time share impactful thoughts, stories and teachings from ‘the community we built together’ which continues to thrive today.

WHERE TO BUY IN THE UK www.theus.org.uk/rabbisacksbook IN ISRAEL Order via the Book Depository or Sefer VaSefel FOR USA AND OTHER COUNTRIES Order from Amazon.com or the Book Depository

Registered charity number 242552

Rabbi Sacks And The Community We Built Together AVAILABLE TO BUY OR PRE-ORDER

WHAT I LEARNED FROM

Rabbi Sacks Dan Sacker

W

orking for Rabbi Sacks, as I did for the last decade of his life, offered many memorable experiences.

Some of those were public moments of significance: the TED Talk, the Templeton Prize or his speech on antisemitism in the European Parliament. Others were private moments of reflection during car rides to or from engagements or sitting in his study discussing the latest edits to an article or book he was working on.

I knew I was privileged to be in the company of one of the great minds and scholars of our, or any, generation.

One of the most moving and reflective moments, however, was at Yale University in 2015 when I listened to a conversation between Rabbi Sacks and Miroslav Volf, Professor of Theology and the Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. The topic of their discussion was “A Life Worth Living”1

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paragraph, and other paragraphs to make a story.

I knew I was privileged to be in the company of one of the great minds and scholars of our, or any, generation. and explored what it meant, as Prof Volf outlined, for a life to “go well,” be “well led,” and “feel good.”

“In Judaism, the life worth living is the life suffused with meaning. I’m an important element of that, but I have to join with others to make a family, and my family has to join with others to make a community, and the community has to combine with others to make a people, and that people must connect with all previous generations to continue that story.”2

Towards the end of the discussion, Prof Volf asked Rabbi Sacks what he understood by a meaningful life. Rabbi Sacks bought his hands to his mouth in a pensive state, paused for a moment, and then said the following:

I remember being moved hearing Rabbi Sacks speak these words in 2015.

But it was only when I listened to them again soon after Rabbi Sacks passed away, that I suddenly realised how perfectly they articulated his own life and approach to Judaism and the world.

“I think of meaning in Judaism as if each of us is a letter in the scroll. Now, all meaning is expressed in words and all words are written in letters, but a letter on its own has no meaning. It has to combine with other letters to make a word, other words to make a sentence, other sentences to make a

At the core of his life, and the heart of his work, was an attempt to bring people together, to bridge divides: between religious and secular Jews, between the Diaspora and Israel, between the Abrahamic faiths, between different cultures within

societies, political parties within systems, or academic disciplines within the university.

Where people saw only division, Rabbi Sacks saw a challenge to overcome intellectually, spiritually, physically.

He recognised that none of us act in isolation from each other; that, like it or not, we are all connected, sometimes by faith, other times by fate. And as a result, we share a responsibility to ourselves, to each other, and ultimately to G-d in whose image we are created.

meaningful life, he spoke of a way of life bound up together with others.

That is why he pursued and personified “a Judaism engaged with the world,” one that did not hide behind high walls, but went out into society with a confidence about what it could bring and what it could gain. And this is why, as I saw when I collated and edited The Power of Ideas: Words of Faith and Wisdom, his writings were so timely when they were published, and remain so today.

For Rabbi Sacks, creating connections, or overcoming differences through reasoned and respectful disagreement and debate, was a holy exercise in the collective pursuit of the truth. And because that is how he lived his life, he was universally respected and admired by almost everyone he encountered.

I’ve never learned so much as I did in the past ten years working with Rabbi Sacks: about myself, my faith, and life itself. I miss him more than words can say. Yet I feel privileged to have shared part of my life with him and to have connected my letter with his in a way that imbues my life with a deep sense of meaning and mission. I know I am not alone in feeling this way.

That is why when he was asked by Prof Volf what it means to lead a

During the discussion with Prof Volf, Rabbi Sacks noted that “the life worth

living in Judaism is a journey. It’s not a state of being. Judaism is about walking, about the way, about following the call of G-d.”

Rabbi Sacks’ journey in this world was defined by constant personal, intellectual and spiritual growth. And though it has now ended, his life and teachings continue to light a path for us to follow.

All we have to do is hear the call, and a meaningful life awaits us all.

The full discussion can be viewed or read at www. rabbisacks.org/rabbi-sacks-speaks-on-a-life-worthliving-at-yale-university.

1

Rabbi Sacks expanded on this idea in his book Radical Then, Radical Now (published as A Letter in 2

the Scroll in the United States).

Dan Sacker is the Co-Director of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust.

| 31

The Ultimate Goal in Having Children Rabbi Yonatan Shai Freedman

T

he late Jeopardy host Alex Trebek famously used to remind his guests to phrase their answers in the form of a question. But it would not make sense for anyone to ask a second question when their first question remains unanswered.

After Avraham rescues his nephew Lot and helps the five kings vanquish the four kings, Hashem appears to Avraham and promises him a great reward (Bereishit 15:1).

The next verse begins with the phrase Vayomer Avram: Avraham asks Hashem, “What will You give me, as I am childless, and the possessor of my house is my servant Eliezer.”

the child properly! If Avraham dies, his future child may inherit his possessions, but his servant Eliezer will raise his child! In other words, Avraham is saying to Hashem: It will be wonderful to have a child, but if I cannot raise him in the ways of Hashem, what’s the point?

Having a child will be great, Avraham tells Hashem, but if I don’t get to raise him the way I want to, then I am missing out on fulfilling my most important role in this world.

Immediately after this, we do not find an answer from Hashem, but rather another question from Avraham: Vayomer Avram “And Avram said.”

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Great leaders whom we are mourning this year, including Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, Rabbi Norman Lamm, and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, were concerned, first and foremost, with raising the next generation of Am Yisrael in the ways of Torah and mitzvot.

As Avraham expressed so long ago, this is our hope and our yearning, above all else.

Why do two consecutive verses begin with Avraham asking Hashem a question with no response in between and why do the two verses seem to ask the same question?

Avraham, sensing his mortality, is concerned; even if he has a child in his old age, he will not be alive to raise

In this ever-important task, we are guided by our rabbis and community leaders.

Although they are no longer with us, their teachings continue to inspire us to follow in the path of Avraham Avinu.

Avraham rephrases his issue: “You have given me no seed,” and the only one to inherit him will be his servant, Eliezer.

In his commentary Ha’Emek Davar, the Netziv explains that Hashem did not answer Avraham’s first question, which Avraham then realized was an inappropriate question, as Hashem had already promised him offspring.

And so Avraham rephrased his question, clarifying the intent of his initial challenge to Hashem. Avraham is already old, so even though he is sure that Hashem will keep His word and provide him a child (banim), he has not given him zera (“seed”).

Avraham’s ultimate goal, and indeed our task as members of the Jewish nation, is not only to have children but to raise those children with the proper Torah values of righteousness and justice. Our goal is to raise children who will serve Hashem, fulfill the Torah and mitzvot, and build a holy society in Eretz Yisrael.

A depiction of Avraham and Sarah with the three angels (PHOTO: PUBLIC DOMAIN)

More than anything else, Avraham wanted the opportunity to raise his son, for which Hashem later praises him: “For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice…” (Bereishit 18:19).

Rabbi Yonatan Shai Freedman is the Overseas Alumni Coordinator at Yeshivat Har Etzion. His database of Divrei Torah can be found at VortFinder.com.

Z I O N I S M TO DAY

Stay in the Land Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman

T

he life of Yitzchak Avinu was unique among our forefathers. Unlike Avraham, who was forced to descend from Eretz Yisrael to Egypt due to the severe famine, and unlike Ya’akov, who twice went abroad, Yitzchak never left Eretz Yisrael. Hashem commanded Yitzchak to remain in the land: ‫שכֹן ָ ּב ָא ֶרץ‬,ְׁ “Stay in the land which I will show you,” and ‫גּ וּר ָ ּב ָא ֶרץ‬, “Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you” (Bereishit 26:2–3). These verses are difficult to understand.

Why does Hashem tell Yitzchak both to “stay” and also to “sojourn” in the land? And why does the Torah use the word “‫”שכֹן‬ ְׁ “stay”in this context – the first time this word is used in the Torah?

The Midrash offers two explanations for the word “‫שכֹן‬.” ְׁ One possibility is that “‫”שכֹן‬ ְׁ derives from the word ‫שכוּנָ ה‬, ְׁ or “neighborhood.” According to this approach, Hashem is commanding Yitzchak to build a neighborhood in Eretz Yisrael: “Make a settlement in the Land of Israel, be a planter, be a sower, be a citizen” (Bereishit Rabbah 64). Yitzchak must cultivate the land, sow, plant and build a residential neighborhood. In line with this view, the Rashbam interprets the verse: “And Yitzchak went out walking in the field” (Bereishit 24:63) as “Yitzchak went out to plant useful vegetation and trees

(PHOTO: AVI JACOB PHOTOGRAPHY)

and to check the work of his employees.” But Yitzchak did more than work the land; building a neighborhood involves building infrastructure and residential buildings, creating jobs and doing everything necessary to produce a high quality of life.

Reaching the Land of Israel is only the beginning of our mission.

But there is another explanation for the word “‫”שכֹן‬ ְׁ which is equally significant. “‫”שכֹן‬ ְׁ also derives from the word ‫ש ִכינָ ה‬, ְ ׁ “G-d’s presence.” According to this approach, Hashem is commanding Yitzchak to establish the Shechinah in the Land of Israel. With this explanation, the Midrash emphasizes that physically building a neighborhood – planting, sowing, and developing the Land of Israel – is very important, but it is not enough. Yitzchak must also build up the spiritual character of the land and entrench Hashem’s presence there through a life dedicated to holiness and the service of G-d.

Avraham and Ya’akov spent much of their lives struggling courageously to return to the Land of Israel. In our own generation, thousands of Jews around

the world seek to follow in their holy footsteps and, despite the significant challenges involved, make Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. We stand in awe of their accomplishments!

But reaching the Land of Israel is only the beginning of our mission. The people of Israel must also follow in the footsteps of Yitzchak Avinu. We must build “neighborhoods,” by physically building up the land and economy of our great nation. And we must also cause the Shechinah, G-d’s presence, to dwell in the land, by building a holy and just society.

World Mizrachi is dedicated to helping the Jewish people follow in the path of our forefathers, both encouraging aliyah in the way of Avraham and Yaakov, and by building up of the land of Israel, physically and spiritually, in the way of Yitzchak. This is the mission of Religious Zionism!

Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman is Co-President of World Mizrachi.

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F O O D F RO M I S R A E L

My Mom’s Kippilach Lynn Kirsche Shapiro before the Shoah. Together with her mother, my mom would wake up at 2am on Friday mornings to begin preparations for Shabbat. They made everything from scratch – the challah, fresh homemade noodles for the chicken soup, the cholent, vegetables, and baked goods. Not to mention cleaning the chickens!

W

alking the streets of Yerushalayim, I see freshly baked “kippilach” (often referred to as rugalach) in the bakery window.

I am drawn in and order a coffee and kippilach.

The aroma transports me back to my childhood and the stories and memories of my mother’s youth in Hungary

Kippilach (Yeast Crescents) Ingredients For the dough: 1 (one-ounce) cake fresh yeast (30 grams) or 2 (¼-ounce) packages of active dry yeast (4 ½ teaspoons) ½ cup lukewarm milk 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 cup (2 sticks) butter (unsalted) 1 tablespoon sugar (plus ½-1 teaspoon to add to yeast mixture) 2 egg yolks For the filling: 1 cup finely chopped walnuts ¾ cup sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 4 tablespoons melted butter

34 |

The shul, owned by the kehillah, was across the street from their home in Vasarosnameny, Hungary. On Shabbat morning, after davening, they went home for Kiddush. The family enjoyed freshly baked assorted Hungarian pastries for Kiddush – kakaos, cheese deltelach, and of course, kippilach – a delightful horn or crescent-shaped pastry filled with nuts, cinnamon, and sugar.

This world is now a memory, for in 1944, my mother’s family, along with all the Jews of their town, were taken to Auschwitz, where they arrived just Preparation Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Crumble the yeast and place it in a small bowl. Add milk and a teaspoon of sugar and let soak until mixture foams, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix the nuts, sugar, and cinnamon. Place melted butter in a separate small bowl. Set aside.

Place flour in a medium bowl. Cut butter into small pieces and add. Using a pastry blender or fork, cut butter into the flour until the mixture is like a fine meal. Add sugar and mix.

Add yolks and the milk-yeast mixture that had been set aside. Stir with a sturdy spoon until cohesive dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough out on a lightly floured board and divide into four balls. Roll out each ball into an eight-inch diameter circle, ⅛-inch thick – one at a time, covering unused dough balls to prevent drying out.

before Shavuot. My mother survived, married my father in October 1947, and immigrated to Chicago. Jewish life in Hungary had been destroyed, but my mother survived, passing on her family memories and traditions.

Today, I walk the streets of Yerushalayim with my grandchildren and enjoy a coffee with freshly baked kippilach; our traditions and legacy of the past embracing us as we build the future. “MiDor L’Dor” – From generation to generation!

Lynn Kirsche Shapiro is the author of the cookbook/memoir Food Family and Tradition: Hungarian Kosher Family Recipes and Remembrances (thecherrypress.com), Gourmand World Cookbook Award Winner for Best Historical Recipes Book in the USA. She has spoken throughout the States and in Israel, sharing the history of Eastern European Jewish life as seen through the lens of food and memories.

Brush the circle lightly with melted butter.

Then sprinkle ¼ of the filling on the circle.

Cut each circle into 12 equal wedges (cut in half, then in quarters, then cut each quarter into thirds).

Roll up each wedge, starting with the wide end, then shape into a crescent.

Place crescents one inch apart on a parchment paper-lined half sheet pan.

Repeat with remaining dough balls and filling.

Bake until cooked through and golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 48.

Variations: Substitute margarine and non-dairy milk for pareve version. Spread with raspberry or apricot preserves in place of filling, or drizzle melted preserves over the nut mixture filling before rolling.

Israel’s Four Holy Cities

FAMILY SECTION

The four Holy Cities of Israel are Yerushalayim, Chevron, Tzfat and Tiveria. Each of these four cities is unique and holy for different reasons.

They are called the Holy Cities of Israel because they were the centers of Jewish life, and many important people lived in those cities.

Y E RU S H A L AY I M The First and Second Batei Mikdash were built in Yerushalayim. The importance of Yerushalayim for Jews is mentioned in many places in the Tanach.

now Do you k the ch of where ea ies are Cit four Holy ap? m e h t on

C H E V RO N Me’arat HaMachpelah is located in Chevron – the first property Avraham bought in Israel, and the place where our Avot and Imahot are buried.

TIVERIA After the destruction of the Second Beit HaMikdash, Tiveria became the center of Jewish faith. Rabbi Akiva and the Rambam are among those buried in Tiveria.

TZ FAT For generations, holy Jews from all over the world moved to Tzfat, where they studied the secrets of the Torah. Rabbi Yosef Caro is buried here.

1. Each of the four Holy Cities is compared to one of the four elements (earth, air, water, fire). Which element is each city compared to and why?

Israel Trivia

W I TH DA NI E LL E KRI EGER

2. Which of these cities is known for kabbalah and art?

3. The root of which of these cities’ name is derived from the Hebrew word for “belly button”? Which one, and why do you think that is significant?

4. Kiryat Arba is another name for which of these cities?

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