Chief Rabbi: 'A perversion of the Abrahamic faiths'

The Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks has warned that hate is contagious and called for the love of God to be invoked to defeat those behind the Mumbai attacks. Speaking to me shortly before a memorial service in north London hosted by the United Synagogue and Chabad-Lubavitch UK to honour those killed in Mumbai, he said that if there was any religious motive behind the attacks, it represented the 'ultimate perversion' of the Abrahamic roots of the three faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

The service included prayers, psalms and speeches from faith dignitaries in memory of Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife Rivkah who was five months pregnant, the four other Jewish people killed at the centre in Mumbai as well as the many other victims.

Sir Jonathan said he did not personally know the Holtzbergs but knew many people who did and who had stayed with them at Chabad House.

'Their house was always open. They always welcomed visitors and  gave hospitality. It was precisely to that end that they went there in the first place. That is the Chabad approach. Just to practise hospitality, the open house, the gift of food and sometimes lodging for strangers, it is what they dedicated their life to. There are such figures in almost every place in the world, certainly every place where there is even the tiniest number of Jews.'

He said the Holtzbergs had like him been inspired by the famous Brooklyn-based Hasidic Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, who died in 1994.

It was Rebbe Schneerson who inspired Sir Jonathan to become a rabbi himself.

Sir Jonathan said: 'What intrigued me as a young man was why he was doing this. It had never been done in the whole of Jewish history before. We are not a missionary faith. We do not go out and proselytise. Noone had ever sent such emissaries around the world.

'Eventually it dawned on me that it is part of the truth. This was a man who lived through the Holocaust. Jewish mystics, and he was one, believe in the Tikun, a mystical philosophy that says we can redeem evil by acts of good.

'We can receive fragments of the divine light from the heart of darkness. That was a very mystical approach. I suddenly realised that he had posed the ultimate question: How can we redeem the evil of the Holocaust, evil for evil’s sake?

'It suddenly came to me that he had decided that just as Hitler had [attacked] Jews in hate, so he would reach out to Jews in love, non-judgmentally, seeking only to give them hospitality and in some way to redeem evil by the power of good.'

Sir Jonathan, in his first interview since the massacres, continued: 'That is of course what makes this particular offence so ultimately tragic. According to reports, they offered hospitality to the people who killed them. That was the terrible irony.'

Sheera Frenkel in The Times today reported that the terrorists had visited the centre on reconnaissance before the attacks and had even been given a meal by Rivka Holtzberg.

Sir Jonathan said: 'That was a rare enactment of a very important strand in the Bible, Genesis 18, when Abraham and Sarah greet strangers and invite them in and give them hospitality.

'I wonder how anyone who can claim descent from Abraham and Sarah can so invert this great and influential narrative? How would the Bible appear to us if Abraham and Sarah's visitors had killed them? So if, G_d forbid, there was any religious dimension whatsoever in these terrible acts, it must be the ultimate perversion of the [elements of the] Abrahamic faiths which Muslims, Christians and Jews all share.'

The Chief Rabbi, who visited India a year ago when he met the Dalai Lama at Amritsar, said: 'I came away with an enormous love of India and an understanding of the healing which exists within its own complex religious traditions. The thing that is most important is that we now devote the same energy to speaking to those better angels of our nature in fighting these demons. There is a power of God capable of defeating the evil but we really must rally it now.' Because otherwise, he feared, the problems will grow. 'Hate is contagious.'

Comments

[Steven Carr]

SACKS
This was a man who lived through the Holocaust. Jewish mystics, and he was one, believe in the Tikun, a mystical philosophy that says we can redeem evil by acts of good.

CARR
I wonder if the Chief Rabbi can think of any evil acts done by Hamas that can be redeemed by acts of good by Jews.

[Cassandra]

Unfortunately, the Chief Rabbi has scant knowledge of Islam if he says "it must be the ultimate perversion of the [elements of the] Abrahamic faiths which Muslims, Christians and Jews all share.'"

What the terrorists did in Mumbai in carrying out their jihad was part of mainstream Islam, not a perversion of it.

Unfortunately, interfaith sessions with Muslims have convinced well-meaning but gullible Jews and Christians that Islam is one of the great monotheistic religions and therefore shares the same values.
They do not realise that Muslims in these sessions are practising taqiya (deception). Islam is a racist, supremacist political system masquerading as a religion. It does not share our Golden Rule which believes all humanity is of equal worth; hence is is quite permissible to torture and kill kafirs (non-Muslims).

Religious leaders need to acquaint themselves with the reality of Islam by reading the original text. I would also recommend they read Andrew Bostom's book about the Islamic Legacy of Anti-semitism, sourced from Islamic texts.

[saint]

Much as some modern trendy academics like to say so, there is nothing "Abrahamic" about Islam. Straight from the pits.

And until I see millions (at this stage I'd even settle for thousands) of Muslims out on the streets protesting these sorts of atrocities done in the name of Islam, you won't convince me otherwise.

[cp36]

I don't believe anybody is going to solve any problem till he solves the problem is who really Jesus Christ is. Was Jesus merely a prophet and a religious teacher or was he God Incarnate, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world? It is all in the Jewish Bible and the New Testament for anyone who is interested to investigate.

[Gabriel]

Rabbi Holtzman and his wife remind me of another young Chabad Rabbi and his wife who open their home, their faith and their hearts to all comers.

On a typical Friday night, dozens of Jews and non-Jews of several faiths share their meal to greet the Sabbath in an atmosphere of fun, food, tolerance, kindness and, for those who want it, Jewish learning.

They are not evangelists in the sense of wanting to convert anyone.

I won't name them, but the fact is that there are similar Chabad emissaries in many countries.

[j]

Such appalling hate to such good people.. I try to hope that each time is the last atrocity, but it never is.

[Anonymous]

If I remember the Old and New Testament scriptures correctly, the God of Israel will vindicate the Jews in the future, but there will be trials and tribulations before that event occurs......

Berit Hadashah (Hebrew)
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2009851/berit_hadashah_hebrew/