When folks see the title of this inspirational piece, they might guess I am going to do something with Jesus, the Jewish rabbi. I am not. Instead, I am going to share some wisdom from another Jewish rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, a British Jewish rabbi who died very recently. He was a world-renown rabbi since he held the daunting title, Office of the Chief Rabbi, having been appointed in 1991. Effectively, he was the Jewish counterpart to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was appointed to this post and served for twenty-two years, retiring in 2013. In 2010 he was interviewed by Krista Tippett, who shared this On Being interview again at the time of his death.
Tippett always asks the interviewee about their childhood experience and spirituality. Sachs shared that he had no intent to become a rabbi. But then the Six Day War in Israel affected him deeply, so he began reading some Jewish history and theology. He said he was intrigued by the question, what does it mean to be a Jew? I guess we can say that he answered this with his life and work!
Tippett then asked the rabbi if he was surprised that religion had risen to the surface of contemporary life and politics? “No, actually,” was his retort. He then cited a British lecture series he did in 1990 where he offered the title, “The Persistence of Faith.” This time, if you recall, came on the heels of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Communism. It was an optimistic time when folks thought democracy might sweep the world and all would be good. It was at this point, Sachs claimed, that he said “you’re going to see faith return and return in a way that will cause some problems because the most powerful faith in the modern world will be the faith most powerfully opposed to the modern world.”
Sachs continued by noting that “Religion is a great power and anything that powerful can be a force for good or, God forbid, for evil.” Clearly, we have seen this in the days since 1990 when he foretold this. Rabbi Sachs thinks too many of us are afraid of the stranger. He rightly observes that much of the world until recent times saw people living with people very much like themselves. That certainly was true for me, as I grew up in rural Indiana. Interestingly, Sachs says that now if you “walk down the average Main Street…you will encounter in ten minutes more anthropological diversity than and 18th-century traveler would have encountered in a lifetime.” So true!
Sachs makes an interesting move in this interview. He turns to what most of us know as the two great commandments in the Jewish Bible and Christian Bible: love God and neighbor. He sees love as the key to living with the diversity that now characterizes us. It is the Jewish way, the Christian way and, I dare say, the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and the rest. Then he shared a sentence that strikes me as profound. “This sense that we are enlarged by the people who are different from us---we are not threatened by them---needs cultivating, can be cultivated, and would lead us to see the 21st century as full of blessing, not full of fear.”
I deeply appreciate the idea of becoming enlarged by people different from me. I believe this to be true. My travels around the globe have confirmed that is my experience. When I am in Shanghai, I do feel like I am the stranger---I am the one who is different. When I am in St. Petersburg, Russia, it is a little more difficult to see me as the stranger. Most folks in that wonderful city are white. But it does not take long to realize I am the stranger. I don’t fit the situation. Language is only part of it.
This is when the Rabbi gets to the point of sharing his wisdom. Once I hear him or read him, I realize it is the wisdom of his tradition for 4,000 years. And it is like my wisdom from my tradition. The key to a good and happy life? “We know that it is doing good to others, a network of strong and supportive relationships, and a sense that one’s life is worthwhile are the three greatest determinants of happiness. These three are pretty simple. But they have to be acted upon. They are not just ideas.
Doing good to others is first---to all others. We cannot limit doing good only to our friends. Jesus said something to us about that! Developing a network of good relationships. I hear the Rabbi telling us to make and value our friends. And don’t discount family. This is even more important in our world when so many of us are online. Are your relationships nurturing and nourishing? Do you do it for others? We can even ask, do you feel loved? Do you feel like you belong? Those are basic to being well.
Finally, the Rabbi tells us to create a life that feels worthy. For sure, that beats living a life that feels worthless. It is a matter of economics---net worth. Worthiness has more to do with virtue, friendship and for many of us, God. Just some wisdom from a Rabbi…
It’s good enough for me!
Our true net worth is what we have contributed to humanity.
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