This week we’ve been celebrating Hanukah, the Jewish festival of freedom, and what a week it’s been. On Monday night, together with thousands of people, we had a Hanukah ceremony in Trafalgar Square, with choirs, a rock band, and chocolate coins for the children. And I thought, this would have been inconceivable even a generation ago. So haunted have Jews been by a history of prejudice and persecution, that we often used to hide our identity in public; and yet here we were sharing our joy with others, with confidence and pride.
On Tuesday together with Jewish and non Jewish members of the metropolitan police, we lit candles in Scotland Yard, and I recalled the extraordinary remark I heard some years ago from one of the people who’d been rescued from Nazi Germany by kindertransport, the operation that saved 10,000 Jewish children in 1939. She spoke of the shock of freedom she felt when she realised that in Britain a policeman might be not an enemy but a friend.
Last night we lit candles in the speaker’s residence in the House of Commons, and again I had that same feeling, remembering that not until 1859, two centuries after Jews returned to Britain, could someone of our faith be admitted as a member of parliament. These are, by any historical standards, extraordinary times, and this, a remarkable country. There are few places in the world where the leaders of our many faiths are such close personal friends, and where minorities have the confidence to share their celebrations with neighbours and strangers.
So when the results of the census came out this week, showing that there are six million fewer religious believers than there were ten years ago, but that the minority faiths are getting stronger, I thought: perhaps heaven is summoning us to a deep and difficult truth, that all religions are at their best when they are a minority voice, when they have influence but not power, when they make space for people whose views are different from their own, when they offer others their stories and songs, hospitality and food, seeking nothing in return.
Religion isn’t about power but about the powerless. It’s about those who have more than they need sharing their blessings with those who have less than they need. The candles of Hanukah are the light we share with the world; and the more faiths Britain celebrates and the more we share, the more light there will be.
Dear Rabbi Sacks, I wait eagerly to read your words on the internet. You help me become stronger
in my Jewish faith, your increase my pride in my Jewish Heritage, your help make me a more sturdy
human being. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
A beautiful message, thank you so much Rabbi.
True, real power has nothing to do with religion. The only place to find this real power is from the Creator Self. Religion has one main purpose – to control and dominate those who believe the trickery told by the religions that without it humanity is powerless. True power is freedom. In the spiritual world one is allowed total freedom.
May the new season ahead of us bring more true freedom, especially from religion. We are not required to be religious. We are required to allow the Creator to fill us with Love and peace. Love of the Creator, self and all other beings sharing life.
Blessing Friends!
Your insight regarding religion, influence, and power is amazing and so true. Thank you for a wonderful message. Shabbat shalom!
Dear Rabbi Sacks,
Your eloquent yet simple statement turns our attention to something that unites all religions, and that is the practical purpose of living peacefully with others instead of killing them. I admire your ability to put it so succinctly.
Even a Christian like myself can see the truth and the beauty in your message.
Happy Hanukah, and Merry Christmas.
Greg Sagan
Amarillo, TX
USA
HIS lordship Chief Rabbi JONATHAN SACHS wil be an extremely hard act to follow!A man possesing
the highest qualities of LEADERSHIP, INSIGHT,SERMONISING SKILLS, ELOQUENCE,EURUDITION.
CONQUERING THE INTERESTS OF ALL FAITHS.I HAVE lived over 50 years and JONATHAN STANDS
OUT AS A BEING THE MOST ABLEST AND NOBLEST CHIEF RABBI EVER !!!
SHABBOT SHALOM HAG SHEMEACH HE DESERVES A 100STANDING OVATIONS!