Self-Help for the Jews

In one of the strongest examples of his command of Jewish text, Sacks presents a theology in which the common purpose of the Jewish people is to promote the universality of God and to express it in a distinctively Jewish way. He writes, “One who is not in my image… is nonetheless in God’s image,” but he goes beyond this cliche to explain how the Torah reverses the normal theological move from the particular to the universal by beginning with a universal God and a covenant with all of humanity–through Noah, after the flood–and only then proceeding to tell the story of one people–the Jews. Thus, Sacks argues, the very purpose of Judaism and the Jewish collective is to “[teach] all humanity the dignity of difference.”

As Chief Rabbi of Britain, Sacks is one of the great voices in Orthodox Judaism today, and has become one of the most highly regarded religious leaders in his country. He has written a string of popular books aimed at a broad secular audience, expounding on the great challenges facing our contemporary globalized world. Now, as he approaches the end of his time in office, Sacks attempts to show that the Jewish future can be an example that gives hope for all humanity..

But while Sacks succeeds at giving a Jewish foundation to his overall message, he does not stay consistent with that message when discussing human rights in general and the Palestinian narrative in particular. Instead of avoiding victimhood, he writes an entire chapter devoted to entrenching the contemporary phenomenon of anti-Zionism within the Jewish psyche, calling it “Antisemitism: The Fourth Mutation.” He goes on to suggest that the entire concept of human rights is flawed because it has been used as a platform to attack Israel. And while he slides in a quick endorsement of Palestinian statehood, he spends half a chapter arguing that Israel has been blameless in its pursuit of peace while saying, “Every Israeli offer… has been interpreted by the Palestinians as a sign of weakness and a victory for terror.”

An appropriate analysis of these claims comes straight from Sacks himself in the first chapter of “Future Tense.” He writes,  “The facts may be true, but the narrative is wrong.”  While it is true that anti-Jewish hatred and violence is rising throughout the world and that Israel is becoming demonized in ways similar to the anti-Semitism of old, the Jewish state is the strongest in the region and the second-largest Jewish community–in the United States–enjoys disproportionate influence. While it is true that Israel has accepted the principle of partition and is, as Sacks points out, “the only nation ever to have offered the Palestinians a state,” it is also the state that is occupying the West Bank and whose citizens are building settlements. Sacks need not adopt narratives in which Israel is always in the right and in which the Jews are always under threat. If his goal is to accentuate universalism and positivity, he would do well to stay away from those narratives.

Sacks aims in “Future Tense” to reclaim the soul of the Jewish story and to center it on hope rather than fear, on the dignity of difference rather than the hatred of isolation. But if the Jewish story is meant to speak to humanity about seeing the other, then the Jewish story cannot ignore and negate the other in its own backyard. If the Jewish story is an expression of the particular within the universal, then the Jewish story cannot serve to discredit the notion that all humans share a basic set of rights. Yet Sacks makes no effort to reclaim the language of human rights nor to tell the story of the Palestinians.

Despite this, Sacks has his moments. He insists that anti-Semitism cannot be fought alone and shares the advice he gave to a group of students trying to fight anti-Semitism: “I want you to do the most unexpected thing. I want you to lead the fight against Islamophobia.” He does say he believes the Palestinians should have a state and even more than that, that Israel “can create a new civic Judaism, one that embraces religious and secular, Jew and Palestinian, alike.”

It seems that if Sacks is intent on creating a Judaism that embraces Jew and Palestinian alike, he would have to articulate that vision in another, separate work. Sacks calls for a strong affirmation of Jewish pride that also affirms the sanctity of all people and leads the fight against injustice everywhere, and he should accentuate that in his future writings. That would require telling the Jewish story with an embrace of the language of human rights and a recognition of the Palestinian narrative. Though he comes up short in “Future Tense,” Sacks may be one of the few leaders today who has both the stature and sense of purpose to write that story.