Books, Brown and the Beit Din - Haaretz

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Last update - 14:22 23/12/2007

Books, Brown and the Beit Din

By Anshel Pfeffer

Tags: Annapolis, Israel, Judaism

Before the Annapolis conference, American Orthodox rabbis appealed to British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, asking him to join them in protesting Ehud Olmert's intention to discuss territorial concessions in Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

Sacks declined. "The American Orthodox rabbinate wanted me... to speak out against it [concessions in Jeruaslem] and I refused."

"It's not the job of rabbis," he told Haaretz this week. "The connection between religion and politics has always been historically disastrous, without exception."

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And he added, "This is the decision of the democratic society of Israel. If there is a global consultation, and I think there should be, because of the importance of Jerusalem, I will state my opinion, but I don't think we should be deciding for Israel."

One should not understand from this that Rabbi Sacks thinks that as a leader of a Diaspora community, he is not free to express an opinion on the political and social issues dividing Israeli society. He has definitive ideas about the subject, which he expresses in his books, articles and media interviews, and which attract a great deal of attention in Britain and abroad. But he also understands that he is walking a fine line between his commitment as a representative figure and his need to take a position. During the interview, he makes several attempts to find the right phrase to define his task. "I don't get involved in politics at all," he says. "I write books on political theory."

It is very convenient for him to adopt the position of the political theorist. This lets him climb down to earth to express criticism, and then withdraw to the lofty regions of his position and claim he is neutral. He says of Israel: "There were two tasks of Zionism. One it achieved brilliantly - to create the State of Israel. One was not even tried - to achieve a Jewish and Israeli society."

Sacks is careful not to direct his criticism at specific individuals or establishments. He summarizes his legislative approach by saying "You can't run a society by legislation," and adds that he hopes Israel drafts a constitution based on the Torah, dealing with "society, the welfare system, primacy of education, social justice and legal justice." He is convinced a constitution of this type already can be "sensed in the national character. The challenge is how to advance that without religious coercion."

More current than the embassy

Under the surface, one can sense Sacks harbors a certain amount of frustration over his position. In Britain, he is a sought-after political writer and lecturer, but he represents a minority group that even if it has influence, nevertheless remains a minority. On the other hand, in Israel he cannot express the kind of decisive position he would like to.

"The real issues that face the Jewish people can only be resolved here" in Israel, he states, "the only place where Jews form a majority, and the only place they can form a society by their own values. It's not happening because of the variety of complex utopias that people brought here. The Diaspora's job is to come and have a conversation in Israel. People abroad can't understand what really bears on Israel ... There have been plans for generating that conversation, but it has not happened."

Even though Sacks sometimes comes off as a liberal rabbi, especially when compared with the religious establishment in Israel, he is wary of directly criticizing the Israeli rabbinic leadership. Instead, he says that he hopes "sometime in the future, a rabbi or a group of rabbis will say we have to work with families. Religious leaders in Israel should focus on family, community, the education system. I'm glad that the Tzohar rabbis are doing that."

It is possible to understand Sacks' caution. Exposed to a divided and critical community, the inquisitive British press and in a dual relationship with Israel, he sometimes finds himself in deep waters, despite his diplomatic skills. For example, in an interview with The Guardian at the height of the second intifada, he said that "it is forcing Israel into postures that are incompatible in the long run with our deepest ideals," and that "there are things that happen on a daily basis which make me feel very uncomfortable as a Jew."

The public outcry in the British Jewish community and in Israel was not unexpected, but it seems that he feels hurt by it even now. "Those were two sentences in an article in The Guardian that were misconceived, misunderstood and taken out of context," he says. He then begins a detailed description of his efforts to improve Israel's image, describing how at the very start of the intifada, he had brought a delegation of British journalists on a special tour of Israel.

"It is not my job to do Israel's 'hasbara' [public relations], but no one was doing it. I also took all the rabbis under my aegis and told them that from here on, they had to be ambassadors of Israel. I was the only spokesman in the world during the siege of Jenin who went on the world media and said on BBC's 'Today' that when the facts will be known, we will see that there was no massacre and Israel suffered disproportionate losses. We know because we called up soldiers in the field. We knew more than the embassy. It's very bad, because the chief rabbi is not the Israeli ambassador. But what choice did I have?"

There was another instance in which he felt he "had no choice," a short while after the storm began over his remarks about Israel's conduct in the territories, with the publication of his book "The Dignity of Difference" in which he wrote that no religion had a monopoly on truth. His statements led to scathing attacks by other British rabbis, some of whom described the book as "heresy." Sacks bowed to the pressure and published a second edition with corrections.

Writing books seems to be the task Sacks enjoys most. He stresses time and again, "Seven of my books have been serialized by the national press, more than any other writer, and 99 percent of my readers aren't Jewish."

Indeed, this interview was held to mark the publication of one of his books in Hebrew, "Radical Then, Radical Now," which was published by the Shalem Center with an epilogue by Dr. Micha Goodman. The book discusses the contribution of Jewish thought to world philosophy and tries to convince Jews that they should be proud of this contribution.

Looking for new prophets

Sacks brings the Jewish approach to great philosophical questions, as well as the moral issues on the contemporary agenda, into his close-knit relationships with senior British politicians. He testifies that he is "very close to the past and the current prime minister, and to most of the ministers and heads of the opposition. They consult me on their problems, but not those of the Jewish community. With Tony Blair I talked about schools and family. Gordon Brown wants to strengthen the sense of national identity, of volunteering and active society."

His most significant relationship is with Brown, Britain's current prime minister. "He is a very deep and profound person, the most well-read and the most thoughtful person I ever met in politics," Sacks says. He does not attach great importance to Brown's current political plight - surveys show his popularity is at a low. He dismisses this, saying, "He probably needs a slightly better press officer."

Sacks certainly enjoys his position as an adviser to and a close associate of the leaders of Britain. "It's much easier speaking to a rabbi if you're not a Jew. He's not going to give a negative report about you up there. And he doesn't want your job," he says, in reference to the fact that he has won a position of greater influence than the heads of the Anglican church have.

In general, it seems that Sacks feels much more comfortable when he is not in the company of rabbis or other religious persons. When he comes to Israel, contrary to other Orthodox rabbis from abroad, he does not make the rounds and visit the local Torah sages - Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and the other members of the Torah hierarchy.

"I leave that to my dayanim," he says. He prefers to seek out the new prophets of the Jewish people. "I've tried to begin a serious conversation with Amos Oz and David Grossman, either of whom would have been nevi'im [prophets] if [they were] religious."

He prefers to talk about his ties with Jewish scholars and academics from different parts of the world, rather than the innovations in halakha or the latest rabbinic politics, and it seems that the quintessentially religious part of his job is much less attractive to him. He heads the Beth Din (rabbinic court system) in London but, contrary to his liberal image, this court is considered one of the strictest in the world, especially regarding conversions - they toe the line set by the most inflexible ultra-Orthodox rulings.

"On the subject of giyur [conversion], we have a principle set many years ago by Rabbi [Yechezkel] Abramsky and we have followed that tradition," he explains. "I established a rule that my vote counts for one, and only one. We try to reach collective decisions and I don't always win the vote."

On the other hand, he proudly shows off his success in solving most of the cases of agunot - women who cannot get a religious divorce from their husbands - through mediation.

One receives the impression that his concession over the rabbinic court is a kind of clandestine deal he made with the burgeoning ultra-Orthodox community, whose leaders do not officially recognize his religious leadership. When Sacks speaks happily of the fact for the first time in more than 50 years, there has been a rise in the number of marriages and births within the community, he is forced to admit, "it's mainly due to the Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] community and I can't take any credit for it." He also admits that he has no idea what the Jewish community in Britain will look like in another 25 years, and whether the ultra-Orthodox will be the dominant factor there.

Nevertheless, he defines his job as first and foremost trying to look forward. "My whole career as chief rabbi, I have been trying to think 25 years from now. People who can't see forward, can't understand. That's the problem with the thinking of the Jews of the world. In Israel, people, for very understandable reasons, are thinking of today, maximum tomorrow. Outside Israel, they are thinking mainly about yesterday."

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1.	wow he must be anti semetic too right zion?	18:11	\|	mohammed	20/12/07

2.	Rabbinate and J`lem	19:14	\|	Jeremy	20/12/07

3.	jeremy 2	20:11	\|	realism	20/12/07

4.	Response to #3	21:12	\|	Jeremy	20/12/07

5.	Democratic process questionable	22:26	\|	Gilad	20/12/07

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