2 January 2005
JANE LITTLE One of the themes of many newspaper articles has been where was God in Asia. The Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks has put his response in a special prayer he's written. He joins me now. Why did you feel compelled to write a prayer Dr Sacks?
CHIEF RABBI I felt that our community has to be with the suffering families and with the injured and with those who are bringing aid and therefore I asked for every community in Britain and the Commonwealth to pray yesterday and continue to pray for the victims and for the aid workers bringing relief.
JANE LITTLE Your prayer mentions that we recognise our helplessness in the face of nature. How do Jews make sense of this kind of terrible disaster?
RABBI DR JONATHAN SACKS In a certain sense Judaism is a refusal to make sense of this kind of disaster because although we believe profoundly in God's involvement in history, if we stopped to ask “Why did this happen?” we might come to accept tragedy instead of fighting against it and therefore Judaism is always an attempt not to ask “Why did this happen?” but “What then shall I do? How can I help the work of aid and relief?”
JANE LITTLE Some might suggest that that's a cop-out, that we need to find an answer to “Why?”:
CHIEF RABBI I don't think we can even begin to answer “Why?” for many years after the tragedy but I do know this; that after the first devastating Flood that the Bible describes it then says that God summoned Noah and through him with all humanity made a covenant of human solidarity. And that to me is the message coming out loud and clear from this disaster. We all belong together. We must all put our efforts to saving life and, God forbid, that we should ever be involved in actions that endanger lives.
JANE LITTLE ... You mentioned the Bible. Many people struggle with the story of Job. There's very little comfort or explanation in that:
CHIEF RABBI The Book of Job tells us that Job's comforters who tried to justify God were wrong and Job who challenged God was right and I think that's a profound message. We believe absolutely in God but we also believe that G-d needs our help to help those who suffer.
JANE LITTLE You say that the answer really is in what we do next. What's the Jewish community planning to do?
CHIEF RABBI We are planning to send as much relief as we can to the aid agencies. We know they need money and resources more than anything else and I really am asking our community along with all other faith communities in the world to join in this great work of rescue and relief.