Our Mentor. Our Teacher. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Z”L

chief rabbi lord jonathan sachs secretary was an outstanding gift to our generation he gave us specifically the gift of a torah torah means a torah that's alive that's vibrant that's fresh it's never trite or predictable but that's vital passionate exciting insightful perspective changing the following tribute is a joint effort of the orthodox union yeshiva university and the rabbinical council of america rather than present eulogies which would inevitably fall short of this outstanding and exceptional target we have chosen instead to bring together the voices of many american jews who will each describe in a few words how rabbi sachs impacted them how his teachings his persona the way he taught the way he lived the courage with which he brought torah and values to his community to our community and to the world as a whole how it elevated them and how it elevated their lives work we hope that this will in some way give a window into the impact of rabbi sax on our community and be an appropriate of the grief and the loss that we all feel with his passing we have a mitzvah in the torah and pashas we should go in the ways of hashem what does that mean why should he go on the ways of hashem because akrishbach created us all that sallam elokim and he wants us to preserve that salah malakim so he told us we have to study tanakh and study the gemara to see what are the ways of hashem then the passage continues we're all kalami horus when all of the nations in the world will realize that you have succeeded in preserving you at salem elekim shaymash and nicole and we are supposed to be orla so this is the passive in where it says we are supposed to serve as allah when all the nations of the world will seek we have succeeded in preserving outside the your room and echo they will learn from you the woman will learn from the jewish people how to act with hiroshima the orlando doesn't mean absolutely she can explain it doesn't mean with respect to shabbos and kashmir is in taurus it goes on on salaam alaikum it goes on honesty and integrity and work ethic and so on this is what lord sachs accomplished for so many years a jewish people have not been functioning become the assay as allah going he published so much and he spoke so much in public about what zelem al-aqim is all about and what made his terrorists are what their heritage is so he he has represented the jewish people and presented to the asylum what salam alaikum is all about rabbi saks was a model for bringing authentic torah values and wisdom into the broader public square he engaged princes and prime ministers religious leaders of all faiths and in the united states members of congress public intellectuals and journalists for the jewish community worldwide rabbi sachs was the closest we get to royalty a spiritual aristocrat with a regal bearing who inspired with his repeated calls for hope he stepped down as chief rabbi of the united hebrew congregations of the commonwealth in 2013 which enabled him to be in effect and informally the chief rabbi of the english-speaking jewish world and he was people turned his writings his weekly essays on the torah portion his speeches to experience intellectual transcendence to feel intimacy with age-old tradition to understand a difficult moment in time within a broad philosophical and historical sweep i came away with a very warm and special feeling about him about the love and the concern that he had for all jews that cross boundaries and borders and ideologies he was truly a clown israel jew who could speak convincingly to jews of every stripe and from every sector his warmth his dignity his eloquence his sense of people and his understanding of the motivation and what captures people secular religious jewish non-jewish he was an exemplar of a dignified representative of our people he felt no compunction whatsoever in reaching across the divide and communicating with the secular world with the non-jewish world and speaking about his passion for god and for the jewish people rabbi sex in my opinion stood primarily for not just monotheistic judaism but ethical monotheistic judaism that that our mission as jews was to bring the values of torah the ethics of the torah into our lives and into the larger world and rabbis broadway sex as much as anybody in our time brought the torah and its values into the world his whole life he was a mavakesh wasn't happy with what he knew but wanted to know more that's what i learned from him and that's one thing there are many that all of us could learn from him rabbit lord jonathan sachse mobilized his eloquence eviction inside the scholarship to do battle on behalf of the jewish people and the torah he felt that there was no contradiction between science and technology and religion because science and technology answers the what torah and religion in general answers the why to watch rabbi sax present to watch him give a share or give a lecture or sit on a panel is to watch a towering scholar entirely immerse the totality of themselves within the moment he would existentially connect to the material and to the audience and he would remain entirely present in the moment until the very last person asked him the very last question as he was trying to walk out the door of that particular venue in writing the commentary for the ncsy siddha utilizing his translation i was constantly in awe of the way rabbi sax managed to find the most delicate and perfect translations and we found not only were the translations a direct link to rabbi sacks we constantly came back to his torah to find inspiration for the commentary that we wrote for this cedaw every day when i go to work i try to remember rabbi sax's teaching that we should lead by influence and lead by words and deeds and not try to lead through orders and power rabbi sachs was unique he was distinct steeped in torah well-versed in western philosophy theology culture every area of knowledge he gave torah a vocabulary that resonated in this world and he challenged every one of us to expand our thinking and to expand our vocabulary and the power of language to be able to transmit the timeless torah teachings in a way which would resonate which would be palpable we've lost our rabbi the rabbi who represented orla light unto the nations i just remember that rabbi sax was such an embodiment of hakma his house i remember was covered with books everywhere and it was really amazing to hear points of torah from him and he just was so humble so nice so warm so welcoming and i can never forget that experience greater than his scholarship greater than his brilliance was his humanity his derek his love of people and his commitment to be there when it mattered most he did not hesitate from becoming the most profound and eloquent voice the most forceful voice for the struggle against anti-semitism and mobilizing people of every faith leaders and followers alike to stand against the oldest of hatreds jewish history conveys painful lessons about the dangers of being different about how the people who look and live differently become easy targets during periods of challenge rabbi lord jonathan sax's writings gave me and so many others the courage to set aside the fear for which we are profoundly grateful rabbi sax was perhaps the most articulate ambassador of jewish values in our time but his words were not merely the instruments of eloquence they were agents of persuasion catalysts to action and rabbi sachs more than a teacher was a leader whose words and whose life lifts us all a number of years ago rabbi lord jonathan sachs was the guest keynote speaker at ncsy staff conference that day rabbi sax and lady elaine entered the building and instantly their presence was felt the magnetism their grandeur their regalness it was palpable the support that lady elaine provided to rabbi sax has left all of us with a legacy of his mastery and eloquence of torah ideas something that will be studied and felt and something that people will grow from for generations to come my mother who always struggled with her own spirituality and belief in god in her later years she found the writings of rabbi lord jonathan sax every week she would read his parsha and she would ask questions of the local ashitoro rabbi his words resonated with her and so many people i know who also were on their jewish journeys and and really had major struggles and could never get over hurdles it was really wrapped by sax his taurus spoke to them rabbi sax was as close as i ever came to having a rebbe his divrei torah transformed my understanding of tanakh and we're a central part of my and my family's shabbos for so many years now are by sac's word of how there are two ways to keep warm on a cold night one can wear a thick coat warming only oneself but one can light a fire and warm those surrounding as well he spoke of our obligation to choose to light a fire because he said the moral life is one we share with those around us we're responsible for the society of which we are apart and for being a blessing to those around us he spoke of the dignity of difference how jews having once and often been strangers must welcome the stranger the one who is different and most needs the acceptance of community his words convey that we don't have the liberty to live our lives as gullist jews who celebrate religion solely within the confines of our own nuclear community instead our bisex challenged us to take responsibility for the societies around us and contribute meaningfully one of the greatest opportunities i had with rabbi sax was together with rabbi ganak and rabbi posner having the ability to print his works his weekly parsha whether it was the year that he attacked the issue of ethics the year that he attacked the issue of leadership or the year that he tackled the issue of jews the jewish contribution to civilization and humanity and to take them edit them and put them together as a unit and then enable this for the next number of centuries people to see the world differently to see the torah differently and to see themselves differently that was an incredible opportunity rabbi saks was running out of the president's office at yeshiva university he was late for an event everybody was moving him along trying to get there he spotted me he was moving in another direction he stopped me said josh i'm remembering our last conversation together it had been several months ago maybe even a year he said how are you doing i've been working through personal family health issue and he stopped me and remembered everybody's rushing him how's it going i said hashem we've passed the critical stage and we're doing a lot better and he looked at me and he stopped and he said i feel like there's something more just remember i tell the story i went to the doctor and he tested how i was doing while i was exercising and then after i stopped exercising he tested my heart rate again even after the event after the trauma after the crisis we have to monitor ourselves we have to watch our heart rate our resilience is important in our recovery i learned a couple things that day number one even when you're rushing somewhere stop ask yourself ask others how are you doing and second as we're recovering from rabbi saxes patera screon and sardic lebron remind ourselves to test our heart rates even today i witness and learn two critical lessons from rabbi jonathan sachs first the timeless relevance of the torah's wisdom to current challenges whether discussing policies to address poverty education health care or foreign affairs i saw rabbi sachs speak to policy makers in a rabbinic voice not the voice of another politician or pundit and second that the power of that voice rabbi sax's voice came from it's being anchored in authenticity this was his greatness the bounce between the particular and the universal to really be concerned about the individual but never forgetting about the vast world around him and around his communities he left a quote with me that i think about all the time he said good leaders create good followers great leaders create great leaders something to remember about leadership the first thing i asked him was what do we do about the fact that parts of the torah don't seem to fit so well into modern day thought and he said to me how hard is it to change corporate culture i said very hard he said well how much harder is it to change world culture and the reality is that the torah was given in a much more cruel and uncivilized world 3000 years ago and it was embedded embedded with tools so that we could over time um evolve the world into a kinder and more equal world and so this lesson is something that i think about often and something that i've taught to other people often in his name hebrews saks probably the most sought after speaker in the jewish community at the top of his game was was interested in constantly improving and working on it and refining his craft and and didn't was didn't see it as good enough but was constantly looking to do better i remember vividly the winter of 2001 in the uk when beneath even the uk ran national weekend which was a very courageous effort to draw together children and campus from across the country for a shabbaton in wales and on friday night as a thousand and something campers sat together in a freezing cold dining room eating our shabbos dinner rabbi sacks got up on his chair and started to sing and one by one everyone got up in their chair and started to sing and the room was electric he came to speak at the ncsy staff conference and at the end there was a q a session where one of the supporters raised the question why aren't more philanthropists helping support the jewish future why aren't they giving to help bring jews closer at that moment i saw rabbi sax do something i'd never seen him do before he looked to the ground in contemplation and waited then he looked up and replied you find the philanthropist and i'll come with you to convince them on one occasion i remember asking rabbi sex if he'd ever felt under pressure from critics or controversies or circumstance to escape the weight of his office or flee the publicity of the limelight and he thought for a moment and he said let me be as honest as i can 3 000 years ago jacob wrestled with an angel over the course of a long dark night but even at sunrise he refused to let go until he received a blessing and there were many times he said that he suffered the pressures of public life and we all to some degree struggle against challenges both great and small but he said that our faith calls us the very name of our nation charges us to wrestle a blessing and keep fighting and in every challenge that i've faced ever since the words uttered by a mentor who had his share of struggles have resounded in my mind anchored my soul and inspired me to wrestle a blessing from the encounter and keep fighting every semester he would give us a full day from nine to four which we would divide into 20 minute slots which he would spend with students any student who wanted to spend time with him he would be there for them there was never any email to the community i put out which would get quicker the responses than the one which said who wants time with rabbi sax it was such an incredible experience getting to meet rabbi saks and sit with him in his home and learn from him while we were there early sack spoke to us about issues that he believed were facing both the british and global jewish communities as well as shared with us words of torah i remember that he took our questions and opinions so seriously and really welcomed us into his home with so much warmth beyond the keynoting major conferences and rousing and inspiring crowds of thousands what he really loved what he truly loved during his time at yeshiva university was the moment he spent one-on-one with students in 2016 rabbi lord jonathan sachs zircon oliver came to the city of toronto for a couple of very short days his schedule was very very busy and he was torn but the community was pulling him in all so many different directions rabbi sachs insisted that he spend half a day at york university and i had the opportunity to spend those hours with him taking him to and from the campus rabbi sachs told me do you know why i'm dedicating half of a day way more time than in any other engagement to come to university campus because the jewish students are the iqar they are the essence they are the present of the jewish people they're the future of am israel the future of the jewish people [Music] we're forever indebted to rabbi sax for the spread of his outstanding and high-level torah learning and we can only hope that we do it justice as we pass it on to the next generation we will truly miss you rabbi sachs but you will always be our rebbe his loss will be felt for many years to come i feel the loss of a rebbe of a teacher of someone who is a role model for excellence for outstanding thinking for clear thinking for hard working for intense reading and i miss him i will miss him and his work incredibly deeply he's the hero baroque i not only say may but i i say with confidence that rabbi sachs memory will be a blessing and an inspiration to all of us we miss rabbi lord sacks and we'll continue to look to him not only as a guide but for having set the bar for who we could be and the difference that every one of us can make his loss is an enormous loss for soul and beyond he is the chris may his memory be for a blessing may his memory be a blessing he is a hero you