Friends, we live in an unforgiving age. In 2015, a British scientist, Sir Tim Hunt, a Nobel-Prize-winning scientist, no less made his visit to South Korea. The only thing is in 2015, they hadn’t taught the South Koreans “Oseh Shalom”.
[Congregation laughter]
On his visit four years ago, he made in the course of his speech, a bad joke about women in laboratories. It was a silly joke and he admitted it, and it fell flat. However, one person tweeted the joke and it went around the world and became viral, and thereafter he became the target of an online shaming campaign, the end of which was he was forced to resign his position at University College London, forced to resign his position in the Royal Society, forced to resign his position in the European Research Council, and turned into a pariah. Despite the fact that he obviously was only making a joke, (immediately afterwards in his talk said, “Science needs women.”) And despite the fact that his wife is a distinguished scientist, despite the fact that he apologised time and time again, despite the fact that he was defended by fellow scientists, from Brian Cox, all the way to his holiness, Richard Dawkins [Congregation laughter], the truth is, they were telling the world it was only a joke. And yet he was condemned without trial, without consideration of the evidence, without due process, without appeal, without mercy, without regard to his lifetime of service to science, without regard to the simple fact that he was a human being and human beings make mistakes. Ours is an unforgiving age.
Jordan Peterson is a psychologist at the University of Toronto. He is probably the most followed public intellectual in the world right now. He has a huge following because he’s a counter-cultural figure and he has the courage to challenge some politically-correct positions. This summer, he was due to serve as a research fellow in the Cambridge Divinity School, which your Rabbi knows well, because he has been teaching there and will do so until the 30th of September this month, when he may lose his position because of what I’m about to say, (but I’m sorry in advance. Okay?)
Somebody discovered, somewhere on Facebook, that somebody unknown had taken a selfie with Jordan Peterson and the somebody who took the selfie was wearing a t-shirt with a slogan on it that was not terribly nice. Now, hundreds of people on that night that Jordan Peterson gave a lecture wanted a selfie with him. Hundreds of people took a selfie with him. He had no chance of scrutinising what the people who were taking selfies with him were wearing. He had no idea what was written on the t-shirt, and yet he was condemned. Who is he condemned by? The Cambridge Divinity School.
Let me ask you, Michael Harris, [turns to Rabbi Harris] have they heard of the word ‘forgiveness’ in the Cambridge Divinity School or is that recherché? Or, maybe they’ve heard of the word ‘justice’? Here is a man condemned because of somebody else’s selfie with him, somebody else’s t-shirt, with no trial, no evidence, no judicial process, no reflective moral judgement, no “vedarashta vechakarta ve’sha’alta haytayve” as the Torah tells us to do, to examine the evidence well, and see “emet nachon hadavar” [Devarim 13:15] if the thing is true? None of that. Just simple condemnation.
Now, I happen to have the privilege of knowing Jordan Peterson. I went to interview him at his home in Toronto, and we had a long conversation together, which you can hear in its entirety on the BBC website. Here is a serious human being. A man whose work is intensely moral, deeply spiritual, intellectually challenging. A person who was focused on what we are going to focus on tonight, and for the next few days until Yom Kippur, the focus on taking responsibility for your life. Not blaming other people, but taking responsibility. That’s what Selichot are about. Nothing was said in his defence, not even from the faculty of divinity. Ours is an unforgiving age.
So, here was a man who made a slightly ill-judged joke, and here was a man who had the misfortune to have a selfie taken together with somebody wearing an inappropriate t-shirt and these were the people for whom, in Maimonidies words: “The gates of repentance were closed.” Nobody gave them a chance to say, “I’m sorry” or to explain or to be forgiven, nothing.
Now consider two people who actually did wrong – wrong so bad that we would understand if somebody said what they did was unforgivable.
I think first of all, of a young man who said these words: “Ma betzah ki naharog et achinu …?” “What profit will we get if we kill our brother?” Come, let’s sell him as a slave, let’s not kill him. After all, he’s our brother, our own flesh and blood…
A young man who sold his brother as a slave. His name was Yehudah. That was a real, real sin and yet he became the ancestor of Israel’s Kings. He became a lot more than that. We bear his name. We are called Jews because we are yehudim, because we are named after Yehudah. Why? Because he was forgiven. And why was he forgiven? Because he owned up, he said, ““Aval asheimim anachnu”, “We were guilty.” He said, (in words we’re going to say at Selichos soon),
“Ma-nidaber uma-nitz’tadak” – “What more can we say to justify ourselves?”. He said, “haelokim matza et-ha’avon avadecha”, “God has discovered, uncovered our guilt.” [Bereishit 44:16]
What’s more, he changed: From the person who sold his brother as a slave, he became the person who was willing to spend the rest of his life as a slave so that his brother Benjamin could go free. He became a Ba’al Teshuvah. Joseph, his brother, forgave him. God forgave him, and it is his name we bear.
Let me give you a second example. Here I talk about a King of Israel whose behaviour was well, how can I put it? In the immortal words of the late Leonard Cohen: “Your faith was strong, but you needed proof. You saw her bathing on the roof, her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you.” I hope that doesn’t need any Rashi and Tosefot for anyone.
[Congregation laughter]
The King of Israel had an adulterous relationship with somebody else’s wife and then sent her husband to the frontline of the army. This was a horrendous sin. It was an appalling crime. And yet he became Israel’s greatest King. More than that, he became perhaps the greatest religious poet the world has ever known. Why? Because he was forgiven, and why was he forgiven? Because he said in the shortest form of Selichot ever delivered in one word, “Chatati”. “I have sinned.” But he didn’t just say that. He said, “Vechatati negdi tamid.”, “My sin is in front of me all the time.” [Tehillim 51:4] I will never, for one minute, forget that I sinned. And so, he was forgiven.
So, Judah and King David were Ba’alei Teshuvah, who confessed and apologised and they changed, and they were forgiven. And they committed serious wrongs, not jokes in bad taste or t-shirts in a selfie, and yet that were forgiven. Imagine they hadn’t been forgiven. If Yehudah hadn’t been forgiven, there would be no Jews today because it was Yehudah who survived when the 10 tribes in the North disappeared from history, the lost 10 tribes. If King David hadn’t been forgiven, there would be no Book of Psalms today and the whole world would be impoverished.
What’s the difference? The difference is because at the heart of our faith is a God who forgives. Vayomer Hashem salachti kidvarecha. [Bamidbar 14:20] God says to us, “Be honest with Me and then I will forgive you.” Then He says to us, as we will say over and over again tonight and throughout Selichot, “Hashem Hashem, Kel rachum v’chanun.” “God is a God of mercy and compassion”. And when did He say those words? After the worst sin of all, the Golden Calf. Forty days after receiving the Torah of Mount Sinai, the worst sin of all and God forgave. God forgives.
What happens when an entire culture loses faith in God? I’ll tell you all that’s left. All that’s left is an unconscious universe of impersonal forces that doesn’t care if we exist or not.
In the other direction, all that’s left is a world of Facebook and Twitter and viral videos in which anyone can pass judgement on anyone without regard to the facts or truth or reflective moral judgement and by the time the person accused has had the chance to explain, or the truth has emerged, the crowd has already moved on. They’re not interested anymore.
And what happens in an unforgiving culture? In an unforgiving culture, the people who survive and thrive are the people without shame.
Have a look at who is powerful in the world today. They are the people without shame, because those are the only people who survive in a world without forgiveness. Whereas we believe that God gives us a chance to acknowledge our mistakes and where, if we are honest about the wrong we have done, if tonight we stand before HaKadosh Baruch Hu with a broken heart, if we are willing to have the guts to say, “Aval asheimim anachnu” We really did get it wrong. If we are able to say, like David HaMelech “Chatati”, “I sinned”, then God gives us a second chance.
And that is what Selichot are all about. About being honest, about being candid, about saying, “Ribono Shel Olam, I know I let You down. I know I let others down. I know I let me down, but shema koli, shma koleinu, listen to me, Ribono Shel Olam. Hear my cry. Help me become the person You created me to be.”
A year or two ago, I was just about to give a lecture in a big shul in America, 1,000 people in the audience. To get 1,000 Jews to sit down is hard as the division of the Red Sea as you know. [Congregation chuckles] So, we had a certain wait in front of us, and the Rabbi of the shul, a very sweet man said to me, “Rabbi Sacks, do you mind, we’ve got 10 minutes before we have to begin. Every week I do a radio programme, the local Jewish radio programme, and we’ve got 10 minutes. Would you do an interview with me?” So I said, “Fine!” So, we went into his study, just the two of us, and this is what he asked me.
He said, “Rabbi Sacks, I look at your CV, I look at your career, tell me Rabbi Sacks, did you ever fail at anything?” I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I said, [chuckling] “I have failed at almost everything.” My favourite sentence in the English language is Winston Churchill’s definition of success. You know his definition of success? “Going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” [Laughter from the congregation]
So, I tried to explain to the Rabbi the real difference is not between failure and success. The real difference is between failing and giving up and failing and keeping on going. That’s the real difference in life. And what keeps me going, I explained to him, is the simple knowledge that God lifts us when we fall and God forgives us when we fail.
So, I have one request of you. Forget the public persona of perfection that people post on their social media as their defence against an unforgiving world. Forget that and know in our davenning that in the inner-reaches of our soul we can be honest with ourselves, we can acknowledge the ways in which we’ve failed and fell short, because we know that God forgives, and in that forgiveness, God gives us the strength to heal what we have harmed, to mend what we have broken, and to become the person He wants us to be.
May Hashem give us that strength.
Keyn yehi ratzon venomar, Amen
[Congregation joins in, “Amen”. Applause.]
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Jerusalem Launch of Radical Responsibility
The International Jerusalem Book Fair

The 21st Century Challenge for Jews and Israel
Tel Hai College, Israel

Communities Together: Build a Bridge
Holocaust Memorial Day 2013

The Future of Judaism
2012-13 Robbins Collection Lecture in Jewish Law and Thought at Berkeley Law

The Hidden Story of Chanukah

Role of religion in society

Universalism and Particularism
Finding your Jewish identity in a secular world

Is the Bible a Work of Philosophy?

Child development in the UK and national wellbeing

Rabbi Sacks in conversation with Richard Dawkins
REThink Festival

To Live and Act as a Jew
Midnight Selichot 5772

Science vs. Religion (2012)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5773

The Revolutionary Power and Importance of Talmud Study

A Vision for Global Jewish Peoplehood

In conversation with Prof. Ron Heifetz
Highlights: On Jewish Leadership

Faith Communities and the Diamond Jubilee

Yom Ha'atzmaut 5772: Believing in the Power of Possibility
Bnei Akiva service at Finchley Synagogue

Music: Did the Rabbis Make a Mistake?

Torah in Motion 10th Anniversary
Future Tense: Where Are Judaism and the Jewish People Headed?

Desert Island Texts
The Chief Rabbi’s seven favourite verses in Tanakh

Religion and Science
Jewish Book Week 2012

The Face of the Other: The Curious Nature of Biblical Narrative
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Humanitas Lecture 3

Truth and Translatability
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Humanitas Lecture 2

After Babel: A Jewish theology of interfaith
A Jewish Theology of the Other: Lecture 1

Message for Holocaust Memorial Day (2012)

Has Europe Lost Its Soul?
Lecture at The Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

The Chief Rabbi meeting Pope Benedict XVI

Christians in the Middle East

Graduation Address at the University of Aberdeen

Address to the International Conference of Chabad Shluchim

The Great Partnership
Religion and the Moral Sense

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks at the Young Israel of Scarsdale

Religion and Democracy in America and Europe

Three Responses to Crisis
Midnight Selichot 5771

Where Will We Find God?
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

The Courage to Hope - the Greatest Courage of All
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Undoing the Knots We Tie Ourselves Into
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Where Our Speaking... Meets God’s Listening
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

How do you learn to live? By not taking life for granted.
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

When God Sheds A Tear…
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

To Be Free, You Have To Forgive
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

The Holy Place…is where you are
Preparing for the Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Don’t Get Angry… There’s A Better Way
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

St Mary's 2011 Pope Benedict XVI Lecture

Improving Interfaith Dialogue in Multicultural Britain

What's the point of religion? (2011)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5772

The One Word That Can Change your Life
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur

Chief Rabbi's 11th Annual Ellul Lecture at LSJS

Looking Towards Tomorrow: Trends, Challenges and Decisions
The Israeli Presidential Conference 2011

Yom Ha’atzmaut 5771: From Grief to Joy
Bnei Akiva service at Finchley Synagogue

Hamas and the Peace Process

The future of marriage in Britain

Micha Goodman's Concluding Lecture at the Rabbi Sacks Bar-Ilan Conference

Tova Ganzel's Lecture at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Reuven Leigh's Lecture at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Avinoam Rosenak at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Raphael Zarum at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Jessica Sacks' Lecture at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Moshe Hellinger on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Zehavit Gross at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Yafit Clymer at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Tzachi Cohen on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Ruth Halperin-Kaddari on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Lawrence Kaplan on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Daniel Rynhold on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Alon Goshen Gottstein at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Eugene Korn on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Ephraim Meir at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Barbara Meir at the Bar-Ilan Conference

President Yitzhak Herzog introduces the Bar-Ilan Conference

Tanya White on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

A Welcome by Miriam Feldmann Kaye

Miri Freud Kandel on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Alan Brill on Rabbi Sacks' Jewish Philosophy

Hava Tirosh Samuelson's Lecture at the Bar-Ilan Conference

Human Rights

In the Room with Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom
On Being with Krista Tippett

Interfaith Summit on Happiness with the Dalai Lama
On Understanding and Promoting Happiness in Today’s Society, at Emory University

Rabbi Sacks welcomes Pope Benedict XVI to Britain on behalf of the faith communities

The Case for God (2010)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5771

Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Narrative
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense Take Aways: 2
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Universal Jewish Story
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Eco-Judaism Roots
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Peoplehood
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on an Engaged Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Charity Priorities
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Reconciliation
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Community Conflict
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Particularism vs Universalism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Culture of Hope
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Hatikvah
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Israel and Jewish Society
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Torah in Today's World
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Prayer
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Indifference
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Jewish Role in the World
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Torah and the Real World
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Free Market and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Future Tense
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Love as Deed
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Combatting Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Material Loss
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Antidote to Materialism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Parenting
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Tzedakah Tale
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Family Story
JInsider (March 2010)

On the Internet and Judaism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Plato's Ghost
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Optimism vs. Hope
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Victim Mentality
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Jerusalem
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Advice for our Times
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Fundamentalism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Time
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Chosen People
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on 21st Century Israel
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Origins of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Understanding Jewish Exile
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Anger
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Historical Evolution of Antisemitism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Interfaith Relations
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Coincidence and Providence
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Free Will
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Family and Marriage
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Tzedakah Defined
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Daily Life
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Being Jewish
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on his Personal Rebbe, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Connecting to God
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on God and Evil
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Dialogue with Atheists
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Doubt
Jinsider (March 2010)

On Tikkun Olam
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Response to Atheism
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on Finding Purpose
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on a Responsible Life - Example
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 2
JInsider (March 2010)

Rabbi Sacks on the Dignity of Difference - Part 1
JInsider (March 2010)

Passover: A More Meaningful Holiday

Inaugural Norman Lamm Prize Lecture
Award Acceptance Speech at Yeshiva University

Introduction to the House of Lords

Understanding Kol Nidrei

How to Evolve
Midnight Selichot 5769

A More Gracious Future (2009)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5770

Faith in the Family (2008)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5769

Faith and Fate: The Lambeth Conference Address

Oseh Shalom from "Israel: Home of Hope"

Keeping Faith (2007)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5768

The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations
The 2007 Kenan Distinguished Lecture in Ethics

In a Strange Land (2006)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5767

My Brother's Keeper (2005)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5766

Agents of Hope (2003)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5764

A Message for the Jewish New Year (2001)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5762

Does God Have a Place in the Marketplace? (2000)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5761

Guardians of the World (1999)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5760

More than a FunFair (1998)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5759

A Single Gesture (1997)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5758

The Tough Questions (1996)
BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5757