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Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today
with Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Season II
Now Available on a 3-DVD Set
A first-ever 15-part series conceived by a rabbi for Bridges TV-American Muslim TV Network, the show brings together religious leaders of the three major Abrahamic faiths to grapple with the divisive issues splitting our traditions and country. Fast paced and tied to today's news, it gives viewers a deeper understanding of how people of faith see the world, and each other, with live interviews from the American public.
Price: $25.00 (3 DVD Set)
To order, click here.
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| Brad Blog Sept 11, 2007 |
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| Tuesday, 11 September 2007 | |
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Spending the High Holidays with a Saint and a Cardinal
Why this Rosh Hashanah I will teach about Cardinal Lustiger and Mother Teresa alongside the traditional holiday liturgy. By Rabbi Brad Hirschfield
It may sound odd to some that I will be celebrating the Jewish High Holidays with two Catholic heroes, even more so given that both are deceased, but each has inspired me and guided my spiritual growth and that is why I will have their teachings open alongside the traditional holiday liturgy which I will recite in my synagogue. And nothing could be more in the spirit of the holidays.
The Jewish New Year is actually a celebration of the birth of all humanity. To be sure, it marks the first day of the first month in the Jewish calendar, but that was not always the case. It took roughly 1,500 years for the Jewish people to decide that our particular religious identity could never be truly great unless it was situated fully within the larger human experience. Thus, the holiday was moved from the time marked by the Jews’ exodus out of Egypt (the month of Nissan), to literally the head of the year (the first of Tishrei). We honor the sacredness of all humanity with our uniquely Jewish celebration of it. This central lesson had perhaps no better teacher than Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger. He was born as Aaron before WWII to two Polish Jewish immigrants in Paris. Saved from the Nazis by a Catholic family in Orleans, who did what I can only hope I would do, they endangered both themselves and their own family to save this innocent little boy. Later, Aaron converted to Catholicism, its truth and beauty having been demonstrated to him by that brave couple. But because he always knew that spiritual truth was as infinitely large as the God who created it--that he could be right, without assuming that those with differing views had to be wrong, Cardinal Lustiger declared until his dying day that while he was a proud and faithful Catholic, he also remained a Jew. He understood that his spiritual story as a Catholic did not require denying the enduring reality of its initial Jewish chapters. At a moment when more people are killing each other in the name of religion than any time since the Crusades, that seems like a pretty important message with which to begin the new year. Cardinal Lustiger’s commitment to all that was Catholic left room for his Jewishness in much the way I struggle to assure that my commitment to all that is Jewish honors the holiness, goodness, and truth of that which is not. The former Bishop of Paris lived the lesson of the High Holidays, and that is why I hope to have him with me as I celebrate the birth of humanity and prepare myself for a new year committed to its well being. Similarly, I hope to have the spirit of Mother Teresa with me as I sit in the synagogue on the upcoming holidays. The recent revelation of her questioning whether God was always there, was “always God,” are also part of a sacred tradition which expresses itself on Rosh Hashanah. And far from being a barrier to belief or even worse, the expression of its opposite, such questions and doubts are fundamental to the enduring relationship known as faith. It is in the asking of such questions and in the willingness to confront the full range of responses to them that we strengthen all of our relationships, including and perhaps especially our relationship with God. Mother Teresa’s questions stand in direct line with those asked by the Biblical Abraham whose story we read over the course of these holiest days in the Jewish calendar. It was Abraham, known to the faithful as the first monotheist, who is the Scripture’s first atheist! It is Abraham who is ready to declare in Genesis 18, that God would “not be God” if prepared to destroy the righteous residents of Sodom along with those who sinned. It is Abraham who shows us that to challenge God, to be prepared even to deny God, is the height of a relationship which evokes the best from each of the partners. Mother Teresa is a shining example of faith without fanaticism, of belief that admits ambiguity, of living in light of powerful spiritual answers without denying the questions that are a part of any life lived with integrity and intelligence. This holiday season, I pray that Mother Teresa’s spirit of sacred doubt, and her holy questions about the pain that exists in the world, will be with me. I pray that having stood in the clinics which bear her name across Ethiopia, I will be filled with the strength to turn my questions into the fuel I need to continue in her footsteps, as well as those of Cardinal Lustiger’s. I pray to make the world a better place for all people, because it is the mandate of my particular tradition to do so.
This important piece ran in
the Catholic News Service (wire service), Catholic Spirit in Minn./St.
Paul, Jewish Week (NY), the National Catholic Reporter as well as on
Beliefnet.com.
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Read more Brad at Beliefnet.com
| May- July 2008 |
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CNN Radio “The Paula Gordon Show” 6/21/08
PBS TV: The Jewish People: A Story of Survival, an original one-hour film explores these themes of resilience, fortitude and achievement of the Jewish people, moving chronologically over four millennia. Featuring Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, it is hosted by Martha Teichner, Senior Correspondent for “CBS News/Sunday Morning.”
5/7/08 WLIW NYC
6/1/08 WETA DC
6/2/08 WHYY, Philadelphia
6/4/08 KOCE, LA
6/5/08 WTTW, CHI
WORT-FM (Madison) “A Public Affair” 5/8/08
KPBS (San Diego) “These Days” 5/22/08 |
| April, 2008 |
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WRPI-FM (Albany) “In the Spirit” 4/24/08
Open Court Tru-TV (formerly Court TV) 4/16/08
The Morning Show, Wisconsin Public Radio 4/15/08
Religion News Service 4/15/08
Brad ranks #37 in Newsweek's 50 most influential Rabbis in America 4/11/08
The Jewish News (New Orleans), 4/11/08
The Journal News (Gannet Westchester) 4/5/08
The Norman Transcript (Oklahoma) 4/4/08
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| April - July 2008 |
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The Detroit Jewish News Online 6/13/08
Voice of America 6/11/08
“In the Spirit” WRPI- FM (Albany) 6/5/08
The Mitch Albom Show WJR-AM, Detroit 6/2/08
KOOP-FM (Austin) Soul Talk 4/17/08
The Drive with Steve Fast on WJBC (Central Illinois) April 14
Maria Sanchez Show on KVTA (Ventura, CA) April 14
Irwin ranks #7 in Newsweek's 50 most influential Rabbis in America 4/11/08
The Jeff Farias Show, on Nova M Radio Network (Phoenix) April 10
The Pope’s visit with the Jewish community, and the sacredness of paying our taxes on the Louie B. Free Show Tuesday, April 8 at 2:05 pm EST, WASN, WRBP, and WGFT (all in the Cleveland/Pittsburgh area)
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| Arizona Daily Star 3/7/08 |
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Brad & Irwin in the Arizona Daily Star 3/7/08 |