Additional Comments on "Future Tense" by Johathan Sacks

I have finished the book "Future Tense: Jews, Judaism, and Israel in the Twenty-First Century. I must say that, even though I am a secular Jew and Rabbi Sacks is a religious Orthodox Jew, I have found him to be a towering intellectual who has tremendous knowledge of philosophy, history, and the world's religions. His major points are that: 1) Orthodox Jews have been turning inward, thereby shutting themselves off from communication with the larger world. This process must be reversed to enable Jewish thought to positively influence others and to gain wisdom and friends from other groups, and 2) Non-Orthodox Jews have engaged with the outside world to the extent that their ties to Judaism have weakened and intermarriage and assimilation threaten to greatly diminish Jewish numbers.

Rabbi Sacks strongly supports the right of Israel to exist, but feels that, when the Israeli government took over the charitable and human service functions that had been performed by religious and other voluntary organizations in the Diaspora, the spiritual, religious, and emotional aspects of these activities were greatly diminished. Because Israeli Jews are, in large majority, non-religious, and assume that all they need to uphold their Jewish identity is to be Israeli, deprives them of their heritage and all the spiritual benefits and wisdom about life they can gain from their religion.

Rabbi Sacks feels that Judaism brought hope to the world. Ancient Greek culture promoted fatalism. As in the Greek tragedies, people could not escape their fate, not matter how hard they tried. However, in Judaism, there is always hope for the future, as exemplified by the belief that the Messiah will come, but hasn't come yet, and by the prayer recited over thousands of years for a return of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Sacks writes so beautifully that I would be remiss not to include a few quotes from his book:

"... the Jewish people wrote a story of hope that has the power to inspire all who dare to believe that injustice and brutality are not the final word about the human condition, that faith can be more powerful than empires, that love given is not given in vain, that ideals are not illusions to give us comfort but candles to light our way along a winding road in the dark night without giving way to fear or losing a sense of direction."

"Jews have turned inwards; they need to turn outwards. They are conscious of being different, but so is every member of a minority, and in a global age every group is a minority. Our uniqueness is our universality, and it is precisely by sharing our uniquenesses that we encourage the heritage of humankind. Jews are not the only people to seek God, live lives of faith, work for the betterment of humanity or count themselves blessed by God's love. They are not alone. Jews have friends among many faiths, and among secular humanists, and they should cherish them all, making common cause with them in defence of freedom, human dignity and moral responsibility. They should not take every criticism as a form of antisemitism. They should rest secure in their unparalleled past and fact the future with vigilance but without fear."

"I have argued for a Judaism that has the courage to engage with the world and its challenges. Faith begets confidence, which creates courage. That is how Jews lived in the past and should live in the future. For they are the people of the journey to a distant destination, begun by Abraham, continued by a hundred generations of ancestors, and it still beckons, Judaism is faith in the future tense. Jews were and are still called on to be the voice of hope in the conversation of humankind."

Book - Future Tense: Jews, Judaism and Israel

I've gotten about a third of the way through the book, "Future Tense: Jews, Judaism, and Israel in the Twenty-First Century", by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the main Orthodox Jewish congregations in Great Britain. He is an impressive intellectual who cites from many Jewish and non-Jewish historical and religious sources.

Only partway through the book, I have already been enlightened by many interesting points and historical facts Rabbi Sacks brought up. For instance, he made the point that Judaism is unique among the major religions in accepting religious diversity (what he calls particularism). He states that the Torah recognizes that people of all monotheistic religions worship the same god, can be righteous, and will not have to become Jewish when the messiah comes and brings peace to the earth. This contrasts to the "universalism" of the other major religions, whose basic tenets are that all people should follow the one true faith and that an unpleasant fate awaits those who do not.

An interesting fact that Rabbi Sacks brings up is the German origin of the term, "antisemitism." This has far more than linguistic importance in that early anti-Jewish sentiments among Christians and Muslims were related to Jews' refusal to convert to what were seen as the true faiths that evolved from Judaism. The saving grace of this religion-based anti-Jewish feeling was that Jews could convert to redeem themselves. That left a way out for physical survival. However, the term "antisemitism" refers to a race of people, not a religious group. This distinction is critical, for one cannot change one's race. Thus, the "Jewish Problem" could not be solved by religious conversion. That, of course, led to the Holocaust.

Some recommendations put forth to Jews include:

• Have pride in your religion. Don't let the negative view of others define you.
• Jewish religious observance is necessary for the preservation of the Jewish People. Ethnic Judaism leads to loss of identity within 3 generations.
• Jews must not see themselves as an isolated people with no friends. It is important to establish bonds with other religions and fight discrimination against any of them.

While I don't agree with everything Rabbi Sacks says, his arguments are extremely well thought out and he supports most of them with solid and wide-ranging references. The man is a true intellectual and reading his book would stimulate anyone's mind. For those concerned with survival of Judaism, the book has particular value. I will likely have more to say about the book as my reading progresses.

"Nation of Immigrants" Seder

The Boston area is great for Jewish cultural events. If you really wanted to, you could do at least 2-3 events per week without even being a member of a temple. This past Sunday we attended the 4th annual Anti-Defamation League of New England's "A Nation of Immigrants" community seder, which was open to the public. The theme was based on an essay by John F. Kennedy in which he emphasized the positive impact immigrants have had on this country and argued for liberalizing immigration laws to end the bias towards Northern Europeans. It was an inspiring event, with about 300 people of various religions and ethnic backgrounds in attendance.

The seder was designed to maintain the basic structure of a traditional seder yet promote the relevance of its themes to all other ethnic and religious groups who meet adversity. In this sense it was a very pleasant contrast to the words found in a traditional hagadah (seder book), which tend towards the outdated and chauvinistic. The traditional hagadah talks about the Jews being freed from slavery in Egypt, and thanks god for striking down our enemies and making us fruitful in multiplying. I have found this type of writing hard to swallow because 1) Jewish slavery occurred thousands of years ago, 2) any persecution the Jewish People suffered in Egypt very likely paled in comparison to the holocaust, 3) Jews outside of Israel have had a very low birthrate and our numbers are rapidly shrinking as a percentage of the U.S., European, and world population, and 4) We live in a pluralistic society, and ethnocentrism just doesn't sit well with me and a large portion of the U.S. population, particularly non-Orthodox Jews, and 5) Who really believes that the Red Sea parted?

While telling the story of the Jews escape from Egyptian slavery, the Nation of Immgrants hagadah broadened much of the language to include the redemption of a much broader range of oppressed peoples. There was multi-cultural entertainment interspersed with addresses by people of various backgrounds. The most inspiring was a woman from Honduras who was raised in a tough town in Masachusetts and found herself pregnant as a teenager and on the road to fitting the stereotype of someone from her ethnicity and class. However, she found the strength to take advantage of the opportunities that this country offers and she will be taking the bar exam shortly to fulfil her dream of becoming a lawyer who represents the disadvantaged.

Lenny Zakim was the leader of the Anti-Defamation League of New England for many years and he did tremendous work in bringing together Jews and people of other religions and ethnic groups to work on inter-group harmony and shared goals. Unfortunately he died prematurely of cancer and the beautiful Zakim bridge was named after him. The New England ADL has also been independent in its stances from the national organization, especially in regard to promoting recognition of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks during WWI. An organization like the New England ADL makes me proud to be Jewish.

Matisyahu's "One Day"

Matisyahu makes me proud to be Jewish. Here is a religious guy from a group that is usually very separate from everyone else and whose adherents generally give the impression that they feel they know the right way and everyone else (particularly non-Chasidic Jews) is wrong. Yet he somehow manages to be very observant of his group's strict tenets yet communicates beautifully through his music and lyrics to the rest of the world, providing a message of hope and peace. Here are the lyrics and official video of "One Day." You might also like to see the video of him at the Vancouver Winter Olympics to see his immense appeal to people of all backgrounds. Matisyahu is truly fulfilling the biblical edict to Jews, "You shall be a light unto the nations."

Jewish Pride

Writing this blog has allowed me to vent some of my resentments about organized Judaism and to largely get past them. I have since had a much more positive outlook on my Jewishness and Judaism in general. While not a member of a temple, I have engaged in some of the many Jewish activities available in the Boston area and they have been enjoyable.

A recent article published in the NY Times made me feel proud to be Jewish. It stated that "Jews make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates." In addition, "Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction."

As to Israel, “Tel Aviv has become one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurial hot spots. Israel has more high-tech start-ups per capita than any other nation on earth, by far. It leads the world in civilian research-and-development spending per capita. It ranks second behind the U.S. in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq. Israel, with seven million people, attracts as much venture capital as France and Germany combined."

These accomplishments are a source of pride, Yet it would be a delusion to think that Jews are better at everything. Certainly, a majority of the world’s accomplishments are by non-Jews. However, it’s nice to know we make such an outsized contribution relative to our numbers. I'm also proud that Israel has proven that Jews are quite capable of defending themselves. That contrasts sharply with the image of Jews in the Diaspora, who have seemed so helpless when attacked.

Matisyahu has been another source of Jewish pride. It was great to hear him sing “One Day” in the TV ad for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He sings well and the lyrics promote world peace and general optimism. Matisyahu's music video has the full song. His music shows that Jews can "be cool" and reach out to people all over the globe. This notion was also reinforced by the amazing performance of the Israeli Defense Forces in setting up an effective and efficient field hospital within 48 hours of the earthquake in Haiti, far faster than any other country.