Rabbi Howard Morrison

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was born on January 11, 1907. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929. We remember both of their births and their legacies in January every year. This past Monday was Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. A Jewish theologian and a Christian pastor were colleagues and friends. During the civil rights movement of the 1960's, they marched together. Both of them invoked citations from this week's Parsha in a modern spirit. God's promise of liberation from slavery to freedom and the oft-repeated statement by Moses, "Let my people go," helped to define their common cause many decades ago.

Interfaith dialogue between Jews and Christians became popular in the 1960's and beyond. It was Heschel who developed strong ties with the Catholic Church so that the Church revised its doctrine, called Vatican II, which validated Judaism in the eyes of Christianity. Jews would no longer be seen as killers of Christ or the suffering servant. No longer was replacement theology a concept in which the Church replaced the Holy Temple and in which Christianity superseded Judaism.

In my U.S. congregations, interfaith clergy dialogue was important in the three communities I served. Here in Toronto, multifaith dialogue was also considered imperative locally in our riding and in the efforts of the Toronto Board of Rabbis in its Jewish-Christian dialogue task force.

Sadly, since the horrors of October 7, 2023, interfaith, or, multifaith dialogue has regressed locally and in many places around the world. It needs to be reclaimed. During November, at our shul's Kristallnacht remembrance program, I met one of our guest speakers, Pastor David Larmour, from the King Street Community Church in Oshawa. Since then, we have become friends. Together, we invite you to a two-part clergy conversation entitled, "Celebrating Passover post October 7 - Jewish and Christian perspectives." The first will take place at Beth Emeth as our theme during Shabbat Across North America, Friday evening, March 7. The second will take place at King Street Community Church, Sunday March 23, during a worship service beginning at 10:30AM.

Sharing a conversation about Passover will be reminiscent of Heschel and King who took the Passover narrative (including this week's Torah portion) to address the essential issues of their day. No less now, the Passover narrative and the lessons found in the book of Exodus speak to the essential issues of our day as well.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison