I am enormously lucky to be part of a small group of Muslims, Christians and Jews who meet at least once a month to share conversation and friendship. Each meeting has an interesting theme as a starting point, and each faith tradition brings one side of A4 with related texts from its tradition. The sessions are not ‘academic’ or bookish; they’re warm, human encounters where we want to get to know and understand each other better. And as we’ve got to know each other better, our friendship and conversations have deepened; we take more risks, offer our vulnerability, share our lack of knowledge and understanding—sometimes of our own traditions as well as each other’s; we listen respectfully, laugh together, honour each other, and pray together. In this post, I’m going to share the Jewish handouts I have created for our group (scroll down near the end if you’re in a hurry!), but first of all, I’ll give some context.
Our meetings were initially inspired by the Scriptural Reasoning movement. Scriptural Reasoning (SR) began amongst Jewish scholars in USA in the 20th century; in the 1990s, Christians joined the movement, and not long after if became an activity shared between the three Abrahamic faiths, and it now sometimes extends to other faiths as well. (Learn more about contemporary practice at www.scripturalreasoning.org, a site developed by the Rose Castle Foundation and University of Cambridge Inter-faith Programme (CIP).)
The classic model for an SR meeting is for each faith tradition to offer one text, no more than 10 verses, from their sacred book (i.e. Torah, Christian Bible, or Q’ran). The texts often echoed each other in their similarities, although, of course, there might also be some difference of perspective. Each text is then discussed in turn. However, our group has taken a quite different approach. Each faith tradition offers a page of several passages, reflecting a range of perspectives from within our tradition. Originally, there were no Jews in the group. The very first time I created a handout for the group, I explained that I didn’t feel that quoting just verses from the Torah (the five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) would not work well from my experience of Judaism. And the reason is that Jewish thought and values arise from context, commentary and endless discussion. I didn’t think that quoting from just Torah would help others in the group get any real sense of what Judaism is about.
Jewish life and thought are profoundly linked to text: first of all the Torah; then extending to the continuing story of Jewish people in the books of the Prophets, followed by the Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, extended fables, and more Jewish history). It is the Torah, Prophets and Writings that make up our Bible (Tanakh). But it doesn’t stop there. Rabbis in the early centuries had many conversations that were recorded in the Mishnah (200 CE), which were then commented on in the Gemara (500 CE), which make up the Talmud. And then there is a revered commentary by the 11th century Rashi, further commentaries by the 12th century Maimonides, the 13th century Zohar, the 16th century Joseph Karo and kabbalist Isaac Luria, the 18th century democratic and mystical flowering of Hasidism, and modern divergences of Judaism and renewals of earlier movements. Judaism is an ever-renewing conversation across time and space.
The handout is in English (so Hebrew texts are translated), and consists almost entirely of quotations. Explanations are kept to a bare minimum, and most likely confined to an occasional footnote (for example, to explain a Jewish term or Hebrew word). There is a reference for each quotation, so readers can check fuller sources later if they want to. Each handout has come kind of structure. Sometimes I put a verse or two from Torah or Tanakh, and then create subpoints for them from Talmud, and various commentaries down the ages; sometimes there is a series of sub-headings, starting with a general or particularly central principle; there might be a logical unfolding of ideas; the choice of final text is often important, as it is the closing thought offered to the reader.
Given the diversity of Jewish thought and practice, I aim to offer a balanced spread of texts from across Jewish history, denominations and cultures; contradictory views are welcome; no view is presented as more or less valid than another. There is, after all, an age-old Jewish practice of honouring and recording all views in a Jewish dialogue that is conducted l’shem hashamayim—for the sake of heaven. There are verses from the Bible and prayerbooks, texts from the Talmud and later commentaries, descriptions of ritual, kabbalistic and mystical texts, stories from folklore, and quotations from modern Jewish books. Some of our older texts and teachings reflect views that many (not all) modern Jews would disagree with, and might find embarrassing. I put some of these in to show that some modern problems arise from our own history, that some Jews wrestle with our tradition and history, and we Jews have still much to learn in how to get on with each other even within our own people. By honestly including some of our ‘difficult’ texts and communal differences, I hope to encourage others to share what they find challenging in their own traditions and communities.
My practice is to limit the handout to one side of A4, and not to use too small a font. It’s a good discipline; I can’t hope for the information to be exhaustive, after all. The handout is there first, to provide a window into Jewish life and values, second, to give conversation starters (trusting that more will emerge through discussion), and third, to leave participants with an informative and inspiring document, and something people will want to read again in their own time.
So here are the themed handouts that I’ve created since autumn 2023. Please feel free to download them and copy them. I would LOVE to hear from you if you decide to use any of them! (Get in touch.)