Professor Peter Ochs’ Response to A Common Word
A Common Word between Us and You Speaking the Truth (Dabru Emet): A response
The world, says Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, rests on three things:
Hadin, HaEmet, V'Hashalom: on justice, truth, and peace (Pirke Avot,
1:18). God bless “A Common Word” and receive it as a powerful
contribution to the peace, truth, and justice that uphold the world.
This Word is worthy of the tradition of Aaron, and it enhances and
extends the tradition of the sage Hillel, who taught that the “disciples
of Aaron love peace and the pursuit of peace, love their fellow
creatures and seek to draw them to the study of God’s word” (Pirke Avot,
1:12).A Common Word therefore comes as a gift, as well, to those who practice Judaism, for it does honour and service to the One God whom they acknowledge as sole Creator of the Universe and Redeemer of humankind. It draws into fellowship the two other children of Abraham’s faith, thereby extending Abraham’s blessings to all the nations. In this way, A Common Word contributes to and extends the obligatory service of all Jews to repair the world and bring glory to God’s Name.
Before adding any other word about Judaism, let me say that A Common Word merits praise and blessings l’shmah – for its own sake – as a blessed moment in the history of God’s work on this world. Its authors and signatories merit praise, with prayers for their well being and for the strength of this good work.
It is of utmost urgency that Christians and Muslims turn now to receive and contemplate this Word, devote both scholarly words and sermons to its import, and devote resources and energies to its dissemination and to its study.
It is most important now to allow these two communities of faith to think of and engage with each other, as “study partners” (what our tradition calls chevrutot) whose intense work and fellowship should not, for awhile, be interrupted by any other. God bless these partnerships and let them flourish as places where God’s Name is glorified.
Only later may it be time to consider the impact of this moment on other faith partners. For the sake of that time, here are a few reasons why I believe A Common Word will prove to be of profound significance, as well, for Jews and Judaism:
• Each doctrinal item in this Word
corresponds to a classical doctrine of rabbinic Judaism. It therefore
belongs to a divine discourse that, if Christianity affirms it, then all
three Abrahamic Faiths affirm it;
• Its emphases on Love of God and God's
Love and Love of Neighbour are emphases of rabbinic Judaism and the most
appropriate means of engaging each faith with the other. As cited in
the Word, one pillar of Jewish faith is the declaration of the Sh’ma:
"YHVH is our God YHVH Alone. And you shall love YHVH your God with all
your heart, your soul, your might." Creation, Revelation, and
Redemption, the three defining acts of God in the world, are all acts of
divine love. And, as often cited in the words of Rabbi Hillel, to cite
the Torah while standing on one foot is to cite the passage "That which
is hateful to you, do not unto your fellow” (B. Talmud Shabbat 31a); and
in the words of Rabbi Akiva (B. Talmud Sanhedrin 38a etc.) “A
fundamental principle of the Torah is ‘You shall love your neighbour as
yourself’(Lev. 19:18)”;
• It beckons Muslims and Christians into
the kind of embrace that Jewish scholars sought for Jews and Christians
in the 2000 statement Dabru Emet (“Speak the Truth”). This
Word therefore extends, affirms, and deepens the work of God that we
have already seen in Jewish-Christian dialogue. It thereby extends and
deepens the witness of Judaism itself.
DABRU EMET: A JEWISH STATEMENT ON CHRISTIANS AND CHRISTIANITY appeared
in September 2000 as a full-page advert in the New York Times (the text
is carried on the website of the Institute for Christian and Jewish
Studies: www.icjs.org/what/njsp/dabruemet.html). Authored by four Jewish
scholars (of which I was one) and signed by approximately two hundred
rabbis and Jewish leaders from each denomination, this statement sought
to acknowledge the place of Christianity in God’s work and to
acknowledge the work of many Christian leaders since WW II to remove
vestiges of anti-Judaism from Christian liturgies and literatures. Dabru Emet was
offered as an opening to theological and not merely social engagement
between the two faiths. Over seven years, it has elicited formal
proclamations of support from a wide range of Christian ecclesial
bodies, has been translated into at least eight languages, and has
served as the text for what appear to have been hundreds of study
sessions by Christian, by Jewish, and by Jewish-and-Christian groups,
conferences, and classes. Dabru Emet addressed
nine areas of overlapping theological work between the two faith
traditions: (a) Worship of the One God; (b) Study of the Revealed Word
of God; (c) The Status of Holy Land in God’s work; (d) Shared Commitment
to Biblical Morality; (e) Repairing Anti-Semitism; (f) Accepting our
Religious Differences and Recognizing that God alone can and will
resolve them in the end of days; (g) That Shared Study and Work Will not
Reduce our Distinct Religious Commitments; (h) That We Work for Justice
and Peace on Earth. We offered these words of Dabru Emet not as final doctrinal statements but strictly as openings and provocations to deeper levels of shared theological study between us. While acknowledging that we and other Jewish scholars might already frame the words of Dabru Emet somewhat differently, I am pleased to note deep resonances between Dabru Emet and A Common Word. I believe A Common Word represents a comparable opening to theological dialogue. Here is a sampling of ways:
• Love of God: For the
authors of Dabru Emet, the first principle of Torah is that God is One.
As noted in A Common Word, “The Shema in the Book of Deuteronomy (6:4-5)
is a centrepiece of the Old Testament and of Jewish liturgy, Hear,
O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
strength.
• Love of Neighbour: For the
authors of Dabru Emet, the purpose of Torah is to instruct us in God’s
ways and to call us to follow those ways. Primary among these ways is
love of neighbour (as in Lev. 19:18).
• The Call to a Common Word:
For the authors of Dabru Emet, God’s ways are disclosed to us through
the study of God’s word. The primary practice of study is chevruta,
studying texts and commentaries of Torah in the company of
fellow-students, so that dialogue and love of fellow are primary means
of instruction in God’s ways. Dabru Emet extends this study, as well, to circles of Jewish and Christian study. Many signatories to Dabru Emet
also support or contribute to The Society for Scriptural Reasoning,
which extends such study to circles of Muslims, Christians, and Jews
(see http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/jsrforum/).
• Supplemental Wisdoms. A Common Word
notes additional wisdoms that underlie Muslim dedication to these loves
of God and neighbour. These wisdoms resonate deeply, as well, in
traditional Judaism and are cherished by the authors of Dabru Emet:
o The Heart: for Jewish scholars, lev
(“heart”) is indeed the seat of mind-and-sentiment-and-will, the
“spiritual heart” to which love of God is commanded and in which
knowledge of God is nurtured. Thus, “love YHVH your God with all your
heart” (Deut. 6).
o Fear of God is the Beginning of Wisdom: In the words of the rabbis’ traditional morning liturgy, reshit chokhmah yirat YHVH, “fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (and all who fulfil His commandments gain good understanding).”
o A Goodly Example: For traditional Jewish scholars, to cling to God (to “set God before me always,” shiviti YHVH l’ negdi tamid) is to imitate the ways of the saints before us, the prophets, patriarchs, sages, the tsadikkim v’chasidim, “the righteous and holy ones.”
o In the Best Stature:
For these scholars, humanity is created in the image and likeness of
God. All humans are therefore made of one form: the image of God. As
different as we may live and as burdened as we may be by suffering and
sin, our true devotion and obligation remains one and single: to fulfill
our lives in God’s image.
Let us be humbled by our tasks of serving God and the
good of humanity and, in that humility, find one another indeed. May God
bless this moment and this pair of partners turning together toward His
Service.by
Peter Ochs,Edgar Bronfman Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of VirginiaCo-founder of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning
October 14, 2007b
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