Moshe Reiss
Do you have a need and an interest in having an observant
Jewish Rabbi teach Judaism?
I have recently completed teaching as the first Jewish Visiting
Professor at the Faculty of Theology at Catholic University of Leuven
(Belgium) in its almost 600 year history.
I am a committed and observant Jew dedicated to ecumenical links
between Jews, Christians and Muslims - all children of the Abrahamic
faith. This requires persons of these faiths to understand the other.
As can be observed from both my teaching experience as well as
publications, in Israel and abroad (see below for my curriculum vitae
and list of publications), I am deeply interested in building bridges
with ecumenically directed learning communities.
I was raised in an observant Jewish home and was educated in Jewish
parochial schools through my second year of college. At that time I
entered the secular world of education completing my education
with the degree granted to me by Oxford University. At that time I was
by already married and had two children. I needed to support them and
became an international businessman and banker for twenty years. Having
accomplished that life task, I decided to return to my earlier love of
theology.
Within the course of those twenty years as a businessman and banker, I
traveled extensively in South America, Africa, Europe, the Mid-East and
the Far East. This was an education as radical as my Oxford
experience.
In 1987 I decided to retire from business shortly after my mother's
death, my father had died seven years earlier, both had retired to
Israel in 1972 - and are buried on the Mt. of Olives. During the years
of my business life and before returning to a spiritual life, I was very
impressed by the statements of John XXIII particularly his asking
forgiveness of Jesus for crucifying him twice the second time being the
persecution of his Jewish co-religionists. Similarly John Paul II words
at the Jewish Synagogue in Rome as well as statements of Vatican II. All
these exercised a profound impact of me. Their declarations, it seemed
to me, amounted to nothing less than an apology for centuries of
Christian Anti-Semitism culminating in the Shoah. Thus the Shoah
exercised a very significant effect on Catholicism (and other Christian
denominations) and in effect radically changed Christian theology.
Inevitably I wondered how Jewish theology had changed as the result of
the Shoah. The most dramatic change in Jewish life was undoubtedly
the establishment of the State of Israel. This event had a dramatic and
practical effect on world wide Jewry a haven was created for a million
Jews from North Africa who were forced to flee from Islamic persecution
and later a million Russians still suffering from Stalinist, Communist
and Orthodox Christian Anti-Semitism were relocated. But what of Jewish
theology had it changed? Zionism - a biblical, post-biblical and exilic
concept had stressed for centuries the dream of a Messianic age and a
return to Jerusalem. It was a form of deferred theology. Suddenly this
deferred theology had actualized. Has the exile ended? Why do Jews
still commemorate the destruction of the Temples, read Lamentations and
pray for Jerusalem while being in Jerusalem and sitting in front of the
Western Wall? To my astonishment, Jewish theology, in my opinion, has
not yet changed.
This suggested to me that God had some other purpose, aside from the
protection of the Jewish people in allowing for the establishment of the
State of Israel. From my perspective, as a spiritual human being and an
observant Jew, I chose to believe that the radical change in Christian
theology together with the establishment of the State of Israel in a
place holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims was an attempt by God to seek
a reconciliation of, at least, the three monotheistic religions.
When I chose to return to a career in the spiritual world, I thus
viewed interfaith reconciliation as a personal challenge. Hence my move
to Israel was based on professional and personal reasons. In Nes Ammim,
a Christian Kibbutz established in Israel, founded thirty five years ago
and supported by the Rhineland Church in Germany and the Dutch Reformed
Church I became their Rabbi, teacher and a commentator on the Bible in
their semi-annual Journal.
Judaism is, to use a Christian term, a religion of 'faith and works'.
In order for one to acquire an understanding of Judaism, it is essential
to understand both Jewish Thought - ‘faith’ and Jewish Practice -
‘works’.
Jewish Thought:
In teaching Jewish Thought I have used texts and discussions based
on the Hebrew Bible and its commentaries, both ancient, medieval and
modern, and Jewish mystical and Hassidic (pietistic) Literature. The
commentaries include the Talmud and Midrashim, a series of ancient and
medieval Jewish commentaries of the Bible. Midrashic literature is a
unique form of Biblical commentary using the most widely based forms of
exegesis as well as legends depicting famous biblical personalities
based on the 'gaps' in the Bible. As part of Jewish thought, I discuss
how, in my opinion, Jesus and the Christian Bible are based on Jewish
thought, how Judaism and Christianity identified themselves and
ultimately separated.
Jewish Practice:
Jews have a calendar that differs from the secular or Gregorian
calendar. The calendar is lunar based (as is Easter) and thus Jewish
holidays which are also season based (harvest time or planting time) can
fall anywhere within a given month. There are five biblical based
holidays, three Talmudic based and several created by the State of
Israel. Each holiday has its own liturgy, based on biblical texts
(particularly the Psalms) and biblical issues (the Exodus), on post
biblical themes (exile) and include hymns and poetry created in both
ancient and exilic Israel and medieval Spain. Jews are not homogeneous,
but have different ethnic backgrounds; the Spanish, North African,
several varieties of European, Ethiopian and Yemeni. Their cultures and
liturgy are different. This is particularly important in understanding
the hybrid culture of Israel, being both European and Arabic.
What is the purpose and meaning of 'kosher' within Jewish observance?
How do people join the community, marry and bury their dead? What is the
role of the Rabbi and how does it differ from a Priest? Are the
sacraments of Christianity comparable to Jewish rituals? How do Jews
observe and celebrate the Sabbath a weekly event the high point of the
week and their numerous holidays some more important to traditional Jews
others interestingly more important to Israelis? And what is the
Theology behind these rituals?
I feel it is the responsibility of a Professor of Judaism to teach
students about the rituals of these holidays and to provide them (if
possible) with the opportunity to actively experience Jewish holidays to
the extent possible.
I will also note and discuss that while Christian thought with many
exceptions comes from Jewish thought, Islam is a religion based more on
'works' than 'faith'. It is therefore in fact closer to Judaism in that
way. Jewish 'halakha' (law) is closely related to 'sharai' or Islamic
law. As examples Jewish kosher meat is acceptable under Islamic law and
vice versa and the 'hajj' pilgrimage to Mecca can be compared to the
Jewish pilgrimage to the ancient Temple.
I can, of course give you recommendations from colleagues and students
at the Catholic University of Leuven.
Shalom,
Rabbi Moshe Reiss
moshereiss@moshereiss.org
RABBI MOSHE REISS, Ph.D.
POB 10214
BET SHEMESH
972 (2) 991-6521
E-mail moshreis@netvision.net.il
EDUCATION
Rabbinical Degree, Chaplaincy of Yale University, New Haven,
Connecticut, U.S.A., 1988
M. Litt. - Oxford University, Oxford, England, 1974*
Bachelor of Arts - Brooklyn College, New York, U.S.A., 1970
Past:
United States: Assistant Rabbi,
Yale University, 1988-1993
Business and Banker, New Haven, Connecticut, 1976-1988
Lecturer at Columbia University 1974-1976
Visiting Professor of Judaism, Catholic University of
Leuven
LECTURER AND WRITER
Israel:
Nes Ammim - A Christian Kibbutz
The Jerusalem Center for Bible Studies and Research
The Tantur Ecumenical Center
Yakar: A Center For Jewish Ecumenism And Creativity
Topics:
Does Jesus Come from the Jewish Tradition
Different Theologies in the New Testament
The Importance of Mystical Safed in the Sixteenth Century
Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature
Jewish Liturgy
Jerusalem in Jewish History
Jewish Thought
Jewish Biblical Exegesis
Judaism and Christianity
The Monotheistic Religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Member of the Israeli Interfaith Association
*A Master of Letters is a degree awarded only at Oxford and Cambridge
Universities, requiring a thesis as an original contribution to
knowledge in addition to other requirements.
PUBLICATIONS:
Elijah The Zealot: A Foil for Moses, Jewish Bible Quarterly,
July-Sept. 2004
The God of Abraham, Rebekah and Jacob, Jewish Bible Quarterly,
April-June 2004
Samuel and Saul: a Negative Symbiosis, Jewish Bible Quarterly,
Jan.-Mar. 2004
Ishmael, Son of Abraham, Jewish Bible Quarterly, October 2002
Josef und die Korrumpierung durch Macht, Nes Ammim International,
Israel, April 2002 (translated into German).
The Prophet and the King , Jewish Bible Quarterly, January 2002
Ishmael (translated into Dutch) and Isaac, Nes Ammim International,
Israel, December 2001
Jacob’s Ladder, Nes Ammim International, Israel, October
2000
Strife in the Davidic Household - Jewish Bible Quarterly,
October 2000
Die Familie Abrahams - Nes Ammim International, Israel, June
2000 (translated into
German)
Archetypes in the Patriarchal Family - Jewish Bible Quarterly,
Jan. 2000
Jewish Fundamentalism, in Ateek, N. and Prior, M., eds. Holy Land,
Hollow Jubilee, Sabeel Liberation Theology Center, Bethlehem, Israel,
1999.
Das Heilige Safed: das Kabalistische Zentrum der Welt – Nes Ammim,
Israel
De Heilige Stad Tsfat En De Kabbala - Nes Ammin, Israel, 1996
(translated into German)
An Imagined Dialogue Franz Kafka meets Rab Nachman - A
Dramatic Reading, Presented at Yale University, 1988 and the Katholic
University of Leuven, November 2001
ARTICLES ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION:
Jerusalem in Jewish Liturgy - Immanuel, Jerusalem.
Naomi and Ruth: Who is David’s Ancestor, Jewish Bible Quarterly
Dinah: Who Terrorized Dinah, Jewish Bible Quarterly
Moses and the Women, Jewish Bible Quarterly
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jewish Bible Quarterly
Abraham and the Moment of his decision, Jewish Bible Quarterly
Job: The Fall and Rise of the Dissenter, Jewish Bible Quarterly
The Akeda of Isaac - Religionen in Israel, Israel Interfaith
Association (Translated into German).
The Covenants of Abraham - Journal Of Ecumenical Studies
BOOK PRESENTED ON MY WEB SITE:
MESSENGERS OF GOD: A THEOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
CHRISTIANITY: A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE
Work in Progress: ISLAM AND THE WEST
PLAYS:
AN IMAGINATIVE ENCOUNTER: FRANZ KAFKA MEETS REB NACHMAN
Work in Progress: AN IMAGINATIVE ENCOUNTER: OEDIPUS (THE MAN OF
TRUTH) MEETS FAUST (THE MAN OF KNOWLEDGE)