Israeli rabbis are asking the pope to clarify observations on Jewish law

VATICAN CITY, Aug. 25 (Reuters) – Israel’s top Jewish religious authorities have told the Vatican they are concerned about Pope Francis’ comments on his sacred law books and have called for clarification.

In a letter seen by Reuters, Rabbi Rasson Arousi, chairman of Israel’s top rabbinical commission for dialogue with the Holy See, said the comments appeared to suggest Jewish law was outdated.

Vatican authorities said they were studying the letter and were studying a response.

Rabbi Arousi wrote a day after the pope spoke of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, during a general audience on August 11th.

The Torah contains hundreds of commandments, or mitzvot, for Jews to follow in their daily lives. The measure of adherence to the wide range of guidelines differs between Orthodox Jews and Reform Jews.

In the audience, the pope, reflecting on what St. Paul said about the Torah in the New Testament, said, “The law (Torah) does not give life.

“He does not offer the fulfillment of the promise because he is not able to fulfill it … Those who seek life need to look at the promise and its fulfillment in Christ.”

Rabbi Arousi sent the letter on behalf of the chief rabbi – the supreme rabbinical authority for Judaism in Israel – to Cardinal Kurt Koch, whose Vatican department includes a commission on religious relations with Jews.

“In his homily, the pope presents the Christian faith as not only replacing the Torah, but states that the Torah no longer gives life, which implies that Jewish religious practice in the current era is obsolete,” Arousi said. on demand.

“This is effectively an integral part of the‘ teaching of contempt ’towards Jews and Judaism that we had believed the Church had completely rejected,” he said.

IMPROVED RELATIONS

Relations between Catholics and Jews were revolutionized in 1965, when the Second Vatican Council rejected the concept of collective Jewish guilt over the death of Jesus and began decades of interreligious dialogue. Francis and his two predecessors visited synagogues.

Two prominent Catholic scholars of religious relations with Jews agreed that the pope’s statements could be seen as a problematic setback and that they needed clarification.

“To say that this fundamental principle of Judaism does not give life is to denigrate the basic religious view of Jews and Judaism. It could have been written before the Council,” said Father John Pawlikowski, former director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program. the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

“I think it’s a problem for Jewish ears, especially because the pope’s statements were addressed to a Catholic audience,” said Professor Philip Cunningham, director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at St. Paul’s University. Joseph of Philadelphia.

“It could be understood as a devaluation of the Jewish observance of the Torah today,” Cunningham said.

Arousi and Pawlikowski said it was possible that a minimal part of the pope’s teaching homily, known as catechesis, was written by aides and that the sentence was not properly revised.

Koch’s office said Wednesday it had received the letter, that it was “seriously considering it and reflecting on a response.”

Francis has had a very good relationship with the Jews. While he was archbishop in Buenos Aires, he wrote a book with one of the city’s rabbis, Abraham Skorka, and has maintained a lasting friendship with him.

In his letter to Cardinal Koch, Arousi asked him to “convey our anguish to Pope Francis” and asked the pope for clarification to “ensure that all derogatory conclusions drawn from this homily are clearly repudiated.”

Report by Philip Pullella; Edited by Andrew Heavens

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