Beyond Rome
Beyond Rome is a podcast that seeks to reconnect Catholics with their Hebraic and Christian roots in the Near East. Hosted by Simone Rizkallah, she and her guests explore a variety of topics related to religion and culture in the West and why the Near East matters for a healthy Church and world. Beyond Rome looks beyond the West to understand what makes the Catholic Church truly universal.
Beyond Rome
A Crash Course on Judaism for Catholics with Lawrence Feingold
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Experience a rich and thoughtful introduction to Judaism through a Catholic lens in this lecture presented by Dr. Lawrence Feingold at the April 22, 2026 Shoulder to Shoulder Conference.
In “A Crash Course on Judaism for Catholics,” Dr. Feingold offers a clear, engaging overview of the Jewish faith—its history, beliefs, practices, and enduring covenant with God—while highlighting its profound connection to Christianity. Designed especially for Catholics seeking deeper understanding, this talk illuminates the shared spiritual heritage between Jews and Christians and encourages informed, respectful dialogue.
Hosted by the Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism in collaboration with Benedictine College, the Shoulder to Shoulder Conference brought together scholars and leaders committed to fostering friendship, combating antisemitism, and strengthening Catholic-Jewish relations.
During our break, um, we've gotten some hellos from across the US and other places, such as Rome. Hello in Rome, Jerusalem, um, and and other places, uh, including some old friends. Um I want to introduce our second keynote speaker who has an inspiring story and and has has lived um a full life. Dr. Lawrence Feingold um will be offering us a crash course on Judaism for Catholics. Uh Dr. Feingold himself was received into the church um late in the 20th century in 1989, along with his wife, who's um we're blessed to have her with us today. Um and his journey and his witness um through his scholarship has been expressed in his um in his position as professor of theology at Kenrick Glenn Seminary in St. Louis. He is the author, he he's sitting down because he's the author of a number of books, which I'm about to uh tell you about. He's the author of a number of books, including Touched by Christ, the Sacramental Economy, the Eucharist, Mystery of Presence, Sacrifice and Communion. Faith comes from what is heard, an introduction to fundamental theology. Um, very importantly for this conference, the mystery of Israel and the church, and also the natural desire to see God, according to St. Thomas Aquinas and his interpreters. I know I'm leaving something out, but we do have a talk to get to. And so please join me in welcoming Dr. Lawrence Feingold.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I was asked to give a crash course on Judaism for Catholics in 45 minutes. All right, that's absurd. All right, totally absurd, and um, and I'm probably not the right person to do this because unfortunately I never practiced um Judaism. My dad was a Jewish atheist, and we would go to family meals, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover, but um prayer was not there and instruction was not there. Um and so I had to find out about it after becoming Catholic, um, like many other Hebrew Catholics. Um so I'm gonna take my um lead for this from another Hebrew Catholic, Saint Paul. Yeah, we heard about him in our first reading this morning, persecuting Christians um door to door. And he has a magnificent statement about the glories of Israel, of Judaism, in Romans 9. Right? So it's the beginning of Romans 9 through 11, in which he wrestles with his grief over the fact that so many of his brethren didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah, right? And he goes on to say, to them, right, his the Jewish people, to them belong the sonship, right, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, the Messiah. So that's his glories of Judaism. So I want to unpack that, and I think that gives us a crash course on Judaism. All right, so the key um the key elements are election, the election of Abraham and his descendants will start there, and the covenant he establishes. And again, that's precisely what um Um Nostre Tate declared has never been abrogated. Right? So that so we'll look at that covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants through all generations, and then the gift of sonship, right? Paul puts that first. To them belonged the sonship, um, an intimate relationship with God, in which we pray to God as our Father, Avinu Malkinu, our Father and King. And then the glory. And by glory, I think he means the glory of the indwelling divine presence in the midst of the Jewish people. So we'll expand on that. God with us, and then um the revelation of his plan, right? So the promises rooted in creation extending to um through redemption and and um the the ultimate kingdom of God. The worship, right? So the gift of worshiping God according to his own plan and um mystery, right? The promises of messianic redemption and eschatological future and resurrection. All right, so that's kind of the um, and then all leading up to Christ, the Messiah, um born born as a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, um, Judah, David, right, um born in Israel. And that's the final end is the first in what's first in intention is last in realization, right? And so the um what Paul lists last of their race according to the flesh is the Christ, right? And so the whole plan culminates there. So let's start with the beginning. Um, and that's Genesis 12. God calls Abram out of his father's house. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless, all right. So we shouldn't miss this theme of blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse. And by you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. All right, so blessing is the theme, and it's twofold fundamentally. I will make of you a great nation, right, and that's Israel. But in your seed, all nations will be blessed, and that is um the Jesus, right? The Messiah in whom um all nations are blessed. And so Abraham becomes the bearer of this twofold blessing in perfect continuity. And so um another great theme is Abraham. So we see above all God's initiative, but then we see Abram's response, right? And that's the response of faith. And so Abraham is the great model of faith. Um, and to make his faith shine, he chooses Abraham who is and his wife who is barren, and he's too old, and makes him wait 25 years for the realization of the promise, right? And all of that so that the merit of his faith grows. And then after the promise is realized in Isaac, not in Ishmael, um, he asks for the sacrifice, right, of the son of the promise and of the blessing, right? And so that Abraham's faith with shines in his believing the promise, shines more at the sacrifice, right? And we see foreshadowed another miraculous birth, another faith, Mary, that likewise shines in those two moments at the annunciation, believing something harder than Abraham and Sarah, right? A virginal conception, and a conception not of the forefather in of he in whom all nations will be blessed, but of he in whom all nations will be blessed, in her womb. But then her faith shines at Calvary, right? Like Abraham's at Mount Moriah. So faith, and that faith then marks the whole life of the people Israel. Abraham's faith. But even more astounding is God's faith to Abraham, right? His fidelity to his promise and his love that overreaches to all generations. So God treats Abraham as friend. And when you love somebody, when you're friends with somebody, you ought not to, um, you ought to love their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren and their great-great-great-grandchildren down through the generations, right? And God um does that, and that's the meaning of his covenant with Israel, right? He makes a covenant with Abraham, and that includes, of course, Abraham through the line of the promise, Isaac, and and not Esau, but Jacob. The whole question of the blessing, anyway, I have to skip that, but the the blessing is a great theme of Genesis, inheriting that blessing, which is God's plan and therefore not to be humanly grasped, but um for a thousand generations, God says, meaning forever. Right? Not abrogated. So God is faithful and he loves Abraham and his people and thus makes a covenant with them. All right, and so how should we understand? So this is the key, if you have to pick one notion with regard to crash course for Judaism, I think it would be covenant. Right? God makes a covenant with Israel, and the way to understand covenant, I think, is not, you know, pacts between nations or political uh covenants of that kind. It's marriage. Marriage is the primordial covenant from creation, right? God made man male and female, and we see the whole drama of Genesis 2, the beauty of Adam being made first, and in original solitude, it discovering Eve and the two being made one. So that's the primordial covenant. So when God makes a covenant with Israel, that's the way to understand it. It's a marriage covenant, which is crazy, between God, the creator of the universe, and Abraham and his family for all generations. Right? That's crazy. That's self-emptying, right? That's um kenosis, is the Greek, fancy Greek word. Um, God for his love enters into relationship and enters into relationship in a human way because he's, I mean, obviously he's God, but he's he's entering into relationship with human beings, and therefore he lowers himself. But the problem is so it's hard to find a word to describe this. Literally etymologically, the word would be condescension, to descend to be with. And so I like to speak of divine condescension, but the problem is in English, condescension sounds negative, right? Because it's somebody who lowers themselves but wants you to know that they're um lowering themselves and they belong higher. And so the effect is actually humiliating rather than raising up. And God does the opposite, right? He lowers himself to put himself on our level, all right? And he lowers himself as bridegroom to put himself on the level of his bride, and therefore he has to, he has to take on the qualities of his bride. You can see where this ends up, and um give to his bride his qualities. Right? That's what marriage involves. Um, and so he encounters Abraham and walks with Abraham and his family. And so the whole of the Old Testament um tells us about this um courtship and wooing of God and his bride Israel. Right? So we see it all through. We see it beautifully in the prophet Hosea chapter 2. It's a promise. I will espouse you forever. I will espouse you in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. And it's an espousal that has begun, right, with the calling of Abraham, took its a key place in Egypt, in the Exodus and in the wandering of the desert, continues all through the history of Israel, but culminates in the last step, right? And that is God Himself taking on flesh. But um, yeah, so this love story, and we see it in Ezekiel, we see it in Isaiah 54, we see it in Isaiah 62, um, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. The song of songs, Israel understands, as precisely the song of that love story between God and Israel. Right, and so God enters into a covenant with Abraham and changes Abraham's name, Abram, to Abraham, to be the father, right, of um of many nations. Um and his people, his son, God enters into covenant with all his sons and daughters through Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve tribes, and sets them apart, right? Again, as a bride, set apart from any other, right? That's what marriage does. Your bride is set apart from any other woman for the bridegroom, right? And so God does that with Israel, um, and he um gives a promise, right? And the promise involves a place, the place, the land of Israel, right? And that's crucial. That too is part of marriage, right? A marriage, a family settles down and makes roots in a land. Um, and that land gets associated with their love story.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02And so God does that with Israel, right? And he brings them, so it allowed the people to leave and live in Egypt for four centuries, and then bringing them back with his mighty outstretched arm, right, so that they appreciate that land all the more. Um, and he forms this covenant, um, renewing, so the initial covenant in Genesis 17, um, Abraham's name changed, um, and the sign of circumcision, again, a sign of belonging to God and being his. And then four centuries later, at the foot of Mount Sinai, that covenant restored and enlarged with the gift of the Torah. Um, and yeah, beautiful Exodus 19, verses 4 to 6, God says, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Right? And so the covenant involves the people as a whole and invests the people with a kingly and a priestly and a prophetic mission, which is sharing in God's own kingship. Yeah, and it involves a mutuality. So God is the giver, right? He's the bridegroom. But Israel is given something to give back, and that's crucial to the covenant, and that's the role of the Torah, right? Israel has a way of corresponding to God's gift. And I'll talk more about that in a minute. Why Israel of all the right of all the nations? That's a question that's always praised. And this, of course, gives rise to anti-Semitism throughout all the ages, right? Why Israel picked out for this? I mean, that's like asking you why, all right, my wife's here. Marsha, why Marsha among all the other women? And of course, the answer is love, right? That's the only possible answer to that question. And that's what God gives in Deuteronomy. So this is Deuteronomy 7. It was not because you were more in number or than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you. You were the fewest of all the people. In other words, it wasn't because Israel was gifted with metaphysical, I don't know, insight or like Greece or artistic creation, you know, like Renaissance Italy, or any, or military might, or anything like that. Um, it was because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand. In other words, it's because he loves you. And why does he love you? Because he loved Abraham and your Abraham's great, great, great, great, great, great, great-grandchildren. Um, it's magnificent. It's so human. But it's God. In other words, it's superhuman, obviously. It's the model for human love. It's gratuitous as love is. All right, and so the blessing then is both spousal and filial. Israel becomes the bride, and Israel also becomes the son, right? Because Israel is the fruit of this marriage. And so we see this beautiful, what Paul puts first is the first glory, the sonship. And that means that Israel can address God not simply as creator or master or um, yeah, and but with a special title, Avinu, which means our Father. Right? And so that is um, it goes way back, right? Yes, Jesus gave us a prayer, our father, but that wasn't new, right? The maybe the structure of it, yes, doesn't exist exactly that way in Judaism. But seeing God as Father, yes, goes way back. We see it in Exodus. That's how God asks Moses to ask Pharaoh to set his people free. Right? He says, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. Let my son go. Right? What a beautiful way of speaking of the people Israel.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02And that wasn't simply because one was a human being, right? That's its own dignity, made in the image of God, but it was one of election, being brought into a covenant by which one becomes an adopted son or daughter, right? And thus through the covenant. And so we should think that this gift of divine filiation, which we receive as Christians, precisely by entering the covenant through baptism, Israel received through entering the covenant by circumcision if you're a boy, or right, there's no circumcision for girls, but there's a name day on the eighth day, right? You get your name in Israel and become a member of the people who is son and daughter to God, right? And what a glory. And again, so many implications of this which we don't have time to explore, but it's a way of addressing God not simply as creator, but as father, and therefore one can even argue with him. One can um push back and enter into a proper relationship with God, who loves us first, but puts himself right, lowers himself so that we can enter into relationship with him. All right, the divine presence. Let's look at the glory. So if God has adopted Israel as his son, but God and bride, even more so, um, it doesn't make sense that he would leave his son and his bride at an infinite distance. And so God fittingly has to, it's fitting that God come down and dwell in the midst of his people. Right? And so this is a great glory, an immense glory of Israel, that God dwelt in their midst. So, and we can see it on Mount Sinai, God makes this covenant with his people, and what does he promise? He tells Moses to make the Ark of the Covenant so that he can dwell in their midst, in place, which is crazy, right? Because God transcends all places by creating all places. So we say that God is omnipresent because anything that is, is in his hands as his creation, right? And so it seems utterly crazy that he would dwell in place, but human beings are in place because we've got bodies. And so God mysteriously dwells in the midst of Israel and gives them a means of carrying him around with them, right? So not only does he give the instructions for making this ark, ark of the covenant, but he has handles put on it, right, so that it can be carried from place to place. And then he marks the place with a pillar of cloud and fire by night so that it's clear that God is dwelling with his people. It's marked out, but it's intimate at the same time, right? And it's the place of encounter, the place where you go to speak with the Lord. And Moses goes and his face comes out shining from that encounter face to face with the Lord. And then, right, so there's a long story about the ark being brought, so it's brought into the um the land of promise, the holy land, um, as Joshua crosses, and it's the means of entry, right? The the priests carry the ark through the river Jordan, right, and the water parts as the Red Sea had, right, to show the momentousness of God taking possession of his land, right? And then it dwells with the um as the center of worship. And I'll come back to that. And there's a whole plot, it's captured by the Philistines and it causes plague to their gods, right? And they um abandon it, and um, David brings it to Jerusalem, right, in a magnificent procession with dance and song as God comes to dwell in the center of his people in Jerusalem, right? And David then, I live in this. You know, cedar palace and the Lord still dwelling in a tent, right? Because that, yeah, God, that was part of the provision that Moses make a tent of meeting. A nomadic people, God dwells in their midst in a tent, movable, but now the people is stable in the land, and so it's fitting that God be given a stable dwelling in the land, right? And and Nathan says, sure, the Lord is with you, but dreams, right? And the Lord tells him, No, not David, but Solomon his son, and gives the great prophets, the messianic prophecy about David's offspring, who will build the true temple. Right, we think it's Solomon, but it's partly Solomon and partly Jesus, right? Ultimately Jesus, I shouldn't say that, partly Solomon, um, and ultimately Jesus who builds the temple in his own flesh and has a throne through on which he rules forever, Christ the King, right? As we heard in our first time. Um yeah, and so the temple is the glory. And Solomon constructs the temple and he marvels. Um he says, How can yeah, how uh will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02So that's the paradox. But what does God do? He puts down a glory cloud to show that he's done this divine condescension. He has lowered himself to dwell in the midst of Israel, and the glory shows it, and it both shows and hides, right? The cloud of glory and prefigures the spirit. So fire came from heaven, consumed the burnt offering, the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple, and the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. So this Jews call it the Shekinah, which comes from the Hebrew word shachan, to dwell, right? So God dwelling in our midst, the indwelling. And of course, again, all pointing to the ultimate indwelling, God coming to take on flesh that's in a place, right? Nothing more Jewish, obviously, than the incarnation, right? God coming to do the ultimate dwelling in the midst of his people, not in a box, but in a human, Jewish body. And so the whole land of Israel was sanctified by God's indwelling presence, right? And we forget this. I think when we look out, you know, at the Middle East and and uh politics, um, it's that's the ultimate reason for the glory of the land of Israel. God dwelt there in a unique way. Um, and um that tragically got destroyed twice, right? The first temple, Solomon's Temple, destroyed, the exile, and then the second temple destroyed. But Jews still pray wherever they are in the world, oriented to the wailing wall, the western wall, which was the place on earth just below the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt, right? And so that's why still today that's the focus of Jewish prayer.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Another consequence, well, there's tons more one can say about that, but I'm gonna run out of time. Um, another consequence of God's covenant is self-revelation. So if God is the bridegroom and Israel his bride, husbands and wives make themselves known to one another. And so the Lord has to, so here it's a little asymmetrical. The Lord reveals himself to Israel and reveals Israel to herself, just as Christ reveals the Father and reveals man to himself. And so the Lord reveals himself as the creator, as the one creator of heaven and earth, right? That's the greatest glory of Israel, right? To have that revelation of the oneness of God. And we take it for granted, right? Obviously, as Christians, we take it for granted. But if you put yourself back in the time of Moses or Abraham or even Jesus, right, Israel was a tiny island in a sea of polytheism. And the tragedy of polytheism is that there's no one to whom one owes everything, and therefore to whom one can give one's whole heart, mind, and soul.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02And so it's so beautiful that those that the Lord reveals himself in the Shema Yisrael. Listen, hero Israel, right? The Lord your God is one Lord, and therefore, I love that, therefore, you shall love him with all your heart, mind, and soul.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02In other words, the oneness of God roots the obligation to give him everything. Everything comes from the one and goes back to him. And in them through this, God also reveals his qualities, right? We call them attributes, that he is king, right? And so there's a beautiful um summary of this given of Jewish faith in God, given by Moses Maimonides, so a great rabbi in the 12th century, um, scholastic period. And so he's a Jewish scholastic. Um and he gave um codified the Jewish faith into 13 principles, right? So it's the 13 principles of Jewish faith, and it goes like this: God is the creator, God is one, God is spirit, right? So omnipresent spirit, um, the first and the last. God alone may be worshipped. All the words of the prophets are true. He reveals himself to Israel, right, in truth. And as he is true, his word is true in revelation. Moses is the father of all the prophets, right? The greatest prophet of Israel. The Torah is from heaven, the Torah will not be abrogated. The Creator knows all thoughts and deeds of men. The creator rewards the good in the world to come and punishes the wicked. The Messiah will surely come, that's number 12, and we must wait for him, no matter how long he delays. And 13, the dead will rise at the time set by God. Right? So it's kind of summary of who God is and his plan for Israel. But of course, it's much more than that because God reveals himself also in deeds, in all the deeds of salvation history, as we've already said, and above all, calling, the election of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, his interactions with them all through history, and up until um culminating in the Messiah. Okay. Yeah, so I mentioned the Shema Yisrael, Hero Israel, the Lord your God is one. And I think it's really beautiful that Jews recite this twice a day and put it on their doorposts, right? So it's put in a little parchment together with um another text from Deuteronomy 11, um, and which also commands the love of God, right, and fidelity to him, and touch that when they enter the house, right, as a reminder of that twofold, right? That God is one, and therefore we're to love him with our heart, mind, and soul. And then he gives to Israel, so that's revealing him to Israel, and he reveals Israel to herself through the Torah, right? And so the Torah is a roadmap, it's the roadmap to heaven, and literally it means instruction, Torah. And I think this is a good examination of conscience. And law would be the one way to translate, obviously, not a totally adequate way, because all right, who would pick, who many, who of us here would, if we were to ask, what's our favorite word in the English language? Would anyone pick the moral law? I'm afraid, no one. Yes, we would pick love rightly. Okay, but um, but if we were to ask Jews, what's the most beautiful word in Hebrew, I think many would say Torah. It's not a fair question because God is love, God is right, he is um the one who gives the law out of love, but um but we've lost that love for the law, right? And we see it as an obligation imposed rather than a gift, right? So this is gigantic. Understanding the law of God as a gift of intimacy with him and a gift of a way of giving back as covenant partner, right? It's giving you a so yeah, I arrive at Benedictine and it's pretty helpful, or even just to get here, right? I need a map. How am I gonna get to my destination? And that's what Torah is. It's the map of how to live in accordance with the will of the bridegroom. Right. Now, Torah is a big thing because, and so I think it can be helpful to break it down a little bit. And maybe Jews don't like this way of breaking it down, but this is from Thomas Aquinas. He distinguishes three aspects of the Torah, and that is there are moral commandments, and that's the heart of it, right? And that starts with the double commandment, right, to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and then Leviticus 19, our neighbor as ourself. Right? So that's the double commandment. And again, even before Jesus, Jews summarize the law in that way. And we see this in the Gospels that in the synoptics give us that dialogue in two different ways. In one, it's Jesus who answers that way with the double commandment, and another, it's the scribe who answers in that way, right? To show that this is again a harmony. Um the double commandment as summarizing the law, right? And then the ten commandments given solemnly to Israel and Mount Sin Mount Sinai, Mount, yeah, um, that is breaking down the double commandment, right? And so there are two tablets, the tablets with regard to God, loving God above all um above all things, and then the um the second tablet spelling out what does it mean to love one's neighbor as oneself. So it's giving the law, the Ten Commandments, in a perfect order, um, in a way worthy of God. And then we can see, though, in the Ten Commandments itself, there's something that goes beyond natural law, and that's giving a particular day. And that too is necessary for a people to have not just a merely abstract law, but to make it particular for a people, right? So if um, yes, it's written on the heart that we're to worship God with setting aside a certain time. But what time? Well, God has to reveal that more particularly for a people so that we can live it together as a community, right? And God does that with Israel, with the Sabbath, and he connects the Sabbath with creation and redemption and as a foretaste of heaven, right? And so the Sabbath puts together the creational past, redemption past, messianic future, and eschatological future of the world to come that the Messiah mediates, right? And so the Sabbath is the way of living, that spousal relationship with God in the here and now. And again, that's what's so beautiful about Judaism is that God spells it out in the here and now of concrete human life, proper for a bride who's on earth and in time.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_02In other words, God gives to his bride a way of sanctifying time and space, time through the Sabbath and space through the temple. And sometimes, you know, and then in addition, so in addition to that, the Sabbath, there are all kinds of particular details about how to worship God, and then even how to live daily life. So how to eat, right? And so that's keeping kosher. And again, we might look down on that, and but it's a way of sanctifying everyday life. It's a way of sanctifying every meal, to do it in accordance with God's Torah and to remember him in that. Another beautiful practice that sanctifies daily life, and the same thing goes for family life too, that and the Torah also gives means of sanctifying um the life of spouses and of families. And then there's a practice of blessing God on the occasions of daily life. You meet a wise person um and you bless God for making wise people. You meet, and that's true of um theologian and also secular wisdom. You um beauties of nature, right? I don't know, um you bless God. Um friendship, birthdays, and tragedies as well. You bless God who's giving, and even just something so simple waking up in the morning, blessing him for this day, blessing for making me a Jew, right? That again, that's controversial, but that makes sense, right? That's incarnational. God, I mean, we bless God for having made us particular and not universal people, um, which don't exist. Um, and then um we even bless him going to the bathroom, right? He's given us this plumbing um and um enjoys and tragedies. We bless God. I asked, I'm sorry, I need more time for this. Um, he gives them a way of praying, right? And so he gives them a worship. And what's beautiful is this worship involves presence, sacrifice, and communion, which are again spousal realities, right? So spouses dwell together. So he said God dwells in the temple, and so worship centered, as long as the temple stood, in the temple, and priesthood was exercised there. So sacrifice, again, that belongs to a spousal relationship, is sacrifice of our sin and our selfishness, right? And so Israel given a mean to purify herself through sacrifice and give back a worship. Um, and a worship through offering what sustains human life, right? And so the animal sacrifice and above all the blood, which symbolizes the life that comes from God and we give it back to him. Um and then communion with God. So of that, let's say, offering the an animal, a lamb, representing, so the sacrifice represents the heart, the blood represents the life, and um it's offered to God, and then one receives it in communion. And all of this happens in the place where God indwells in Jerusalem. Now, all of this tragically changed with the destruction of the temple. So with the destruction of the, because sacrifice and communion had to be in the place where the Lord indwelt. And when the temple was destroyed, um, Israel lost its sacrificial, its exterior sacrifice. And so what was left is the sacrifice of the heart and the liturgy of the word, which takes place wherever Israel is, right, in the synagogues. And what I want to, it makes sense too, that God would give a promise, right? And so that last piece was promises, promises of eschatological future, the world to come. If God loves Israel as his bride, he's going to take Israel out of her present distress and misery and clothe her with glory, right? That's the resurrection. And Israel receives this progressively, right? And it's so beautiful. At the beginning, Sheol, the place of the dead, is this shadowy place, but the prophets gradually reveal it. Um Ezekiel speaking of the bones, right? That the Spirit has the power to raise these bones and clothe them. And it's a sign both of temporal hope, um, but above all eschatological hope. And then Daniel, um, many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame. Right? And again, that's um what we celebrate in um Christ the King and Rosh Hashanah, that the Lord is judge over the world, but merciful judge who will restore his bride to glory. Yeah, so I'm gonna end with a prayer here. Um in the Talmud, um My God, the soul you placed in me is pure. You it was who created it. You formed it, you blew it into me, you guard it within me, you will take it from me, and you will return it to me in time to be. All right, so that's the glory of Israel. And of course, the final glory, which I won't enlarge upon since I've run out of time, but belongs to another talk, is the Messiah. Right? Of their race, that's how St. Paul ends it, of their race according to the flesh is the Christ who is God over all, to be blessed forever. Amen. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Dr. Feingold. Now, if I just offered you a crash course, there there would be a quiz, but thankfully Professor Feingold is not Professor Crane. And in that spirit of Thanksgiving, um please share any questions or comments you have with our presenter.
SPEAKER_03Um so first, thank you for coming out here to talk. I um really enjoyed it. I noticed in your overview of Judaism you didn't mention original sin at all, which is very common, like Catholic understandings of the um Old Testament. Is there a Jewish way to understand original sin? Um is that in Judaism at all? Oh, sure. Absolutely. Yeah, they speak of, I mean, it's just everyday experience.
SPEAKER_02Judaism is very incarnational and concrete. And of course, everyday experience shows us that we have a a disorder, we have disordered inclinations. And so the Jewish tradition speaks of Yetzer Harat, the evil impulse that we have as a result of um the tragedy of Adam's sin. Obviously, they don't call it original sin, and they think of the Christian dogma as foreign, but in reality, I think we share the fundamental um, and that's it what God is restoring. In other words, he's restoring his work precisely by calling Abraham and all the progressive blessings that he gives to Israel leading up to the Messiah and the new covenant, right? All of that is restoring. So, yes.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I don't know if this is too controversial of a question. First of all, fantastic talk. I bless God for your wisdom. But uh you said it is fitting for God to dwell with his people, and this starts with the ark, and you connected this to the Holy Land. What does this mean with the coming of the Messiah? What is the status? Okay. Oh, fantastic question.
SPEAKER_02All right, this takes more time than we've got, but um, but I'll try and do it as synthetically as possible. So obviously, from the Catholic perspective, Christ is the Ark. I mean, Mary was the Ark carrying Christ in her womb, right? So she's the Ark in the sense of carrying the indwelling presence of the Holy One. And so they're incomparable, but the one doesn't negate the other. That's the key. So there's a saying there's a fundamentalistic principle that I use all the time. Um grace builds on nature and doesn't destroy it. And here it's grace building on grace. So the grace of the new covenant doesn't destroy the grace of the old covenant, but brings it to fulfillment without destroying it. And this is why we can um, yeah, and so it's a Eucharistic fulfillment. So the fulfillment, and this is why um for Christians, the fact that the temple got destroyed doesn't mean that God is not dwelling, and the temple got destroyed, and Jesus ascended into heaven on the 40th day, but doesn't mean that we're left orphans. In other words, he left, and again, there's a beautiful logic of typology and fulfillment in this, and that um the Eucharist is the summation of all of this. So the um the Ark of the Covenant is the great type of the Eucharistic presence of our Lord. Um and the there's a difference. Because Israel was one people, there could be one place, and thus one ark located in one place. But when Jesus um is becomes the bridegroom in which all the nations are blessed and gives a missionary mandate, it's fitting that there be a place here for the bride to encounter the bridegroom. And that's what he accomplished with his Eucharistic presence, right? So Jesus instituted the Eucharist so that he could dwell as in a place, as he did in the temple, but more perfectly because in a body, a living body, Jesus, and who's present here in a way, fitting for our exile, in which we live by faith like Abraham, and therefore not yet seeing, but believing what we don't yet see. So under Eucharistic, under sacramental veils, he's present here and in every place where the bride is. So there's a difference in the new covenant and the old covenant, right? In the old covenant, all um worship centering in one place at the center of Israel's life, and now present in every place where the bride is in the tabernacle. Again, it says it can be an examination of conscience. Do I give the worship to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament the way Jews do to the Wailing Wall, which is just the wall where he did dwell 19 centuries ago? Um, but that doesn't, the fact that I can encounter him here in in an immeasurably greater way than in the whaling wall, doesn't take away that glory. Because that's the glory of love. And that's we see this in our in our histories, right? The fact that and that's why and spouses love to tell their um how did you meet, right? How did you what's the course of your courtship and your relationship? And that doesn't lose any of its value, it gains its value the more you love the bridegroom. So we ought to be the ones who most love the land.