Nuance: The critical legacy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks – opinion
On the heels of the US election, it has never been clearer that the world needs to hear and internalize the message that Rabbi Sacks both taught and modeled.
By DOV LIPMANRABBI JONATHAN SACKS laughs during a news conference in London after being awarded the 2016 Templeton Prize, on March 2, 2016.(photo credit: PAUL HACKETT/REUTERS)Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who died earlier this week, is being memorialized for many things: his scholarship, his remarkable books and articles, his oratory skills, and his incredible leadership, which included knowing all the right things to say at all the right times.But of all the lessons that Rabbi Sacks taught us and examples he set for us, perhaps his most important and critical legacy can be captured in one word: nuance.Rabbi Sacks was fluent in Torah and Kierkegaard. He learned and taught lessons from the songs of both King David and Leonard Cohen. Rabbi Sacks both had and taught complete and total faith in God while also having the courage to publicly confront complicated questions about God and His ways. He was equally comfortable speaking at a conference of Chabad emissaries as he was engaging in public dialogue with Yair Lapid.Rabbi Sacks spoke out strongly against ideologies with which he disagreed, while also fighting for the rights of people to express those ideologies. He was unabashedly proud of being a Jew, but was also able to recognize the positives that other faiths have brought to the world. And he was a strong Zionist who declared that Israel is a home for all Jews while also being a committed patriot to the United Kingdom.In a world that demands we choose sides because everything is either black or white, Rabbi Sacks taught us not only that we must respect all others, and not only is there room for gray, but that the complexity and nuance found in the gray is the ideal.On the heels of the US election, it has never been clearer that the world needs to hear and internalize the message that Rabbi Sacks both taught and modeled.It is okay to both congratulate Joe Biden for his election victory while respecting the right for recounts and legal challenges to the election result; it is possible to thank President Trump for all the good that he did for Israel while equally recognizing President-elect Joe Biden’s love and support for Israel; that one can be thankful for Biden’s strong record of pro-Israel voting and statements while disagreeing with his stance about the Palestinian and Iranian issues; that there is no contradiction between being thankful that Biden won the election while being vigilant and concerned about the influence the more radical elements of the Democratic Party could have on his presidency; that a Trump supporter can still recognize that Joe Biden is a good person, and a Biden supporter can still admit that Donald Trump accomplished certain positive things as president; that a person can celebrate that a woman, and especially a non-white woman, will become vice president, while also pointing to some troublesome policies of Kamala Harris; and that we can, and indeed must, continue to love and be friends with those who voted for “the other guy.”RABBI SACKS taught us that this art of nuance and disagreeing agreeably goes beyond the realm of the American election. It applies to every area of life, and is desperately needed in the complex reality called the Jewish State of Israel.One can vehemently disagree with the religious practice of others while also standing up for their right to choose their own theology; one can believe that all of Israel belongs to the Jewish people while also caring deeply for the well-being of the Palestinian people; one can live in a settlement while also firmly hoping and striving for peace that may require relinquishing that community; one can believe that Torah study is the highest value while also supporting military service for all; one can be against racism and discrimination while also calling out the failings of Israel’s Arab population and their elected leaders; one can be proudly Left wing and Zionist, and one can be strongly Right wing and open-minded; one can support Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister without suggesting that Benny Gantz or Yair Lapid are horrific human beings, and vice versa; and we can learn much from the example of friendships such as that between the late minister Uri Orbach from the right-wing and religious Jewish Home Party and MK Ilan Gilon from the left-wing and secular Meretz Party, both of whom labeled each other as “best friends.”“Diversity is a sign of strength not weakness,” Rabbi Sacks once wrote in Jewish Action. “As the Netziv writes in his commentary to the Tower of Babel, uniformity of thought is not a sign of freedom but its opposite.... So difference, argument, clashes of style and substance are signs not of unhealthy division but of health.”
Divisive and polarizing rhetoric are reaching destructive levels worldwide, to the point that democratic systems and decent civilizations are at risk of total collapse. As we mourn the passing of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, we must save the very foundations of civilized society by internalizing and putting into practice his lessons of nuance and tolerance.The writer served as a member of the 19th Knesset.
