Sivan Rahav-Meir
Reflections on My Relationship with Rabbi Sacks
Sivan Rahav-Meir - Reflections on My Relationship with Rabbi Sacks
- Sivan and Dennis, and you know what? I just want to say a very, very warm welcome to Lockdown University. It’s a great pleasure to have you with us, Sivan, this special, special evening. Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality and lecturer. She lives in Jerusalem, and is currently with her family on shlichut serving as the world Mizrachi’s Shlicha to North America, where she lectures with various committees. She works for Israel TV News, writes a column for “Yediot Aharonot” newspaper, and hosts a weekly radio show on Galei Zahal, the Army Radio. Her lectures on the weekly Torah portion are attended by hundreds, and the live broadcasts attract thousands more listeners throughout the world. Sivan lectures in Israel and overseas about media, Judaism, Zionism, and new media. She was voted by “Globes” newspaper as the most popular female media personality in Israel, and by “The Jerusalem Post” as one of the 50 most influential Jews in the world. Wow, Sivan, incredible. She’s married, and is a mother of five children. Oh, fantastic, so as I said, great pleasure, and now I’m going to hand over to you and to Dennis Davis, who will be in conversation with you. Thank you.
Now, but Sivan’s going to start off. I will keep short, and then after that, we’ll ask some questions. So Sivan, can I just also just add, however, that your book on the Pesach, I would recommend to everybody that can get it on Amazon. It’s a fantastic resource for people who want to understand Pesach , but continue.
Please, will you hold it up so that people can see. Do you have it there, Sivan?
Not with me.
Yeah, we just moved to this new apartment. As you can see, this studio is not so organised. So yeah, one of the first missions, I must find the new book in English and start promoting it. But thank you very much, Mr. Davis, for quoting and for that, and thank you, Wendy Fisher, for exaggerating. It sounds like the mashiach just came to Lockdown University, so thank you very much. So I hope it’s okay. Can I just start speaking about Rabbi Sacks? But afterwards, I do want to hear your comments, and the people that are here with us. It’s really impressive to see, first of all, when I just heard, first heard the name Lockdown University, I loved it. Thank you for organising it, and it’s really important for so many people and connecting us, and even after COVID will disappear, and we all hope it’ll happen soon, it will disappear in Israel, UK, New York, India, Australia, over the world, it will become history. You know, someone asked me, “When will we open a COVID museum?” I really hope soon we’ll have a museum, you know, to learn about what happened during that period, but even afterwards, I think we will use those tools, and this university will continue, because we just discovered the way to connect people from all over the world, and thank you for all the events, you know, you already had.
I do want to speak about Rabbi Sacks, obviously. It’s going to be on soon, in a few days. We’re going to all remember it. It’s going to be the first Yahrtzeit, a whole year since he passed away, and I want to speak a little bit from my personal perspective about the encounters, the meetings, the messages I learned from him, and then afterwards, three stories, and then afterwards, I do want to hear you. I also prepared a few videos and examples and pictures, but first of all, who am I? I’m a journalist. I try to listen to teach Torah. I’m speaking to you now, live from Jerusalem. I guess we have people from Jerusalem too here, and now, by the way, you can also use the chat and text, and respond while I’m speaking. You can type your messages and then comments. I am a mother of five, I’m married to Yedidya, he’s also a journalist, and I wasn’t supposed to meet Rabbi Sacks, and when I was born, the last thing my parents thought, I think, was that I’m going to teach Torah and learn and meet rabbis, but it happened. Thank God, something changed. So I will start, maybe the first message, the first lesson, the first thing I learned from him is that Judaism is something really impressive, and Judaism is something we can all learn from, and Judaism is relevant. It’s not old and ancient, it’s not dead, it’s alive. I grew up here in Israel, in the city of Herzliya and Ramat HaSharon, the centre of Israel, but as a young girl, I never met someone who is religious, who is connected to, I would say Halacha, someone who keeps Shabbat or Kashrut. It’s possible you can live in the Jewish state, but without really, you know, knowing enough about your heritage, and it until the age of 15, I never met someone who is what we say in Hebrew , a religious orthodox, connected, active, you know, engaged in a shul or something, never.
So what happened at the age of 15? At first, I just want to see everything’s working. As I said, we just moved to this new place, so I just want to see everything is working here with our presentation. Okay, do you see me now as a young girl? Do you see this slide? Yes, okay, do you recognise the person next to me? This is Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory of our former prime minister, and you see me here as a young girl interviewing him live on Israeli TV. That was my childhood. I grew up as a young journalist here in Israel, and that’s what I did for, from the age of six, what you see here, it started at the age of six. I started interviewing people on Israeli TV, and that was my career, basically. What you see here is a primetime show. I interviewed, but I must say sunflowers were very trendy back then, I’m really sorry, but what you see here, that was my childhood interviewing people as a young, secular unaffiliated young girl in Israel, and it wasn’t a hobby, school became my hobby. When I had some time, I went to school. During, I remember 24/7, I was literally, I lived in those TV studios interviewing people. You just saw Prime Minister Rabin of blessed memory. I remember two weeks afterwards, I interviewed Shimon Peres of blessed memory, who was the foreign minister, and two weeks later, I interviewed the Power Rangers. They came to Israel. I think I should also add of blessed memory since I don’t think they’re with us anymore, and I interviewed so many figures, and celebrities, and politicians, and singers, and everyone in Israel, and that’s how I discovered Judaism.
I first met, at the age of 15, people that invited me to come for Shabbat. They said two words in Hebrew, Shabbat, come for Shabbat, so I came, and I discovered what Shabbat is all about. I discovered that miracle of Shabbat, and I started keeping Shabbat, but I was just 15, and I never heard of Rabbi Sacks. I just heard of basic, I would say, Jewish principles. But then I realised if you want to continue the spark, if you want to develop and move forward, you must learn. Torah learning is, I think, a fundamental value, and if you’re here, we all share that value if you’re connected now to this Zoom lecture. And I decided I want to learn like, a new book every year, or a new philosopher, a new commentator every year, so I started with a Professor Nehama Leibowitz, Nehama Leibowitz, the famous teacher of Torah, and obviously, it led me afterwards to her book, and to and Rabbi Soloveitchik, and it also led me to Rabbi Sacks’ books in Hebrew, and his books were, for me, like a treasure. Like, I remember it was like something so fresh, and so insightful, and so exciting, the way he treated Judaism, as I said, a source of inspiration. And the fact he was also a philosopher, and he taught, an expert in so many fields, it made me feel how deep and impressive our religion, our identity, our mutual treasure is. And I remember books, I remember, like, things I quoted and pages, you know, I marked it, and kept it, you know, those quotes myself, because I think in a way, he showed us, it doesn’t have to be a conflict, you know? And the academic field helps you understand your religion, and Maimonides Rambam and Shakespeare, and it’s all in a way, you feel it’s like part of one big, I would say, a legacy we all share, and that was really impressive for me, you know?
It was new and impressive, and that was the first time, you know, I was like 25 maybe, and okay, I never thought I had the privilege, this of really meeting him, but it happened. As I say, I interviewed many people during, I’m 40, and I started interviewing people at the age of six, so yeah, I met so many people during those years, and I started writing about the Parshah, I started posting a weekly, I had a weekly had a daily message about the Parshah. And it began, I never thought of, you know, becoming, I’m not a , I’m not an expert. I’m just a journalist and a mother, and I tried to, you know, out of my perspective, to write things that I think they’re relevant, and it became quite popular. And then this book, was published, came out, because we collected all those short pieces, and I started realising, I started using new media, and I saw in a way, we are called, you know, the people of the book, , the people of the book, but the people of the book, you know, in the era of Facebook, what will happen to the people of the book? What will happen to the book when there are no books anymore? And I wanted to take, you know, you see the shelves behind me, it’s not ready yet, because as I said, it’s a new home, but I wanted to bring those books into our feed on social media. So I discovered things should be accessible, and available, and very short. I discovered something, you know, really surprising. Rashi has no Facebook page, have you noticed?
Rambam Maimonides, he didn’t upload a story for 800 years, you know that? It’s a problem, because they’re not there. We are there all day, okay, connected, but they’re not there, and I decided it’s our responsibility, it’s my responsibility to take them from those shelves into our feed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, WhatsApp, whatever the next application, we should be there, the next app. And when I started promoting those ideas, and that’s how, because I started writing about Judaism much more, I was invited to interview Rabbi Sacks, and I had many interviews and meetings and lectures with him. These are the books that influenced me in Hebrew, but you have them translated into, I think, so many languages, and we have those treasures now available, you have for the Jews and non-Jews alike all over the world. But then I started, you know, meeting Rabbi Sacks, and understanding that the second message, or maybe the second real meeting, it wasn’t just the books, it was the person, the personality in interviews and in lectures, and we started discussing that challenge of abundance of new media, of the world that is becoming much more cosy, much more comfortable, and this is the main challenge. This picture was taken here in Jerusalem, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and this picture was taking at his home in London.
This is his living room, or basically, the whole house was a huge library. I remember my husband, when he was taking this picture, Dan Sacker, I think Rabbi Sacks’, I don’t have the right definition, he wasn’t just working with him. I think he was creating part of Rabbi Sacks’ legacy in the world, so Dan Sacker from the office, he said, “No, that’s the small library. You should see the other floor and the other room,” so this is just one example, and this was really a meaningful meeting, and we started discussing social media together, and we both agreed. I mean, I’m not, you know, in his level, but this is the main challenge today. And it’s weird, because we don’t educate, we don’t tell the kids today that the main challenge is Instagram. All the stories, you know, I visited dozens of schools all over the world. All the stories are about Jewish heritage, holocaust, pogroms, you know, exile, and we teach them about what we call in Hebrew , self devotion or mysterious . You know, we teach them how to keep, you know, to remain, to maintain, to be connected to all those values, despite the circumstances. People are always chasing us, someone is always after us, and we must stay strong. But nobody’s chasing us anymore. Think about it, Hitler, Amalek, Stalin, Lenin, we still have enemies, okay? I live in Jerusalem, we still have enemies, but it’s not the same.
My grandmother was born in , in Poland. She was a Holocaust survivor. Her struggle was completely different than mine, and obviously, from my kids. Struggle today is different. We live in a free world, in the democratic world. We thank God for that, but the challenges are different, and now, for the first time maybe, Jews are not forced to be Jews, nobody cares. You could do whatever you want, okay? Nobody’s chasing you, don’t keep Shabbat, don’t keep Shabbat, don’t keep , don’t pray, don’t , don’t say you can’t be. You can do whatever you want. The world is open and global and liberal. Do whatever you want, and now the question is, what do you want to do out of free will? Look behind, nobody’s there behind you. It’s you, what is your decision? I want to show just a short example. This event was organised by Rabbi Andrew Shaw, the head of Mizrachi UK, and a great movement, and he invited me not just to this meeting. He organised like a whole, I can call it, I don’t know if it was a trip, a journey, quite a session of almost 30 meetings, lectures, and events in London, Manchester, and Leeds. We spent a week in Britain, London, Leeds, Manchester, 30 different events, we met thousands of people. It was fascinating, before COVID, and I saw your empire, I saw his empire because it was so important for Rabbi Sacks, you know, Jewish schools, Jewish education, identity, campuses, and it was for me, an opportunity, by the way, to also understand that I think the majority of the people here are from, you know, are British, to understand the type of community you built, because it’s different in Israel, and it’s different in the states, in the United States. I’ll give you one example.
People are, maybe they don’t go to shul, but they have a shul. Maybe they’re not so connected, but they have their own, you know, niche. I’ll give you an example. We spent Rosh Hashanah in Leeds, okay? Quite interesting, okay? After years of spending Rosh Hashanah in Israel, and I remember 1,000 people came to listen to the shofar. When they blow the shofar at the beginning of the service, the beginning of , there’s maybe 10 people, including my husband, in order to start the minyan, the minyan, the prayer, and then two hours later, you have 1,000 people, men, women, children, standing there completely silent. It’s brilliant, listening to the shofar, and then they go, they disappear. Where did you go? The next day, they come again, and it’s a holy ceremony. That’s part of their Jewish identity. And I asked the kids, “Where do you go?” They said, “We’re going to school.” They go to schools. They don’t going to do a Jewish school. It’s not a holiday in their school, but the parents take them in the middle of the day to come and listen to the shofar. And then people told me, “In Leeds, we have three shuls, 1,000, 3000 people, at least, maybe more are doing it right now.” Okay, something new. I can’t say I understand it completely, but I definitely learned something about, you know, the way the communities are built there. I want to show you one short example out of that long conversation. You can find it on YouTube. We spoke there for more than one hour. We answered questions of people, Q and A, what we’re about to do right now, but I want to see that short video from Rabbi Sacks’ house approximately two years ago, let’s see.
- Now, the truth is that I’ve been fascinated by this issue for some years, because I asked myself the question, why did HaShem reveal himself to our people at the time that He did? Somebody had once asked me this question on television, and you know, the question stayed with me, and I suddenly realised it had to do with information technology, that civilization began with the invention of writing, that Judaism began with the invention of the alphabet, that every invention in information technology had huge spiritual implications. The next one after the alphabet was ancient Greece, which became the first alphabet to have letters for vowels, which actually changed the way people read it, actually changed the direction of writing. Greek was originally written like Hebrew from right to left, and once they added the vowels, they moved it to left to right, and it energised the left hemisphere of the brain, and it led to all sorts of things. Christianity was born with the invention of the codex. The Reformation happened with the invention of printing. Nationalism happened with the invention of national newspapers, et cetera. So every single new information technology has dangers and great potential benefits. They’re very disruptive. We are seeing right now, a world being disrupted by smartphones and social media. You can be much ruder electronically than you can face-to-face, and if you wonder why politics has gotten so rude in Britain and America, it’s the indirect consequence of smartphones. So when I saw the late Steve Jobs launch the iPad, I came in the next morning to, I was then chief rabbi, and I said, “This is the face of the future. This is the game changer,” even though technologically, it was just a great big iPhone, but nonetheless, it was clear to me it was going to replace newspapers and magazines, and that was going to be big.
So that’s when we began to get interested in this stuff, and what really made me very interested indeed, and very anxious indeed, was the rise first of Al-Qaeda, and then of Isis, expert users in YouTube videos. We even travelled to Palo Alto to meet with the people in Google to find out what they were doing to combat ISIS videos, and they were telling us how difficult it is for them to combat it, because every time they take down a site, there are 30,000 other sites that immediately rise up. So that was when I committed myself to saying that we have to combat the spread of evil on the internet by using the internet to spread good. So there are very, very big issues here, but your caution, Sivan, is absolutely correct, because I did the research on this, and virtually every single major developer of these technologies stopped their kids from using it. Steve Jobs would not let his kids have an iPhone or an iPad.
He knew something.
He knew, he knew.
But how come Shabbat, I mean, because of this really, we’re so connected all the time, and everything becomes so superficial, and when I was a teenager, when we wanted to ask a philosophical question, we asked if a tree falls in the forest and nobody heard it, was there really a sound?
Yeah.
Today you should ask, if two girls went to a mall and didn’t upload or post that story, did they really went, I mean, didn’t really go there? I mean, so everything becomes so. How come Shabbat, which is I think the remedy to cure the solution. I mean, maybe it’s our failure. I would expect Shabbat to become much more popular today. People to just disconnect to be, do you see it?
Yeah, I see-
Maybe after the elections, I feel it becomes more and more.
Ariana Huffington of the “Huffington Post-”
Yeah.
Has just embraced Shabbat. It’s part of her Thrive campaign. She isn’t Jewish at all. I mean, Ariana Stassinopoulos, she was once, it’s probably Greek Orthodox. So for her to embrace Shabbat is serious. Lots and lots of other people are doing so. They’re talking about screen free day, they’re talking about digital detox. There is no question whatsoever that Shabbat is the perfect antidote. Jean Twenge of San Diego, of University of California, San Diego, who wrote the book, “iGen,” which is the book on the current, what they call Gen Z in the states, the kids who grew up with these social media, says that the best ration is an hour day, but you use it much more than that, and you will become very, very depressed, because over exposure to social media, particularly for teenage girls, is very dangerous.
Teenage girls.
Teenage girls, in Britain, 14 year old girls, one quarter of them say they have self-harmed, they have done something dangerous to themselves because they were depressed because of social media, one quarter of 14 year old girls, so that’s serious.
Wow. I’m sure we share the same thoughts right now. So many memories, you know, from that day with him. And as you can understand, we’re talking about the pre-COVID world, and Rabbi Sacks here speaks about the main challenge, self-sacrifice when nobody’s chasing you, self-sacrifice with what, Instagram, how do you struggle, you know? The struggle of foregoing a proud Jewish identity despite what’s going on, and that was his message, and that was his legacy back then, because we thought that this is really the main challenge. We thought the world is open, and you know, we control the world. I took those messages with me to the United States. We spent a year of . It was said here earlier, we spent a year of . World Mizrachi movement sent us to the states. As you can see here, the Meir family. You also see Rav Doron Perez, the leader of world Mizrachi movement, and they sent us to a year abroad. You can also see Rav Cook, the picture we took with us to New York, and that this is the message I took with me, and you know, it was really inspiring, because I think it was the accurate, the main, the essence of everything, because when you live abroad, and I guess the majority of the people here are not Israelis right now, you know? So it’s tempting. I remember the holidays in the United States, it’s completely different.
When you celebrate, people celebrate Halloween, and you’re standing there with your candles, your menorah on Hanukkah, the lights are there. The lights, they belong to Santa, and you stand there with your small, tiny lights, and you have Halloween, and Sylvester, and Christmas, and Black Friday that’s a very holy day, and I remember one of the mothers, she told me, “Oh, you bought costumes for Purim? I said, "No, it’s not Purim yet.” She said, “No, we buy it on November. We buy it on Halloween.” In Israel, you buy, , you know, costumes, you buy for Purim. This is the pulse, this is the rhythm here on the Codesh of Adar, the month of Adar, and she says, “No, oh, you missed it, we buy it, we-” Okay, so I don’t feel at home, and things are very tempting, and everything is very shiny. Why will I continue to light that tiny menorah to keep my identity as a minority? You shape your identity as a minority, it must be really attractive. That was his message. This is the message I took with me, and at the end of the day, you know, you know what happened. After a year in the states, everything changed in your life, in our life, and this is how we came back to Israel. Quite a shocking picture for me, photo, it was taken in Ben Gurion Airport. It was the only flight to Israel in this day, just before Pesach, first lockdown, okay? Before even Lockdown University was founded, and we had to come back home, we couldn’t stay, we couldn’t continue the journey, no lectures, no big events, no campuses, no shuls, and we were supposed to be scholars in residence.
Now I was my kids’ scholar in residence in, you know, quarantine. Everything changed, and then Rabbi Sacks called me, and that was the third meeting I had. The third message I got from him, as I said, Judaism is impressive and relevant. The challenge today is that we’re not poor, we’re rich, okay? And we don’t work too hard. Maybe things are too easy, challenge of abundance, you know? Living with prosperity, wealth, now what do you do? But then, a new era, a new, I think, period started. COVID 19, that pandemic changed the world, and we were in a small village in Israel, because we were quarantined, we just came back, and we had to, you know, rent some place in order to, I couldn’t go to my parents, our house was rented, and nobody expected that situation, that scenario. So we found a place, a very small village in Israel that nobody heard of it, Bet Sheʾan, and we spent 14 days locked there, including , including Seder night there. And then I remember I saw the number, Dan Sacker, Rabbi Sack’s office, okay, what on Earth, what can he want right now? Okay, it looks like history. A year ago we had those events in London, and I think maybe that was the most profound influence he had on my life, that period. He said, “Rabbi Sacks wants to organise an event.” And I said, “Okay, when? Maybe when this thing will end, you know, after COVID will disappear?” He said, “No, no, in two days.” it was ho the middle of the of the holiday, and he said, “Listen, there’s this new thing called Zoom, you will speak from, where are you?” I said, “Bet Sheʾan.” “Where is it? So you’ll speak, you’re there. Ishay Ribo, the famous singer, will sing from Jerusalem, and Rabbi Sacks will join you from London, and you will make the Jewish world happier,” and he was right. , being happy during the holiday is always relevant.
Maybe it’s especially and even more relevant during a world pandemic, this global disaster, and that’s what we do. Thousands of Jews were with us live, and afterwards, so many people watched it during Pesach, they had time. You’re at home 24/7 locked with your family, and this, we had no idea it’s going to be the last time he was going to speak. Ishay Ribo spoke in Hebrew, Rabbi Sacks spoke in English, and I was in the middle translating and explaining things, you know, to the people in all languages. They joined us from all over the world, and I think the message, it gave me so much hope. I mean, I was really quite depressed, I must tell you, personally. My dream just, you know, stopped in the middle of everything. I was in the states, I just, you know, I tried to convey important messages. I thought I’m doing something important. His messages, by the way, I learned so much from him. It was like, in the middle of everything, and everything looked, you know, everything was stuck. Nobody knew will it end, when will it end? How will the world look like when it will end finally? And there he was with his messages full of hope, and optimism, and faith. I want to show you a video. I really recommend, once again, the full one, because he Ishay is singing. He’s the most popular singer in Israel, and also in the Jewish world is well known. So Ishay was there singing just from his house, you know? And he just started organising his studio back then in order to do more shows like this during the lockdown, and I want you to see the three messages Rabbi Sacks shared, and once again, he was so creative and so, you know, he understood in a minute, what you see here, those are the first days of COVID. We were all shocked completely, but he wasn’t. Let’s see it together.
I’m clapping. I’m sure many people, when they hear you right now, are joining us , beautiful. I want to ask you, Rabbi Sacks, what Ishay just sang, , what do you want to share, what do you want people to understand? What is the divine message in that huge mess in that ?
How is the sound in London, okay?
So listen, Sivan, I think first of all, this is the power of music. You see, Ishay can ask that question. If I asked that question, nobody would listen to me. What do you expect us to learn from this? Let’s just get cured from it and get back to normal, and they would thereby have established, confirmed Hegel’s remark that the one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. So you know, people don’t learn from history. So when Ishay sings he’s asking a very fundamental question. If we were to read the signal beneath the noise, what would it be saying? I think it would be saying three things. Number one, realise how vulnerable you are. You have thought yourself so great, unbelievable technology, unbelievable wealth. You are immune to anything, and I’ve shown you, you are immune, you are vulnerable to one tiny little microscopic virus, which has brought all humanity to its knees. Learn a little bit of an of something or other of humility, which we’ve been sadly lacking. Number two, understand that if a virus can travel from China all the way to the United States, then it’s not just . If we can all make each other fall ill, we should all be responsible for making one another well. We should learn from this, the interconnectedness, . And finally, thirdly, you will see that the good thing that came out of this is that suddenly, everyone wants to help everyone else. All of a sudden, what happened, Sivan, did they go out on the mirpeset at 8:30 at night, yes?
Of course, , of course.
All of a sudden, all of a sudden, . All of Jerusalem is like one family, and we are there to help one another so that nobody should feel alone in this. You know, what did Ishay sing? So reach out and help one another. I think those are the three things.
Wow, I had no idea it’s going to be our last event together. As all of us, I think, I was shocked to hear the bad news when Rabbi Sacks passed away, and I take those three messages with me. The first one, how impressive, and rich, and relevant, and attractive our Judaism is or should be. The second one, and I hope it will be relevant soon, because COVID will disappear completely, our challenge today is trying to create an attractive religion when there are so many options, when everything is available, and our self-sacrifice, our devotion today is being committed, devoted, affiliated Jews in open world, wherever, to choose that option, because we have so many countless options. And the third message is, and I think it’s still relevant, COVID forced us once again, no shuls, no schools, this university was open, it’s great, but we all had to open our Lockdown University to try and think and take responsibility. Our kids’ education, everything was changed and taken, and we had to build it, and to take, once again, if you want a Kiddush, you should make it. Nobody’s doing things for you now. It’s you, it’s your identity. It was, I hope, a short, new period, and we definitely got something, I think, out of his optimism during those times. As you can probably guess, I can speak longer, but I do want to hear you and your comments and questions. And once again, , thank you for making me think about that year without him, about and about the years with him. Thank you very much.
Sivan, thank you very much. I have so many questions and what, we have to do this in 20 minutes? I’m also try to follow some of the track lines. I’ll try to resolve them. So let me start off with something Rabbi Sacks said. Right now, in the clip when he spoke about, of course, just all of the world, but he, of course first started, you know, the famous aphorism, each is responsible one for the other, and I suppose what I wanted to ask you was this, I noticed in my preparation for the discussion that in the Shloshim, you had raised a couple of key points with regard to Rabbi Sacks, , one of which I think I’m not going to ask you about, because you’ve already spoken about that, which is the idea of , so let’s just leave that aside, but let’s talk about this idea that you said one of the things that Rabbi Sacks taught you was ignoring the difference, and rather respecting, you know, the differences that we might have, and I’m really curious about that, of course, because it is true. We are responsible one for the other, but in a world where there’s so many multiplicities of Judaism, as it were, from Haredi to Reform and beyond, I suppose what I’m really interested in is how you deal with that?
Wow.
How do we embrace everyone? Or how do we respect everyone?
I think maybe the main message is to seek, and search, and find those who are not with us in this conflict. I’m not so worried about the Jews that are here. I know there’s a diversity among us, sectors, streams, definitions, but you know, the main sector in the states right now, the Jews, they call themselves the unaffiliated. This is the biggest stream. I have my agenda, I’m an Orthodox woman, and I guess people can disagree, but as long as they’re part of the discussion, they are interested in what’s going on here, but the majority is lost. You all know the numbers, the statistics, assimilation, ignorance, people don’t care, you know what? I spent, I had a few lectures in campuses, Yale University and others in the states, and whenever Jews who support the BDS movement, and you can definitely guess what I think about them, but when they came even to, you know, have demonstrations and to shout and yell, I said, “Okay, maybe they have this spark. They’re interested.” The majority of the Jews, they’re not there. They couldn’t care less, so obviously, I disagree with them much more than I disagree with the people here. I believe we all share mutual values, but I’m speaking about those silent Jews. You know, we used to call the Jews in former Soviet Union, those Jews, the silent Jews. No, no, the silent Jews are now on Berkeley. Where are they and where are we?
Do we reach out to them, do we care? Are we in touch with them? So I can spend my whole life discussing, you know, with people that are closer to me, those conflicts. It’s okay, it’s a free world, but you know, I worked at YU, Yeshiva University. During our , I was like a guest speaker there for two semesters until COVID ruined everything, but I also studied to the students, because YU, they have all, I read there all the magazines, he’s liberal, he’s more conservative, he’s to the right. In the states, they say, “He’s to the right, he’s to the left, he’s open, he’s closed.” That’s very interesting, but here, Washington Heights, we have so many Jews, they’re not open, they’re not closed. They don’t know it’s Hanukah soon. Can you please be in touch with them before you spend your money, time, energy, efforts discussing this inner conflict? So I don’t want to be naive, you know? We do have our conflict, but I think the main mission is reaching out to those Jews abroad and speaking, bringing them, you know, into our bubble. I don’t want to live in a closed bubble of Jews arguing. I want to drag all the Jews into our bubble, and share it with them. Maybe I am naive, I don’t know. That’s my perspective, but you know, there’s so many Jews fighting with each other. I believe they have enough, you know, it’s okay. They’re doing what they think they should do, and this is how I see my mission.
Well, I accept that, but I suppose what I’m asking is what is the bubble? Because how do, I mean, if we have, I mean, number one, I suppose we’ve always had problems of assimilation. They go back throughout the vicissitudes of Jewish history. I suppose the point I’m asking is in the bubble that you talk about, does that accommodate everybody? From Reform to Haredi, can we talk to each other? Can we respect the diversity of our differences?
Definitely, you know? I always search for the common denominator. I always seek, you know, to find, you know, the wider definition we can find, you know? I believe in God, Shabbat is a holy day, it’s a different day, Torah study. I think it’s the main message, I believe that was Rabbi Sacks’ main message. He was Orthodox completely, but I believe he spoke everywhere in order to promote Torah study. Mount Sinai, did it really happen? Did you receive something holy there? Jewish holidays, do you respect that circle, you know, during the year? The land of Israel, you know, it’s a holy place, it’s our homeland, the state of Israel, Jewish pride, you know? People who go, I remember I was in Boca Raton, BRS, Boca Raton Synagogue, and Rabbi Efrem Goldberg told me, rabbi there, he said students, they don’t keep, they’re not affiliated, but whenever there’s antisemitism, they call him from the campus and they ask him to come and put a mezuzah, a mezuzah at their door. Jewish pride, you know, they’re unaffiliated. They don’t come to any shul. So I believe we can find, you know, focus in, and the main message is the next generation. I want young, you know, I came to all those organisations in the states to their annual gala event. The average age was like, I don’t want to insult them, but where are your grandchildren, teaching the next generation, our children, basic values of Judaism and Zionism? That’s, you know, I think we can all agree.
We can always search for, even inside the Orthodox world, we can always focus on the things, when we disagree, it’s great and it’s fun, you know, fighting is fun, but I think the list of of values I just gave here, I think it’s possible. God forbid we do not discriminate anyone. By the way, I speak to non-Jews wherever they invite me, you know, I think it’s, but having said that, okay, nevertheless, I personally, I’m a student of the traditional Orthodox Judaism with, I believe with its richness and tradition, but we’re in a crisis, you know? We have antisemitism, we have assimilation. We can unite around those common, you know, common values, common denominator, and you know, those issues that divide us, we can always discuss them, and as I said, there’s so many people who do it. If you believe in those main values, I think you can do, and you have your own , your own mission, but as I said, people sometimes in Israel, there’s a lot of criticism. People say, “Oh, she’s naive, she’s so nice. That’s hypocrisy.” Okay, maybe, but what can I tell you? That’s my belief, and I’m saying it as someone who grew up here in Israel and I didn’t receive those elements, and my identity, it’s not just Berkeley. Sometimes it’s her Herzliya in Israel. We need it. I’m sorry for, for shouting.
No, okay, I’d like to continue that, but I’m going to ask a separate question, because the context is pretty obvious to me, which is, I grew up, you mentioned Yeshiva University. I grew up in a world where many of the rabbis who had taught me were Soloveichik trained rabbis. Of course, he was the great one of the Yeshiva University, and Soloveichik was somebody who essentially represented the modern orthodox tradition. Rabbi Sacks, in many ways, represented a significant version of that in all sorts of ways, so here’s the question. It just so happens, maybe this is serendipitous, or perhaps it’s just designed this way, but you and I are having this conversation before , and that is really interesting to me, because if you read , which we’ll do the Shabbat to please, God, we read, effectively, that what Abraham was supposed to do was go from to his land to break from that particular culture, to break from the culture of his birth, and basically, in a totally different way. In other words, it was essentially a statement of he was called , from the other side, and effectively, what we were talking about was from the other side, and therefore, if you could read with prism of an opposition to the culture of the day to try to develop a different set of values, my question is, how much do we absorb from the side from where we’ve come? In other words, the non-other side, if I could put it that way. In other words, Rabbi Sacks represented, because he studied philosophy at Cambridge, and I mean, even in the discussion that you had with him, he references Hegel. Not every rabbi references Hegel, and not every rabbi you know, would have, every time I read, as I did, to my family, every Shabbat is covered in conversation, he referenced a whole range of secular sort. How do you see the amalgamation between the secular and the traditional?
It’s a great question. It’s a great question. I’m not , I’m not Rabbi Sacks, I’m not Rabbi Soloveichik. I’m much more superficial and simple, so I definitely learned from them, but I don’t think I’m the right person to answer. By the way, “it’s really rare,” ‘cause as a journalist, when a journalist says, “I don’t know,” this is really, it never happened, but you do understand-
I don’t know either, that’s why I’m asking you.
I do think it’s a challenge, because the intellectual, the academic challenge, it’s here. I mean, we should deal with it, but I think, you know, in my perspective, you know, what I can promote, or where I can do things better is in the right, in a different, I would say, field, a different battle. The academic one is definitely, we had Maimonides, we had so many genius, you know, smart, intelligent people who, as you know, as you said, tried to balance, you know, what can we take in, and what we must turn and, you know, leave out, and this is really, it must be a very gentle balance, and maybe as I said, I’m not, it’s, maybe it’s too, it’s a big question for me. But I do think that the other challenge, which is more tempting, I don’t see kids that, you know, maybe 100 years ago that was the question, you know? , Rav Kook, the people, Ben-Gurion the people who founded this place, that generation, they had those philosophical questions of science, and enlightenment, and new philosophical ideas, and Judaism, and , how can we combine everything? I wish these were the questions.
The questions today, I think, are likes, filters, photos, stories, uploads, and Judaism. I believe to the next generation, this is much more tempting than Hegel, Shakespeare, Hegel, and Nietzsche, and you know, Einstein, and Einstein, and discussing those. I wish the teenagers were, you know, confused because of academic conflicts. No, they’re confused because of this, and this is the challenge today. So what I try to do is dealing with this field, but definitely what you said, as I said, I worked for YU for a year. It’s really impressive to see what the philosophy of Rav Soloveitchik. You know, seeing people in the middle of Manhattan, you know, Lexington Avenue, I remember the girls’ campus and the boys’ campus, and I visited both of them, and see people learning there, the middle of the day, Manhattan is, you know, the shops, the stores, Times Square, everything is there, and it was really, for me, it’s a vision I take back home with me to Israel. It’s really impressive.
I suppose what I’m really, I know we’ve got time constraints, ‘cause you’ve got an event after us, and I have six minutes left, so let me ask you, and I’ll try to also track the questions from the track line, but I’ll see if there’s anything else here, so yes, it’s a good question. What do you think then would there be for the most important legacy of Rabbi Sacks?
Wow, thank you for that question, because it’s something, I even printed it before our meeting. I wanted to quote myself, okay? I just wrote the forward, the chapter that opens the new book, “Studies in Spirituality,” just published by Koren Maggid here in Israel, but it’s a book in English. And they asked me to write something, you know, I think it’s the first book that is published, after he passed away, in English, and I said, the main message is, I said, it’s short, I’m sorry, you know, maybe it’s not so quoting myself, but that’s what I wrote. Don’t think that by buying this book, you have done something to ensure Rabbi Sack’s legacy. We all loved him very much. We were all deeply pained when he was suddenly taken from us by an aggressive cancer, and perhaps you think that if you have this new book on your bookshelf, you’ve done something to honour his memory, but the great vacuum that has been created in the Jewish world by his parting will not be filled if we love Rabbi Sacks. It will only be filled if we strive to be Rabbi Sacks. The task that he left us is not to purchase his books, but to adopt his path, exactly as he said about . This man did not want to create followers, he wanted to create leaders. Rabbi Sacks did not want people to only know how to quote his ideas, you know, by copying and pasting. He desired that people take responsibility, that they transcend themself in order to change the Jewish world and bring the Torah to every Jew.
He could have remained a student who was satisfied to buy, he was satisfied to buy a new nice Jewish book, but he understood that the most pressing problem of our times is the Jewish people’s ignorance and their disappearance, and therefore, he changed his life course to dedicate himself to this cause. Although he was a lord, a professor, a scholar, a commentator, he was first and foremost, a rabbi. Above his studies of the works of Shakespeare and et cetera, he placed Jewish continuity, and this is why it moved me so deeply to hear the way his wife Elaine began the memorial ceremony marking the shloshim, you know, one month since his passing. Participating in the ceremony where Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Prince Charles, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and yet, Lady Elaine’s opening words were, “We received so many letters and stories this past month. People told us that they will send their children to get a Jewish education because of my husband.” This was the first sentence she said. That was her message before, you know, all the eulogies delivered by those honoured guests. This truly was Rabbi Sack’s core idea, not to sit, you know, with kings and princes. It’s nice, it’s nice, but to make sure that one more Jewish child will continue on the path of his or her ancestors. So I believe the main message is to us, our , our our mission to be Rabbi Sacks, not to quote him. This is how I see it.
So one final question, I accept literally your point about, you know, the people who have drifted completely away, but there were people in the periphery who also began to understand things. Let me give you an example. Which other rabbi would be able to have rendered a eulogy for Leonard Cohen the way that Rabbi Sacks did? I mean, and remember Leonard Cohen was seriously popular amongst a massive, massive audience, and you listen to Rabbi Sacks talking about Leonard Cohen, and the whole idea of Leonard Cohen’s philosophy, I just wonder where we’re going to find another rabbi who’d be able to do that? Because that speaks to people who not necessarily go to shul, but to suddenly say, “Gee, there’s something in this tradition that’s worthwhile.” So where are we going to find somebody like that now?
This is why I think almost 800 people are here with us asking themselves, okay, what can we do? A year passed, and now what? And our mission, for us, but I think about the next generation, our kids, grandchildren, is to create new Jewish leaders, and we should not, as I said, copy paste exactly what he did, but we should create leaders to the Jewish world. Can we give our kids the chance, the opportunity to invest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 years in Torah learning, serious Torah learning? He came here to Israel, took . He also learned in Yeshiva in London, but he was learning here in Israel, and he stopped everything. He was a student who was supposed to be a very, I think, finance or a lawyer, I don’t remember, accountant, I don’t remember, but what he was learning before he met the Rabbi Soloveitchik, but what the Rabbi Soloveitchik did, you know, that spark, he just changed in a minute, that brilliant student became Rabbi Sacks, and I think this miracle should also happen to us. I mean, let’s imagine Rabbi Soloveitchik asking us, or maybe even God, Yeshua asking us, what is your mission? Okay, why are you here in this world? How can you help the Jewish world? These are the questions he asked him as a young student, and the answers he gave then Rabbi Sacks changed his life, and they changed our life. So we should definitely think about creating the next generation of Jewish leaders, definitely, you’re right.
Well, listen, I know that you’ve got a television engagement about three minutes. I’m not going to hold it up. I want to thank you very, very much. There’s lots of very effusive praise on the chat line, and this I think was a wonderful tribute to Rabbi Sacks, who of course, as we both agree, certainly deserved it and more. But thank you very much, and keep up the good work, and thank you so much for participating.
Thank you to , thank you all. If you want to follow, you know, yeah, I have, you quoted, you know, you mentioned my book. I post a daily message in English every day. You can definitely get it. You can just Google daily WhatsApp, daily portion, Sivan Rahav-Meir, and please, you can follow me on social media. Thank you very much for the opportunity, and as I said, I thought about this year, thanks to you, I thought about Rabbi Sacks, what he gave me, what he gave to all of us, and may we meet each other , happiness and happy occasions, and we’re waiting for you here. Thank you very much. Thanks, bye bye.