According to a new autobiography by the Duke of Sussex, the beloved late Chief Rabbi of the UK, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, spoke to him “with the quality one often encounters in truly wise people–forgiveness.”
By United with Israel Staff
In 2005, the UK’s Prince Harry was caught wearing a Nazi uniform to a “fancy dress” party when photos of the incident were published in a UK newspaper.
The incident led to widespread condemnation and, according to the royal’s new tell-all autobiography, a stern discussion with his father, who was then Prince Charles.
Prince Harry was also sent to speak with Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who passed away in 2020, succumbing to cancer after beating the disease during two previous bouts. At the time, Rabbi Sacks was serving as the Chef Rabbi of the United Kingdom.
According to Harry’s account in his new book, excerpts of which were published by the Jewish Chronicle, Rabbi Sacks “didn’t mince his words.”
“Pa sent me to a holy man. 51. Bearded, bespectacled, with a deeply lined face and dark, wise eyes, he was Chief Rabbi of Britain, that much I’d been told,” recounted the Prince. “But right away I could see he was much more. An eminent scholar, a religious philosopher, a prolific writer with more than two dozen books to his name, he’d spent many of his days staring out of windows and thinking about the root causes of sorrow, of evil, of hate.”
Prince Harry continued, “He didn’t mince words. He condemned my actions. He wasn’t unkind, but it had to be done. … I’d arrived at his house feeling shame. I now felt something else, a bottomless self-loathing. But that wasn’t the rabbi’s aim. That certainly wasn’t how he wanted me to leave him. He urged me not to be devastated by my mistake, but instead to be motivated. He spoke to me with the quality one often encounters in truly wise people–forgiveness.
Prince Harry’s inspiring 2005 encounter with Rabbi Sacks echoed the experiences of countless other people who met him throughout his life, from dignitaries at the highest levels of public life to regular citizens who interacted with him in informal settings.
根据苏塞克斯公爵的新自传，深爱的英国已故首席拉比拉比勋爵乔纳森·萨克斯 (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks) 对他说：“真正有智慧的人经常会遇到这种品质——宽恕。” 联合以色列工作人员 2005 年，英国一家报纸刊登了英国哈里王子穿着纳粹制服参加“化装舞会”派对的照片。 这一事件引发了广泛的谴责，根据这位王室新的公开自传，还与当时的查尔斯王子的父亲进行了严厉的讨论。 哈里王子还被派去与拉比勋爵 Jonathan Sacks 交谈，后者于 2020 年去世，在前两次战胜疾病后死于癌症。当时，萨克斯拉比担任英国的主厨拉比。 根据哈利在他的新书中的描述，拉比萨克斯“没有拐弯抹角”，摘录由犹太纪事报出版。 “爸爸派我去见一个圣人。 51. 留着胡子，戴着眼镜，脸上有深深的皱纹，有一双深色、睿智的眼睛，他是英国的首席拉比，我听说过这么多，”王子回忆道。 “但我马上就能看出他不止于此。一位杰出的学者，一位宗教哲学家，一位多产的作家，着有两打以上的著作，他花了很多时间凝视窗外，思考悲伤、邪恶和仇恨的根源。” 哈里王子继续说：“他没有拐弯抹角。他谴责我的行为。他并非不友善，但必须这样做。 ……我来到他家时感到羞耻。我现在有了别的感觉，一种无底的自我厌恶。但这不是拉比的目标。那当然不是他希望我离开他的方式。他敦促我不要因为我的错误而沮丧，而是要有动力。他用真正有智慧的人经常遇到的品质——宽恕——对我说话。 哈里王子 2005 年与拉比·萨克斯 (Rabbi Sacks) 的鼓舞人心的相遇与他一生中见过他的无数其他人的经历相呼应，从公共生活最高层的政要到在非正式场合与他互动的普通公民。
“I didn’t know him well but he was kind enough to host my wife and me for a Shabbat meal one time in his official residence,” recalled an English businessman who immigrated to Israel and preferred to remain anonymous when he shared his story with United with Israel in 2020, when the Chief Rabbi passed away
“My late father was undergoing a 10-hour operation on Shabbat in a hospital that was a two-hour walk from our house,” the guest of Rabbi Sacks told UWI. “Rabbi Sacks was the only observant person we knew in the area near the hospital and he kindly hosted us for lunch, so we only had to walk once on Shabbat and could visit the hospital in the morning and afternoon.
“I found Rabbi Sacks to be charming and down to earth, despite being incredibly intellectual,” he added.
After Rabbi Sacks’ passing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed him as “a spiritual leader and thinker who had many students.”
The prime minister added, “His insights about the heritage of the Jewish people and antisemitism will stand in our generation and for generations to come.”
To that end, Rabbi Sacks took a strong stand when antisemitism spread in the UK’s Labour Party on Jeremy Corbyn’s watch.
“Under his leadership, and the semi-respectable sheen of anti-Zionism — let’s have a Rainbow Nation with Hamas! — the poison spreads,” wrote Rabbi Sacks in The Spectator in 2019. “The libel that the Jews are the enemy of everything holy (formerly Christ, now socialism) has returned.”
一位移民到以色列的英国商人回忆说：“我不太了解他，但他很友好，有一次在他的官邸招待我和我的妻子吃安息日大餐。” 2020 年与以色列联合，当时首席拉比去世 “我已故的父亲在离我们家有两小时步行路程的一家医院接受安息日 10 小时的手术，”Rabbi Sacks 的客人告诉 UWI。 “Rabbi Sacks 是我们在医院附近地区认识的唯一一个善于观察的人，他热情地招待我们吃午饭，所以我们只需要在安息日步行一次，就可以在上午和下午参观医院。 “我发现 Rabbi Sacks 很有魅力而且脚踏实地，尽管他非常聪明，”他补充道。 萨克斯拉比去世后，以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡称赞他是“一位拥有众多学生的精神领袖和思想家”。 总理补充说：“他对犹太人民遗产和反犹太主义的见解将流传于我们这一代和子孙后代。” 为此，当反犹太主义在杰里米·科尔宾 (Jeremy Corbyn) 任内的英国工党中蔓延时，拉比·萨克斯 (Rabbi Sacks) 采取了强硬立场。 “在他的领导下，以及反犹太复国主义的半体面的光彩——让我们与哈马斯一起拥有一个彩虹之国！ ——毒药蔓延开来，”拉比·萨克斯 (Rabbi Sacks) 在 2019 年的《旁观者》(The Spectator) 中写道。“犹太人是一切神圣事物（以前是基督，现在是社会主义）的敌人的诽谤又回来了。” 在 2018 年接受《新政治家》采访时，拉比萨克斯警告说，科尔宾“支持种族主义者、恐怖分子和仇恨贩子，他们想要杀死犹太人并将以色列从地图上抹去”，并补充说这位工党领袖使用了“经典语言战前的欧洲反犹太主义。” 英国平等与人权委员会 2020 年的一项调查“发现工党在其内部的反犹太活动方面存在非法行为”。科尔宾因拒绝该报告的调查结果而受到纪律处分。 While Rabbi Sacks remained dedicated to battling the forces of antisemitism in the UK, and around the world, he also promoted forgiveness for those who mended their ways. “He assured me that people do stupid things, say stupid things, but it doesn’t need to be their intrinsic nature,” recalls Prince Harry in his new book. “I was showing my true nature, he said, by seeking to atone. Seeking absolution. To the extent that he was able, and qualified, he absolved me. He gave me grace. He told me to lift my head, go forth, use this experience to make the world better.” 虽然拉比萨克斯仍然致力于与英国和世界各地的反犹太主义势力作斗争，但他也促进了对那些改过自新的人的宽恕。 “他向我保证，人们会做傻事，说傻话，但这不一定是他们的本性，”哈里王子在他的新书中回忆道。 “我正在展示我的真实本性，他说，通过寻求赎罪。寻求赦免。在他有能力和资格的范围内，他赦免了我。他给了我恩典。他让我抬起头，向前走，利用这段经历让世界变得更美好。
In a 2018 interview with The New Statesman, Rabbi Sacks warned that Corbyn gave “support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate, who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map,” adding that the Labour leader used “the language of classic pre-war European antisemitism.”
A 2020 investigation by the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission “found that the Labour Party committed unlawful acts” with regard to antisemitic activity among its ranks. Corbyn was disciplined due to his rejection of the report’s findings.