I know my headline sounds like an old Borscht Belt routine. My post today is anything but. It’s simply a brief expression of gratitude to a great spiritual teacher for a new policy that not only speeds and eases the annulment process for Catholics, but reminds me of a core teaching in my own tradition about the meaning of mercy – one that’s central to the High Holiday season in which we find ourselves.
Pope Francis declared that this “Year of Mercy” would be marked by many efforts to live the teaching of “the meek and merciful Jesus.” And today’s announcement – which lowers the cost, eases the path and shortens the time it takes to determine the annulment of a marriage is certainly part of that effort for many Catholics.
Mercy is a fundamental part of repentance and repair.
This focus on mercy comes at a time when more Jews will spend more time in synagogue than at any other time of year. As they do, they’ll encounter the term “mercy” over and over. It’s a fundamental part of the repentance and repair that stand at the center of all those words, both read and sung. Indeed, mercy is fundamental throughout the year, and throughout life.
Interestingly, the Hebrew word for mercy – rahamim – is rooted in the word for womb. To experience mercy, and to grant mercy, is to return to where it all began and get a fresh start – to be reborn. Who doesn’t need that in their life at one time or another? Wouldn’t we all be better off if we allowed ourselves to grant a bit of such mercy to a few more people in the year ahead? (Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.)
Either way, it seems to me that such a path to a fresh start is precisely what the Pope intends for more people who genuinely seek it. And while I leave it to Vatican watchers to explain what all this might mean for Catholics in practice, I’m a grateful Jew who simply wants to thank Pope Francis for reminding me about the power of mercy, at just the right time in my own ritual calendar.
?Image credit: Giulio Napolitano/Shutterstock.com
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”