“A long time ago, in an arid desert, at the foot of a mountain in Sinai, G-d transmitted to a small, fragmented and obstinate people, with nothing that could specifically distinguish it, an “algorithm”. It was called Torah, and this algorithm made them the most remarkable people, tenacious and dissatisfied with their destiny, as anyone has ever seen...”. Rabbi J. Sacks OLAMI Summit 2017, London, January 4, 2018
Friends, you are a very special group and I need to confess something to you. I wondered why Hashem had engineered this meeting of the Olami group, Olam Ha'Yehudi, the Jewish world, here in London, on the banks of the Thames. And suddenly I realized that it must be because, not far from here, also on the banks of the Thames, a man who was not Jewish – someone I really wish had been Jewish – William Shakespeare, was here . Therefore, I want to quote a verse from Shakespeare that I think is capable of transforming a person's life. It's a line from the play Twelfth Night (Twelfth Night), which goes straight to the heart of what it means to be Jewish. And he says, “Some are born big. Some achieve greatness. But some have greatness imposed on them....” From a young age I realized that I was not born great nor would I achieve greatness; but at a certain point in my life, in college, I realized that if you are Jewish, you have greatness thrust upon you.
In what way? As? Because we are the heirs of the descendants of the most influential man who ever lived, Avraham Avinu, our Patriarch Avraham, considered today the ancestor in terms of religion of 2,4 billion Christians, 1,6 billion Muslims and... some of us, most of whom are gathered here tonight. This man wore no crown, reigned no empire, commanded no powerful army, performed no miracles or prophesied – but he changed the world with his faithful determination to heed G‑d's call. We are the descendants of Moshe Rabbeinu, whom Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the inspiration of the French Revolution, called “the greatest legislator in the history of humanity”.
I have to tell you something. Today I have a seat in the House of lords, House of Lords; It’s difficult to put together a “minian”, as those who are used to listening to my speeches know. People often ask me which is better: House of lords Or the "house of the Lord” – the synagogue, the house of the Lord? And I answer: “I always prefer the synagogue, because there the rabbi is the only one giving the sermon. At House of lords, House of Lords, everyone gives sermons.” But I have to tell you that there is a magnificent hall used for committee work called the Moses Chamber, Moshé's chamber. And when my predecessor, the late Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits, was introduced into the House of Lords, they said to him: “Congratulations. You are the first rabbi in this Chamber”. To which the Chief Rabbi, pointing to the huge painting that covers the entire wall, of Moshé Rabbeinu bringing the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, said: “No; he was the first. I’m only second.”
We are the descendants of David Ha-Melech, not only the greatest king of Israel, but the greatest religious poet in all of History. We are the heirs of the prophets, the first social critics in the world, the first people to tell the truth to the powerful. When Martin Luther King, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, gave his speech “I have a dream”, “I have a dream”, at the height of this speech what does he quote, word for word? Nothing less than two pessukim, two verses from Isaiah Haftar do Shabbat Nachamu.
We are their heirs, and not theirs alone; but throughout History we have been innovators in anything, in any discipline, in Physics, Sciences, Sociology, or with Durkheim and Levy-Strauss in Sociology and Anthropology. Jews invented Hollywood. The Jews invented Psychoanalysis.
Apart from Jung, all psychoanalysts were Jews. But at this point I always say: if you are not Jewish, why Psychoanalysis??? All the great psychotherapists, or almost all, Viktor Frankl; Aaron Beck, the co-founder of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Martin Seligman... Thirty-six percent of Nobel Prizes in Economics, including this last one; the greatest musicians, from Arnold Schoenberg to the greatest poets in pop music, the late Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan, all the way to Sergey Brin from Google and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, and the greatest technology invention in the world, called Waze, known as Google Maps. Do you know how many marriages Waze has saved? Or how many marriages fell apart because he said to her, “Why didn’t you look at the map?” And she said to him, “Why didn’t you ask how to get there? ”. Friends, all over the world Waze has contributed to Shalom Bayit, peace in the home...
I tell you something more. Jews did not innovate just once. They innovated generation after generation. And although some of the personalities mentioned were not especially religious, each of them maintained that essentially Jewish idea that you transform the world not by idea of power, but for power of ideas – and that is what Judaism means. We are the people whose heroes are teachers, whose fortresses are houses of study, whose passion is the study and life of the mind. And this is the problem. See: this is why each one of you is important, because today there are, may G‑d protect us, around 13 million Jews. This is little, a minority. But that's not the problem. The problem is that wherever you look around the world, one in two and two in three young Jews are turning away from Judaism. And that hurts.
And I tell you why it hurts. Jews have existed for a long time. We have existed for more than twice as long as Christianity; three times as long as Islam. I remember when I was Chief Rabbi, myself and part of the Commonwealth British we used to be “Hong Kong” until we had to give it back to the Chinese. When I was there, under Chinese rule, I had a meeting with the Beijing delegate to Hong Kong, Mr. Tung Chee-hwa, first governor, Chinese governor of Hong Kong, a charming man who loved and admired Judaism. He said to me: “Rabbi Sacks, we Chinese know that Jews have existed for a long time. We have existed for about 5.000 years. You, 6.000 years ago. What I always wanted to know is what you did in the first 1.000 years, before you existed delivered Chinese food kosher???”. And I said to him, “Mr. Tung, for the first 1.000 years we were complaining about food…”
And that's it. We have existed longer than almost all people. We were spread across every country in the world. In these countries, we know all kinds of fortunes, from the heights of triumph to the depths of tragedy, and yet, never before in Jewish History have we had two things that we have today, simultaneously: sovereignty and independence in Medinat Israel, and freedom and equality in the Diaspora. There were times when we enjoyed one, but never before, of both. And today, when all the prayers of our grandparents and their grandparents, a hundred generations ago, when every one of those prayers has been answered, ... what are we doing? We are moving away...
This is bad. That hurts. And that's why when I was in college, I said, “I can't be a part of this. I will be more Jewish, not less.” I didn't even dream of being a rabbi, but I made a decision that I couldn't be one of those who walked away. And if you make that same decision to be more Jewish, not less, together you will change the course of Jewish History. Well, but you know, and I know too, that it's not easy being a Jew.
There are all those laws, all that study, all those restrictions; who you can marry, what you can eat, when you have to rest. But I want to tell you something. Do you know something? Everything today – it was my grandson who explained to me what I am going to tell you. [That's why we have grandchildren...]. My grandson told me that “everything today is an algorithm”. What an algorithm is, I have no idea. When I was little, we had “rhythm”, but we didn’t yet have the “something”, the “algorithm”, that much I know. And I know that without the algorithm you can have a small neighborhood bookstore; but if you have the algorithm, you become a Amazon.com. There were thousands of search engines (search engine1) before Google, but you discover that it's a Larry Page and a Sergey Brin and you discover the right algorithm... and then you can change the world.
A long time ago, in an arid desert, at the foot of a mountain in Sinai, G-d transmitted to a people, a small, fragmented and obstinate people, with nothing that could distinguish them specifically... and He transmitted to them an algorithm . It was called Torah, and this algorithm made them the most remarkable people, tenacious and unhappy with their destiny, as the world has ever seen. How that works, I can't tell you. But I know it works, yes. And you are about to embark on a future; each of you has dreams and plans; and they are about to enter a future in which nothing is predictable; the world is changing faster than ever, and this speed increases every year; and you will need certain strengths to do well, prosper and succeed.
I want to tell you from experience what this Torah algorithm will do in your life. Firstly, it will strengthen all your important relationships. There are no stronger marriages than among religious Jews. No one has stronger feelings of community than Jews. No one has the same sense of collective responsibility as Jews around the world, because “Kol Yisrael Arevim Zé Ba'zé” – All Jews are responsible for each other. Shimon bar Yochai said: “When a Jew is hurt, all Jews feel his pain.”
Nobody has relationships like ours. Believe me. Alone, you will not be able to live and find happiness and success. All studies show that your success and happiness depend on the intensity and quality of these relationships – and that is the first thing Judaism will do for you.
Secondly, success depends on habits of discipline and willpower. A Halacha, Jewish Law, is the largest “uninterrupted seminar” in the world on discipline and willpower. Try to get out of bed early every day for your prayers. Shacharit, and you will see that any other challenge seems easy...
Third: if you want to avoid burnout, a burnout, in the middle of their career, must discover and keep Shabbat, the best seminar in the world on balancing work and leisure. A young woman who works in Silicon Valley contacted me and said, “Rabbi Sacks, I'm worried that all of our children are addicted to smartphones. These gadgets are ruining your social skills; they are destroying your attention span. They can no longer concentrate. So at my house, our family decided to have one “screen-free” day a week. No smartphones, laptops, iPads.” And she continued: “You will love the name we gave for this day... Shabbat!” This is the power of Shabbat in our day. In Moshé's time, it was a day free from Pharaoh's slavery. Today, it's freedom from the tyranny of social media and email.
Fourthly: happiness is a matter of gratitude with attitude. If you are Jewish, live like a Jew. What are the first words we say in the morning? Mode Ani. You thank him before you even think. Living this way will give you a lifetime of satisfaction.
Fifth: Judaism will keep your mind active throughout your life, because being Jewish has to be a time of continuous, lifelong learning. I'll tell you something: Many years ago, I was hurriedly taken... [Sorry. Sorry. Thank you... Siri just objected to what I said... In Tosafot2 apparently the explanation is otherwise. Thanks, Siri, I didn't know you were Jewish too.
Continuing, 20 years ago I was rushed to the hospital, with a serious problem that I was unaware of.... Imagine, I was taken straight from the doctor's office to the hospital; I underwent surgery and they saved my life. When I was coming back from anesthesia, almost awake, someone knocked on the room door. He was an 80-year-old Jew, with a volume of Gemara under his arm, who says, “Ah, I heard you were here, Rabbi Sacks. I thought maybe we could study Gemara together". Well, I was trying to die and he was trying to study Gemara.... Look, this makes you study and grow throughout your life.
Sixth: anything you do in life will require you to have an inner code of morals. Over the past few years, over the past few weeks, we've seen how some of the most important businessmen, some of the biggest producers in Hollywood manage to - Rachmanu Yitzlan, may G‑d forbid – shamefully end his career. It's because? Because they thought they could get away with it. You never can. We need that inner voice that tells us “no!” And that is what Judaism teaches you.
Seventh: To be happy, successful, resilient, you need a sense of identity; You need to know who you are, and what history you are part of. We are not a free and independent atom, loose in space and carried by the wind. To be Jewish is to be part of the greatest story on earth.
These seven points will not make a small difference in your life; they will do all the difference in your life. They are all part of that remarkable algorithm that has made Jews the most resilient, creative, and transformative people the world has ever known. And yes, we may not have been born great, we may not have achieved greatness, but if we are Jews we have greatness forced upon us. And, yes, it is difficult to be Jewish; it requires effort and dedication and will; but it's the difficult things that make us strong, it's the difficult things that don't make us proud; They are what make us feel more intensely alive.
Friends, I want to end with a story; a curious little story. Have any of you heard of a writer named Dan Brown? Mr. Da Vinci Code? He has just written a bestseller called Origin. Has anyone read it? It's fashion's bestseller. I will not do here what IMDb3 call of spoiler4, but I will tell you this. It is a revolutionary discovery about the origin of life, and the author mentions the name of a real-life figure, a brilliant young physicist at MIT named Jeremy England, who discovered a way to explain how life began. . Dan Brown also quotes another physicist – you'll see this if you look up Jeremy England on Wikipedia – another great scientist of our era, who says: “If England is right, he could be the next Charles Darwin.”
Well, Dan Brown wants to prove, based on this theory, that it is not necessary to believe in G-d to explain the origin of life. I'll tell you what's fascinating about that. The real Jeremy England, for he exists, replied the following to Dan Brown in an article on The Wall Street Journal, a few weeks ago: “Dan Brown, don't use me to refute G-d because I believe in G-d.” Jeremy England grew up a secular, non-practicing Jew. At the age of 20, he made a decision: “I will become a religious Jew.” Today he lives and practices Judaism with the beliefs of an Orthodox Jew. And I have to tell you that for me this is a moment of pure poetry. Why? Because one of the greatest events in the modern world was the discovery of natural selection by Charles Darwin and his consequent abandonment of religion. Today, the “next Charles Darwin” made a discovery, possibly as great as natural selection, and found religion, and found his faith as a believing and practicing Jew.
I believe this is an act of Kiddush Hashem, of Sanctification of the Name of G-d. And I told you this story to show that a decision like this can change your life and help, in some way, change the world. Physicist Jeremy England made this decision when he was your age. I made this decision when I was your age; and now you need to make that decision. Transform yourselves and you will begin to transform the world. I promise you that years from now, you will look back and say that was the best decision of your life.
Let us enjoy, together, this unique moment of independence and sovereignty of Medinat Israel, of freedom and equality in the Diaspora, and let us live, truly proud, as Jews, faithful to our faith, as a blessing to others, regardless of their religion. And, together, we will transform the world!
1Mechanism on the Internet that enables the search for information.
2Tosafot – medieval Talmud commentaries.
3Internet Movie Database (or Internet Movie Database) - an online database of information about music, movies, movies, television programs and commercials, and computer games, currently owned by Amazon.com.
4Spoiler (in the media), it is the early revelation of the plot of films and books.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
He was Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and president of the Beth Din from 1991 to 2013. Since 2009, a member of the House of Lords. He currently serves as Professor of Jewish Thought at New York University and Yeshiva University and Professor of Law, Ethics and Bible at King's College London.
