Rabby Charley Baginsky - Jewish News, 18th August 2011

Even as a fairly new rabbi I know better than to begin any sermon or article with a deep existentialist statement if I want my congregants to stay awake or keep reading. Yet, I find myself ignoring my own advice as I begin this passage. I was profoundly struck by the words of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik this week as I listened to a multitude of people pontificate as to the reasons for the recent riots. In a Lonely Man of Faith he writes: "Any kind of injustice, corruption, cruelty, etc., desecrates the very essence of the prayer adventure, since it encases man in an ugly little world into which God is unwilling to enter. If man craves to meet God in prayer, then he must purge himself of all that separates him from God." Soloveitchik believed that when humans do violence to other humans this excludes God from the world. The question that the rest of humanity must ask is not why but how, therefore, we can respond.

There is a chance that by the time this article is published we will have had some edifying insight into why so many people decided to act in this despicable way, why they decided to commit such acts of vandalism and wanton destruction, why they chose to steal and loot shops. Perhaps we will discover it is due to the cuts, or boredom, a lack of education or bad parenting or perhaps we will be none the wiser. Not only has the rise of internet and social media enabled the possibility of mass communication, so the rioters were able to determine where they could join fellow looters, but it has also ensured that we all see ourselves as social commentators.

Read the rest of Rabbi Baginsky's article on the Jewish News website by clicking here and going to 'page 12' of the article