But biology and economics were not enough for Sacks. He wanted an argument that would persuade the three great Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - that difference is a virtue. Since orthodox religion is responsible for so much of the world's bloodshed, with September 11 only the most obvious example, it was no good coming up with secular, rational arguments for diversity. He needed a proof that would come "from the heart of the whirlwind". He went back to the sacred texts that the three major faiths share.
Sacks looked at the first 12 chapters of Genesis, before Isaac and Ishmael part: the symbolic moment when Judaism and Islam begin their separate journeys. "The key narrative is the Tower of Babel," Sacks explains. "God splits up humanity into a multiplicity of cultures and a diversity of languages." God's message to Abraham is: "Be different, so as to teach humanity the dignity of difference."
That may sound like a statement of the multicultural obvious, but the chief rabbi knows that, for the orthodox faiths, such talk marks a profound shift. Instead of the familiar notion of "one God, one truth, one way", Sacks is claiming divine approval for human variety.
That's a very interesting take.
Of course, it could be pointed out, that the scattering of Babel was a punishment. It was a sort of recapitulation of the Original Sin, falling out of unity into division. Or rather, cast out.
Hmm.
He definitely sounds like someone I'd get along with, though. |
