Editor's Note: We asked the Rev. Dick Lawrence, pastor of St. Vincent DePaul
Roman Catholic Church, to reflect on his participation in the
ICJS's annual Beit Midrash for our newsletter. Below are Fr. Lawrence's
remarks.
 The Beit Midrash is an institution well known in the Jewish community
but relatively unknown to non-Jews, even to non-Jewish clergy.
In Baltimore this is changing, as the Institute for Christian
and Jewish Studies continues to bring together rabbis, ministers,
priests, and religious educators for shared, intensive study of
the sacred text.
On January 20, 1995, the Institute sponsored it sixth Beit Midrash
led by Noam Zion of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Grace United Methodist Church and Dr. Emora T. Brannan, Senior
Pastor, graciously hosted fifty participants who spent the day
studying the Cain and Abel story in Genesis 4:1-16. Together we
explored the many ways in which Christians and Jews have read
and interpreted this story which, in the words of Walter Brueggemann,
"...would have Cain discover that life with the brother is not
lived in a void, but in relation to God, and that whoever violates
the brother must face the riddle of God." We examined how our
two traditions have struggled with this theological puzzle and
how each has shed light on our understandings of communal rivalries,
conflict, and violence.
By the end of the day, we had not only learned more about the
passage; we had learned a lot more about each other's approach
to the study of the text. Christian participants seemed to ask
mostly theological questions, while Jewish participants took more
interest in asking questions about the text itself. One of the
Christian parti-cipants speculated that this difference might
be due, at least in part, to the fact that most Christians, even
clergy, study biblical texts most often in translation, whereas
their Jewish colleagues are immersed in the original language
of the text itself. For instance, most of the Christians present
seemed surprised when Noam pointed out that in Hebrew, the name
"Abel" is the same word for "vapor" that is often translated "vanity"
in English translations of Qoheleth. "It's like on a cold morning,
when you can see your breath: that's a hebel: a reality so transparent
and so short lived that it almost isn't a reality at all," Noam
explained. The same word, he added, is sometimes used to describe
idols, which appear to be real but aren't (e.g., Dt 32:21). More
to the point, the same word is used by Job (7:16) to describe
his days, and by the psalmist to describe every member of the
human race (144:4) because our existence is so fleeting. Thus
Abel, whose existence is so short-lived, is a type of us all.
As one participant observed, "One little insight like that makes
a day of study worthwhile."
Those of us who, over the years, have studied with Noam Zion know
he possesses rare gifts. He has a talent for engaging people in
learning that carries profound ramifications for what we do in
our congregations and classrooms, and his creative pedagogy truly
reflects the work and spirit of the Institute. There was general
consensus that Noam's scholarship and enthusiasm, as well as the
opportunity to learn from and about each other, made participants
of all faiths eager to study together with him again soon. |