The Fragility of Jewish Existence Comes to Israel: Applying the Thought of Rabbi Sacks to a Post-October 7th Jewish World, with Dr. Tanya White (234)

I recorded this episode hours before the first three Israeli hostages were slated to be released, and as a ceasefire was just beginning to be implemented by Israel and Hamas. Many people have noted that while Hamas is parading throughout Gaza and claiming victory - which is an absurd inversion of reality - and while the vast majority of the world is celebrating the end of hostilities (at least for now), the population which is the most muted about it are the residents of Israel, who have extreme mixed emotions, even as the strong majority of the country support the implementation of the ceasefire.

All Jews who care about Israel have no choice but to look back at the past fifteen months - and what came before it, as well - to try to get a sense of perspective, and to understand what has happened, what has changed, and what changes we will experience moving forward. And in terms of acquiring that perspective, there are few people whose words are more welcome than Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt”l, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. Rabbi Sacks passed away over four years ago, and we obviously cannot know what he would say about our world today. However, as today’s guest, Dr. Tanya White, wrote to me, “Since October 7th I’ve been asked countless times, What would Rabbi Sacks say? My answer is always the same - while I can’t answer definitively what he would say, I know what he did say and thus we just need to mine his books to find some answers."

For that reason, I was grateful to speak to Dr. Tanya White in order to learn more about Rabbi Sacks and his thought - as well as her own - so that I would better understand how he likely would have addressed the challenges we face today, and the best and healthiest ways for us to move forward.

This episode of the Orthodox Conundrum is sponsored by The Eden Project by Rotem Shani, located right across from the Sheinfeld neighborhood in Beit Shemesh. For more information please contact Rina Weinberg by emailing info@edenbeitshemesh.com.

Check out Tanya's new podcast, Books and Beyond: The Rabbi Sacks Podcast, at https://rabbisacks.org/books-and-beyond-podcast/. Visit her website at https://www.tanyawhite.org/ .

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Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com