Abstract
One of Judaism's most hallowed claims about the reality of God is what Jews refer to (after its first Hebrew word) as the Sh'ma: "Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One" (Deut 6:4). Deeply committed to the affirmation of God's oneness, many Jews also share the belief of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) that "diversity of religions is the will of God." In this lecture, Rabbi Sabath Beit-Halachmi will explain why she considers this belief not only compatible with but also demanded by the affirmation of God's oneness.
Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi is president's scholar and national director of recruitment and admissions at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati, where she also heads the Office of Community Engagement. Previously she taught on the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College and served as vice president and a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute, also in Jerusalem, and she directed the Hartman programs for lay leadership, rabbinic leadership, and Christian leadership. Ordained in 1995 at HUC-JIR, Rabbi Sabath also earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. The co-author of two books, Striving toward Virtue: A Contemporary Guide to Jewish Ethical Behavior (1996) and Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days (1996), Rabbi Sabath has published numerous articles, writes a monthly column in the Jerusalem Post, and lectures throughout North America on theology, gender, leadership, and Israel. She is currently writing a book on the future of covenant for Jewish peoplehood.
The Rabbi Max A. Shapiro Lecture This lecture is named in honor of Rabbi Max A. Shapiro who was senior rabbi of Temple Israel in Minneapolis from 1963 to 1985 and the director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Learning at the University of St. Thomas from 1985 to 1996. (The Center for Jewish-Christian Learning became the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning in 1996 and then the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning in 2009.) Both Temple Israel and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning have endowed lectureships in honor of Rabbi Shapiro and are jointly sponsoring this lecture by Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi who grew up in Temple Israel’s congregation under the leadership of Rabbi Shapiro.