Friends on the Way: Jesuits Encounter Contemporary Judaism

The Jewish Theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel as a Challenge for Catholic Theology

The Jewish Theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel as a Challenge for Catholic Theology Stanisław Obirek I belong to the increasing group of Christians for whom Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s life and thought have become a vivid light and an example for religious experience and social engagement. To read his writing is like coming back to the common Jewish and Christian heritage; to read Heschel means to allow his thoughts to penetrate the deepest recesses of your heart. But before speaking about Heschel and his impact on me, I would like to return to one of our previous meetings in Krakow in 1999. Some of you might remember that I was asked to read an essay by Fr. Stanisław Musiał titled ‘‘Black is Black,’’ which is concerned with the problem of anti-Semitism in Poland. Fr. Musiał unexpectedly passed away in March 2004, but his legacy in Poland is still very vivid (and perhaps after his death even more so), particularly among Polish Jews, however, not so much in the Catholic Church. According to his expressed wish—and probably for the first time in the history of Polish Jesuits—at his funeral the Jewish prayer Kadish was said by a Hasid, a descendent of the rabbi of Bobowa, a village not far from the place where Musiał was born. 72 / Stanisław Obirek Why am I reminding you of Musiał and his text? Because JewishChristian relations in Poland are not only a field of academic discussion but also a problem that involves and requires the whole of a man—his soul, his heart, his mind, and even his body. Stanisław Musiał in a way paid the highest price for his commitment to JewishChristian dialogue and mutual understanding. He was rejected by his own institution, including the Society of Jesus, but at the same time he was considered the greatest friend of the Jewish people and also of the State of Israel, as the current ambassador of Israel to Poland, David Peleg, recently said. These words might sound strange, but Fr. Musiał’s involvement in the controversy concerning the presence of the Carmelite convent and the so-called ‘‘papal cross’’ at Auschwitz was perceived in Poland as a lack of obedience and respect toward the Church. However, the truth is that Musiał was asked by the archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, to take up this mission. My own involvement in the field is also an emotional one. It is similar to the journey of Israeli writers coming to Poland. Here is how Shoshana Ronen describes it: A journey to Poland, in Israeli literature, is not a typical one. A person who decides to travel to Poland is not simply a tourist who wants to explore unknown places, climates, habits, works of art, etc. It is not a chance decision, as in the case when, for example, one hesitates whether to spend their time by the beach in Greece or visit museums in Paris. A journey to Poland in Israeli literature is a very loaded one. The narrator is not an ignorant traveler who is going to a place he does not know anything about, or to a place he has not seen before. The narrator who travels to Poland was there before, even if not physically, he was there psychologically. Even if he was born in Israel and has never been to Poland before, he comes to Poland full with knowledge, stories, stereotypes, prejudice , beliefs, pictures, smells, memories, nostalgia, pain and horror. In this respect, even for those who were not born in Poland , the journey to Poland is a return.1 The Theology of Heschel as a Challenge for Catholic Theology / 73 So for myself, becoming acquainted with Jewish theology was a kind of new reading of my own theological studies, but with a completely different perspective. Until then the central figure for me was Jesus Christ—the promised Messiah—as the definitive fulfillment of the promises of the Hebrew Bible. However, in Jewish theology he was almost completely ignored. Therefore my question: Is it possible to reconcile both perspectives? Is it thinkable at all to pray together to the same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? And speaking generally, is this not the situation of a Christian theologian who tries to read Jewish thinkers? James Carroll, describing his meeting with Abraham Joshua Heschel’s thought, uses different concepts from those of...