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Editorial
The Editors

This year at sundown on April 21 the Jewish world will cease its ordinary affairs to remember and to hope. Families will gather and friends will be welcomed for the evening Passover meal with its matrah, candles, symbolic foods, ritual cups of wine and special songs. Through reflection on the traditional story of the Exodus from Egypt, Jewish minds and hearts - both young and old - will be imprinted anew with the liturgical and symbolic power of the Passover Seder.
Passover, the feast most loved by Jews, is also the Jewish feast most familiar to Christians. During our Easter liturgical celebrations in March we will hear frequent reference to the Passover since we "can understand and define ourselves only in relation with the holy roots of our faith" (Cardinal Carlo M. Martini). However, while some Christians know the meaning of the word Passover and something of its biblical history, few appreciate the full significance of this faith tradition with its rich development in the course of many centuries..
What do Jews and Christians share during these two festive celebrations so central to the faith of each? How do two separate communities, who worship and live independently, honor and respect each other's faith traditions while probing, with integrity, the meaning of Passover as a central symbol of God's redemptive love for each of them?
In this issue of SIDIC Rabbi Pesach Schindler presents, in a deeply personal yet scholarly manner, the effect of the recent and contemporary experience of Eretz Yisrael on Jewish interpretation and appreciation of the Passover Seder. His effective juxtaposition conveys the equal and reciprocal influence of the annual Seder observance on Jewish understanding and appreciation of the Land. Don Giuseppe Ghiberti guides the reader through current efforts of scripture scholars to determine what the Gospels are able to tell us about the relationship between: the Passover meal and Jesus' farewell meal with his friends; the Passover festival and the time of Jesus' death and resurrection.
Rabbi Dow Marmur and Dr. Frank Henderson write about the Passover Seder from the perspective of pastoral practice. Focusing on the important meaning and role of midrash, Rabbi Marmur indicates that "Jews and Christians need to build different bridges in order to link the past to the present." Both Marmur and Henderson emphasize the need for us to acknowledge, understand and respect these "different bridges". The guidelines in Christians and the Passover Seder strongly reinforce this.
In their celebration of Passover and Easter this year - thanks to three decades of dialogue - Jews and Christians will be able to move to new depths in their mutual reflection on redemption and its meaning for their respective faith traditions. This dialogue experience, based on growing trust and friendship, is also enabling us to increasingly contribute to and benefit from the larger arena of interfaith dialogue. This issue of SIDIC, through indepth reviews of two books by S. Mark Heim and David Carpenter, presents to our readers recent developments in theological understanding of salvation and revelation, themes intimately related to redemption. Rising out of the relationship of Christianity to other world religions, these two works will make a significant contribution to our ongoing Christian-Jewish effort to understand and respect our "different bridges".