April 25, 2004

Books by three contemporary rabbis

Christians can learn much about their own faith from Jewish teachers.

When Jesus was asked by a fellow Jew what the greatest of the commandments was, he answered in typically rabbinic fashion, “Love God with your whole soul, your whole heart, and your whole mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” These are, of course, quotes from the Jewish Scriptures, the first from chapter 6, verse 5, of Deuteronomy, the second from chapter 19, verse 18, of Leviticus.

To understand how to interpret and understand them in our times and to apply them to our own lives, one can do no better than read the works of three contemporary American rabbis: Norman J. Cohen, Neil Gillman, and Daniel F. Polish.

Theirs are popular-level books, addressing Jews and Christians serious about their faith. All will deepen the faith of those who read them, providing fascinating insights into biblical texts and beliefs. All can be used in teen to adult religious-education classes and contain innumerable nuggets of biblical interpretation that will enliven Catholic teaching and preaching alike.

Rabbi Cohen’s book, with the curious title Hineini in Our Lives (Jewish Lights, 2003) centers on the 14 biblical passages in which the word hineini (“here I am”) is found. In the majority of these, God calls and it is a Jew who responds: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, and the later prophets, though twice it is God who responds. To understand these texts is to understand Mary’s fiat (“Let it be so”) and the essence of Christian response to God’s call to us in Christ.

The book’s purpose is expressed in the subtitle: “Learning How to Respond to Others Through 14 Biblical Texts and Personal Stories.” The first half of the book is by Rabbi Cohen, detailing what it means to be open to the call of God that comes to us through others. In the second half 14 prominent Jews relate their own responses to God’s call.

Rabbi Gillman’s book, The Jewish Approach to God (Jewish Lights, 2003), will introduce Catholics to the typically irreverent and simultaneously profoundly reverent response of Jews to God over the millennia. This has been the case since Abraham, who argued with God over the fate of Sodom and persuaded God to back down.

We Catholics would never think of such a thing, except perhaps for Dante, whose Divine Comedy got it just right. How many Catholic authors would title a chapter “God Is Nice (Sometimes)”?

Rabbi Polish’s book, Keeping Faith With the Psalms (Jewish Lights, 2003), is my favorite, but that might be because I have co-edited two books with him. Rabbi Polish’s sprightly meditations on the Psalms as “the quest for God, insight, and commitment” yield fresh and often surprising perspectives for Christian readers.

Fisher is an associate director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, where he works on relations between Catholic and Jews.