Vatican City: Pope Francis has moved to separate Jewish worries for the comments he made about their books about the Holy Law, after demand for clarification from Rabbi, the Vatican and the Israeli Jewish community said on Monday.
Last month Reuters reported exclusively that Rabbi Rasson Arousi, Chair of the Israeli Rabbon Head Commission to dialogue with the holy throne, had written a hard letter to the Vatican, said Francis’s comments seemed to suggest that the Torah, or Jewish law, obsolete.
At a general audience on August 11, the Pope said: “Law (Torah) but does not provide life.” “It does not offer a fulfillment of promises because it is unable to fulfill it …
those who seek life need to pay attention to promises and fulfillment in Christ.” Torah, the first five books from the Hebrew Bible, contained hundreds of command for Jews to be followed in their daily lives.
The size of compliance with a variety of different guidelines between Jews and Jewish orthodox reforms.
Arous sent his letter on behalf of Rabbinate, Rabini’s highest authority for Judaism in Israel to Kardinal Kurt Koch, the Vatican Department included the Commission for religious relations with the Jews.
In Arousi’s letter asked Koch to “convey our trouble to Pope Francis” and request clarification from the Pope to “ensure that each collapsed conclusion drawn from Homily is clearly rejected”.
Francis reconciliation then asked Koch to explain that his words in the Torah reflecting the writings of St Paul in the New Testament should not be considered as judgment of Jewish law, the sources said.
Last week Koch sent a letter to Arous which contained offers made by Pope Francis in 2015: “Christian recognition found their union in Christ; Judaism found his union in the Torah.” Jewish sources said they saw the Vatican letter as a sign of reconciliation.
For his part, the Pope seems to go out of his way in two of his last public appearance to try to clean what the Vaticans consider misunderstandings.
At a general audience on September 1, Francis said his words in St.
Paul “only a cathekesis (teaching homily) …
and nothing else”.
In his weekly thanks on Sunday, he offered the best hope for Jews for the new Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, and for the next party of Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
“Hopefully the new year is rich in peaceful fruits, and good for those who walk faithfully in God’s law,” he said.
Jewish and Vatican sources say the inclusion of the word “law” on what routine greetings usually significant and intentional.
The relationship between Catholics and Jews was revolutionized in 1965, when the Second Vatican Board rejected the concept of collective Jews for Jesus’ death and started a few decades of inter-religious dialogue.
Francis and two predecessors visited the synagogue.
Francis has a very good relationship with the Jews.
While still the Archbishop in the original Buenos Aires, he jointly wrote a book with one of the city rabbis, Abraham Skorka, and had maintained a lasting friendship with him.