You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side - The DoorsDualism is what happens when cognitive dissonance becomes unbearable, when the world as it is, is simply too unlike the world as we believed it ought to be - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite - William Blake
I just returned from a five-day retreat where I met remarkable people, in a remarkable place, to take responsibility for the legacy of a remarkable man. Together with nineteen other community leaders from across the world I was chosen to become a Sacks Scholar for the upcoming year, and we convened in Jerusalem last week to kick-start the programme and chart a course for the year ahead.
The group is quite diverse and each of us could reasonably lay claim to sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb. During our time together some of these anxieties were shared: maybe I am too old; maybe I am too young; I wasn’t sure if I was academic enough; how can I be a Sacks Scholar if I never met Rabbi Sacks, and so on. The group included high-school teachers, academics, scientists, publishers, a safari instructor and even Chabadniks, and yet, in an extraordinary way, the group gelled together. Within a very short period of time the usual barriers and boundaries that delineate the Jewish world at large fell away, and real conversations were able to flourish.
What made that possible? Why is honest dialogue and conversation so often difficult in ordinary times and settings? How can meaningful encounters like this be harnessed and modeled?
I would like to suggest that this capacity to engage in a way that transcended usual societal constraints was twofold. First, after multiple private conversations I realised that many in the cohort had a back-story that leant itself to openness and vulnerability. Without giving away any confidences, everyone had a deep self-awareness. Sometimes as a result of pain and trauma, but also because of a strong drive to grow and improve that necessitates a constant questioning of oneself. Second, and what I would like to consider here more fully, is the importance of the character of Rabbi Sacks himself.
Rabbi Sacks' transformative journey from philosophy student at the University of Cambridge to the chief rabbinate and beyond, and his enduring appeal to Jews and non-Jews alike is a template for seeing beyond the apparent differences and divisions that often determine our world.
Rabbi Sacks believed that the secular and the sacred were not inherently contradictory but rather complementary aspects of existence. He argued that scientific discoveries and technological advancements could be seen as manifestations of God's creative power and that the pursuit of knowledge could lead to a deeper understanding of the divine. Through his teachings and writings, Rabbi Sacks encouraged individuals to embrace both the rational and the spiritual dimensions of life.
He became a beacon of hope and inspiration for countless individuals seeking to reconcile their religious beliefs with the complexities of modern life. His ability to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity, faith and reason, resonated with people from all walks of life. Rabbi Sacks' legacy is a testament to his unwavering conviction that the divine can be found everywhere, and that through our pursuit of knowledge and understanding, we can experience a transformative journey that enriches our lives and strengthens our connection to the sacred. Consequently, a retreat devoted to his legacy would inevitably have the power to transcend differences and heal fractures.
Like many other people, Rabbi Sacks made a series of decisions in early adulthood that led him on a path towards a deep commitment to Jewish thinking and practice and ultimately into the rabbinate. Many aspects of the world he came from and the world he was entering were seemingly incompatible and in some instances were, to all appearances, diametrically opposed. For those who know, Cambridge and Kfar Chabad are, on the surface at least, noticeably different environments.
Notwithstanding his traditional Jewish upbringing, I think it is valuable to think of Rabbi Sacks as a Baal Teshuvah in the noblest sense of the term. What he describes as “my own personal journey toward faith” that began in Cambridge, is in my view the key to understanding him more fully. However, unlike many other Baalei Teshuvah who experience the jarring dissonance between their former lives and their newfound religiosity and piety as a schism and estrangement, Rabbi Sacks was able to bear the tension and at times move beyond its constraints.
Dualistic thinking that at times descends into hierarchical paradigms and as a consequence presents as an oppositional binary is a common feature of Western thought going all the way back to the Greeks. The aspiring Baal Teshuvah is acutely aware of a division between their native surroundings and a world infused with Torah and Jewish practice. This friction and tension can be experienced as a deeply painful rupturing of the self from relationships with people, ideas and identity. The transition from a secularised society into the Torah-observant world is for many a conversion in the truest sense of the term.
But here's a different way of thinking about it. There is an alternative approach that takes a fresh look at dualisms and differences, and where the very act of transition from one side to another breaks down the idea that boundaries are solid and reliable in the first place. Instead of adhering to a dualistic mindset that merely swaps one extreme for another, the Baal Teshuvah, during their spiritual journey, transcends the restrictive confines of a rigidly defined and bounded identity. They embark on a quest to discover the infinite and indivisible unity of G-d permeating every aspect of existence. Instead of abandoning their past, they discover in it a treasure and a resource to channel in the service of G-d.
In Not in God’s Name, Rabbi Sacks elaborates on the nature of dualisms and acknowledges the human tendency to understand the world in terms of a binary opposition. “Dualism resolves complexity” he says, and allows people to overcome the unbearable thought that the same G-d is the source of good and evil. However, he cautions: “What if monotheism requires the ability to handle complexity?” The desire for so many religious and secular Jews to insist on the separation of the ‘holy’ and the ‘mundane’ allows them to live an easier and less conflicted life; however, it comes at the price of limiting their experience of the full scope of reality.
Rabbi Sacks stands as a remarkable embodiment of this paradigm, seamlessly integrating the profound wisdom of Torah with the complexities of the contemporary world we inhabit. What I call the transcendent approach is undoubtedly the more complex path to follow and is fraught with its own dangers of profaning the holy rather than sacralyzing the mundane. As a wise man once told me, every move towards transcendence is at risk of falling into transgression. But the call to break through and beyond the complexities inherent in the wholeness of reality remains compelling, however strong the urge to run or hide from them.
In his now famed 1973 Tradition article “Alienation and Faith” where he critiqued the approach of Rabbi J.B. Soloveichik, Rabbi Sacks explicitly affirms the above approach when he discusses the realm of the secular and the realm of the holy. He explains that “the secular and the holy are not objectively distinct realms. There is nothing (in the domain of the halakhically permitted) that cannot be redeemed or made holy by a sanctifying use.” He therefore argues that any suggestion of a pull between a Jew’s secular and religious involvements “is certainly a pseudo-conflict.” Moreover, he adds that “less familiar is the ex post facto sanctification of the forbidden when in an act of “repentance from great love” the intentional sins of the penitent are added to his merit.” This idea, that through an immense form of repentance a person is able to turn their former misdeeds into merits originates in the Talmud (Yoma 86b), but for elucidation, Rabbi Sacks advises the reader to consult “the present Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shlita, Likutei Sichot (5730) on parshat Vayikrah, for a remarkable account of the unifying power of the Baal Teshuvah.”
In that talk, the Rebbe explains the transformative effect of the Baal Teshuvah and their ability to transform a person's wrongdoings into merits. This transformative power is so potent that it is even said that in the place where Baalei Teshuvah, those who have repented, stand, even the most righteous individuals cannot. This is because teshuvah allows individuals to reach a level of closeness to G-d that surpasses even the righteousness achieved through a lifetime of good deeds. The text emphasizes that this power of transformation stems from the essential nature of G-d, who desires not the death of the wicked but their repentance and return to Him. Ultimately, the Rebbe highlights the power of teshuvah to reveal the essential nature of G-d and thus the complete wholeness and oneness of existence that transcends dualisms of good and evil. (see here for a Hebrew translation of the talk)
This is just one of many examples where we can see explicitly how the Rebbe’s ideas have shaped the contours of Rabbi Sacks’ thought, and how he was able to elaborate and elucidate the Rebbe ideas for a broader audience.
The transformative impact of the Rebbe on Rabbi Sacks is widely acknowledged and was repeatedly mentioned at the retreat. Rabbi Sacks’ fateful meeting with the Rebbe in the summer of 1968 which he often repeated has become the thing of legend. Far less attention, however, is paid to the impact of the Rebbe’s teachings on Rabbi Sacks’ thought and later development. If we were to focus on his deep engagement with the Rebbe’s talks, many of which he translated and adapted, I believe we can uncover a rich insight into many of the themes of his later scholarship. The benefits could be twofold: A closer look at Rabbi Sacks’ intellectual trajectory can provide a new appreciation of his exceptional ability to extend and expand the Rebbe’s ideas, and a clearer awareness of his indebtedness to the Rebbe’s teachings could offer a deeper and clearer framing for Rabbi Sacks’ ideas. Simply put, such an exercise would allow Rabbi Sacks to serve as a window into the Rebbe, and similarly, the Rebbe can open up a window into Rabbi Sacks. (See my talk here for a version of this argument)
The possibilities and opportunities for the year ahead in my role as a Sacks Scholar are both challenging and exciting. I am immenseIy grateful that along the way I will be in the company of fellow Sacks Scholars who are imbued with sincerity and authenticity and who will be a source of inspiration. The task ahead is to ensure that Cambridge, as the intellectual and spiritual birthplace of Rabbi Sacks, is able to nurture and inspire the next generation of Jewish leaders, and that we can confidently answer the question the Rebbe posed to Rabbi Sacks all those years ago: "What are you doing for Jewish life in Cambridge?”