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Editorial

This issue of Sidic is a remembering. We have chosen a series of articles on the Bible that were published during the first years. For what is more basic and always relevant in the relations between Christians and Jews than our common reference to the Bible !

«Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path» (Ps 119:105)

The articles, which shed light on the different parts of the TaNaKh, the Hebrew Bible, were written by Jews and Christians, by Europeans and North Americans. Some of them who were dear friends have already completed their course on earth.

The issue begins with general topics, and first of all with an editorial article by Father C.A. Rijk, who was long-time director of the review and of the SIDIC center : «The Bible, Nourishment and Rule of Life», published in the first issue. It has lost nothing of its relevance, and yet, we can measure the distance covered since then. Dom Grammont, a very spiritual man and at the time Abbot of Bec-Hellouin (France), reflects on dialogue «Between God and His People». In biblical history, «a people challenged by God… finds itself in dialogue with God, in a mutual contestation which still endures.»

For the first part of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff looks at the patriarch Abraham in Jewish tradition, while Piet van Boxel reflects on the God who is not only the God «of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob», but also the God of a matriarch : of Rebekah. Michael Wyschogrod examines a topic which is generally difficult for Christians to understand : «The Torah as Law in Judaism». For the second part of the Hebrew Bible, the Neviim, Lawrence Frizzell presents the prophet «Elijah the Peacemaker» in a long and scholarly study. «The Book of Jonah and the Day of Atonement» is honored in Jonathan Magonet’s study. An extract from an article by the deceased Father Roger Le Déaut shows what a reader of the New Testament can receive from the Targum : «Targum and New Testament». Finally, the article by Yves Simoens, SJ, «The Fourth Gospel at the Service of Praise», should be added to the last issue of Sidic, «The Gospel of John – Conflicts and Controversies», Vol. XXXIV, no. 3, 2001/Vol. XXXV, no. 1, 2002 English Version.

In the documentary section, we are publishing messages of peace with reference to the conflict in the Middle East. We have also reprinted some of the talks given at the first European Meeting of Catholics and Jews organized in Paris through the initiative of the European Jewish Congress.

We are also coming back to the homage rendered to Dr. Riegner, whose message, «Never despair!» is so very relevant for us today.

At the end of the issue, we give some news – 2002 at the SIDIC Center in Rome : the activities during the year 2002 ; the transfer of the Jewish-Christian resource library of Sidic-Rome to the Pontifical Gregorian University in the context of the creation of a new Institute for the Study of Religions and Cultures ; the Sidic-Rome Documentation Service, for which our documentalist Ombretta Pisano is responsible, will now be located at that same University. The Center SIDIC Office will remain at via del Plebiscito 112, I-00186 Roma.

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In some of the articles, the text has been slightly changed for this edition of Sidic. The language has been changed so as to be more inclusive, and dates that were originally cited as B.C. or A.D. have been changed to B.C.E. or C.E.