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The man of dialogue - The living encounter - Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Israel
Uriel Tal

The living encounter with Israel — Israel the biblical tradition, the people, the land and the state — became for Cornelis Rijk an integral part of his religious personality. He was less interested in abstract theology or in teachings irrelevant to contemporary life, and once in a lecture he gave at one of the first Hope Seminars at Tantur, he defined himself as " . . . a believer, hence necessarily a critical realist". It was reality and factuality, the concrete human being, free intellectual life in a just society, he felt, that should be the touchstone of true religion. Not the divine transcendence but rather an authentic personal immanence in the sense of Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians 3:21-23: " . . for all things, . . . life and death or things present or to come" are Christ's, hence, as Cornelis added, " . .. should be relevant for a true Christian way of life". The actual fate of man, his economic struggles, his political pressures, his aesthetical expressions, his dreams, aspirations, his entire personal life, the very earthliness of creation rather than abstract spirituality, these should be of major concern fora true religious person.

It is at this point, Cornelis often said, that Christianity needs the encounter with Judaism and with Israel. Cornelis saw in Jewish tradition, and especially that of the erroneously called "Spatjudentum", a safeguard against an excess of spiritualization, of "too much piety and institutionalization". The concreteness of the biblical and the post-biblical concern with man, with his weakness and his strength, his natural inclinations and with his actual life, all these should remind the Christian of the necessity of restraining the spiritualization of the biblical tradition lest man should feel released from his commitment to matters of human life, of society, of politics.

Worship in Israel

Once, when visiting Israel at Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks which commemorates both the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai and the offering of the first fruits of the harvest, Cornelis spoke about the difference between Shavout and the Christian feast of Pentecost. The Torah is concerned with everyday life, and the fruits offered on that very feast are actually the fruits of agricultural toil and labor. According to the tradition of Pentecost, the fruit was that of the Spirit and the feast commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of the Spirit of Jesus as the Christ. Hence the readings at Pentecost, such as Acts 2: 1-11 and John 14: 23-31 teach us about the Holy Ghost that filled all men so that they might see "the wonderful works of God". It is precisely this difference, Cornelis concluded, that makes the personal encounter with. the earthly Jerusalem and with the Bikkurim or the ceremonies of the offerings of the first fruits in the Kibbutzim so helpful, so inspiring, so instructive for the Christian.

Another time, after having attended the Shabbat services at a little synagogue in Jerusalem, Cornelis said that the very fact that Psalm 145 had been incorporated into Jewish liturgy so thoroughly that it is recited three times a day, made him aware of the ethical, the humane dimension of Jewish prayers. For the psalm serves as a paradigm for the actual Imitatio Dei, admonishing the Jew that as God does, so should he "uphold all those who fall", care for the needy "in time", "open thy hand", be "righteous" in all one's ways, be "near to all who call". Life would be so much worthier, Cornelis concluded, if only people would follow admonitions like these.

Israel after the Holocaust

From a theological point of view, or as he would have preferred to put it, "speaking simply as a Christian", the State of Israel has both humanitarian and religious dimensions. First and foremost after the Holocaust, as he used to explain to the pilgrim groups led by him from Italy to Israel, there can be no doubt whatsoever as to the legitimacy of a strong, stable, vital Jewish state, a state in which the interrelationship of Jews and Arabs will find a peaceful and just solution. But, he would add, the Holocaust event should not be abused in the Christian-Jewish dialogue. Following the late Cardinal Bea, Cornelis tried to wrestle with the Holocaust event less in a sentimental and more in an analytical way. Accordingly, a Christian has to rethink why, and how traditions such as "his blood be on usand our children" (Matt. 27:25) could have been misinterpreted and transformed into a "teaching of contempt"; why, and how, traditions such as Paul's teachings: "let every soul be subject unto the higher powers . . . the powers that be are ordained of God" (Rom. 13: 1ff.), could have been transformed into a secular ideology and policy of centralism, absolutism and despotism.

But then, the Christian-Jewish dialogue should not be built in the shadow of the past only; it should be built in the light of a possible better future, of a theology of hope as well. Social progress, a meeting of humanism and religion, these are not beyond the powers of human beings. Christianity should be more aware of her Judaic roots, Cornelis emphasized; at the same time it was his conviction in the unshakeable truth of the testament of Christ's love that was at the heart of his faith.