From all the experiences in the world, his latest book, "Morality", Rabbi Yonatan Zacks chose to start with a description of drowning, his drowning.
During the honeymoon that Zacks celebrated with his partner in Italy, the two reached one of the beaches where the European boot is sloping.
His lack of control over the swimming taps did not prevent the fresh groom from entering the water, and he found himself swept away by the current, swept into the heart of the sea.
The feeling of utter helplessness and the hand outstretched towards him after the fifth dive underwater changed the course of life of the young student of philosophy. From the distance of the years, and shortly before his death, the former Chief Rabbi of British Jewry presented that moment as a founding moment: "This, for me, is the simple meaning of reaching out for help. You wave a hand, and someone sees and helps you reach a safe shore. another person".
It was the concern for others that led Zacks, who next week would mark one year after his death, to the rabbinate. The contemporary worldview, which sees the life of the individual as the main thing and communal solidarity as nothing more than a prank that burdens the individual as he ascends to the summit, did not fit the experience of one who received his life back on shore. The realization that "we all need grace, we all need touch" became a moral recognition for him. He saw the Jewish worldview that attaches paramount importance to mutual guarantee as a challenge to the individual moods that are growing stronger in the West. It was, in his view, the life-changing idea of the Jewish Scriptures, and it was tasked with mediating between the ancient-eternal ideas and the contemporary value discourse. Perhaps this is how he will be able to repay his anonymous savior, perhaps this is how he will also be able to reach out to those who have been swept away by the cultural waves of the 21st century.
The understanding that the role of the Jewish clergyman is, first and foremost, to save lives, obliged him to make a clear moral voice. He saw the tendency of contemporary politicians to treat themselves as comets as an expression of empty leadership. He did not spare his tribe from the materialistic Facebook and Maurice Johnson, the British Prime Minister, due to the latter's fondness for self-glorification and aggressive and compassionate speeches.
The rabbinical model presented by Zacks was very different from the one we know from Israel.
For those who are accustomed to the rabbinate that shuts itself in its four mothers, who shy away from any confrontation with political centers of power and find it difficult to formulate a real statement on the moral issues that divide Israeli society, Jonathan Zacks is sometimes seen as an alien from another Jewish planet.
His insistence on his duty to integrate into the gender, media and economic discourse of our time is particularly striking in the face of the mute attacking the local rabbinical leadership at every intersection where a real value statement is required.
The sectoral view that demands from the rabbi devotion to the flock only from his flock, has left the Israeli public empty of all Jewish and moral content.
For Rabbi Zacks, the role of religion is to upgrade the political discourse, while for us it is content to serve it.
On the Israeli beach, religion should stand on the lifeguard booth.
Instead, unfortunately, its representatives are busy debating the kosherness of popsicles at the buffet.
