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I Ate His Ri ce
by CANTOR BARUCH COHON
A middle-aged monk with a
gentle face and eloquent hands
sat behind a plain table speak
ing from notes, to a group seated
facing him in the ranch house
livingroom.
“He prepareth a table befoire
me in the presence of mine en
emies,’’ he read, and then he look
ed up at his audience, his modem
eyeglasses contrasting with medi
aeval drape of his cassock. “In
my mind, this verse always brings
me back to the poor people of
Szechwan, in the rice country of
China, who live very close to their
ancient culture. To them, a meal
shared has a deep meaning. Hos
pitality is sacred, so much so that
it is a proverbial remark among
them to say: ‘I cannot harm that
man ... I cannot think evil of
him . . . because I ate his rice’.’’
The speaker was a Benedictine,
Father Alberic, belonging to a
Catholic order that goes back to
St. Benedict who died in Italy in
the year 548. His audience in
cluded about a dozen more Bene
dictine monks, another dozen Bro
thers of a visiting order called
Irish Christian Brothers whose
work is teaching, and a third dozen
men whose presence in that ranch
house was somewhat historic.
The third dozen included a rep-
lesentative of the American Jew
ish Committee, ten rabbis, and
myself. We were invited to Saint
Andrew's Priory in the Mojave
desert to take part in a 24-hour
Interfaith Dialogue which began
with a simple approach to the
Book of Psalms as a common
meeting ground of two great re
ligions, and expanded into frank
discussion of age-old prejudices,
into a joint prayer-service where
psalms were rendered alternately
m Latin chants, Hebrew chants,
and English poetry, and into a
gieat many personal acquaintance
ships and potential friendships
formed.
That it took place at all was
evidence of what the Prior of St.
Andrew’s called “a change 'if mind
and heart" in the Church that
now-famous word. Ecumenicism.
That our conference was a success
was the work of the principals in
volved, and reflected their person
alities:
-Neil Sandberg of the Amer
ican Jewish Committee, a quiet,
cultured, competent man who or
ganized the conference, selected
the Jewish participants, and led a
key discussion. The entire Dia
logue came about as a result of an
exhibit he had arranged at Valy-
ermo at the Benedictines’ request
in September, 1965, where for the
first time a display of Jewish cer
emonial objects was included in a
Catholic art festival.
—Dr. David Aaronson, senior
member of our group, a rabbi of
deep scholarship and warm per
sonality, a man of conviction and
conviviality. When he explained
that the Hebrew word for “heart"
also signified what we call a
“mind" in English, the sub-prior
Father Yang replied that the Chi
nese word for “heart” has the
same dual meaning. To which
Rabbi Aaronson replied, “I have
a feeling that God had something
to do with the Chinese people
too."
—Two dynamic younger schol
ars:
Dr. David Lieber, President of
the University of Judaism, a
forceful speaker with a fund of
information on the tip of his
tongue, and
Dean Alfred Gottschalk of the
Hebrew Union College, a thought
ful, vigorous, analytical speaker.
—The other seven rabbis, rep
resenting a cross-section of Orth
odoxy, Conservatism, and Reform.
My own function in the dialogue,
as a cantor, was to explain and
demonstrate Jewish traditional lit
urgy with emphasis on the Syn
agogue use of the psalms.
Father Thaddeus Yang, a man
of great warmth, intelligence
and humor, sounded the dominant
theme of the dialogue in his open
ing welcome to his guests: Mutual
respect. He quoted Pope John
XXIII who greeted a group of
Jewish visitors with the words, “I
am only your brother Joseph."
— The Prior of St. Andrew’s
Priory at Valyermo, the Very Rev.
Philip Verhaegen, a deeply believ
ing man, with a bright cordial
smile, a grey crew-cut. and a
charming Belgian accent. "We
have been a long time without a
dialogue," he said, adding it was a
privilege to share the joy of
friendship with the "sons of Abra
ham, because we, too, are sons of
Abraham.”
— Father Eleutherius Winnance,
Greek by birth and universal in
thinking, with a strong face and
a keen mind. He slashed through
a mountain of soft and meaningless
verbiage when he said, “We read
the same book, but not with the
same eyes . . . because reading a
book is an active process, and each
man recreates the words of a book
by filtering them through his
mind.”
The accompanying eloquent description of
an unusual interfaith dialogue held
recently at St. Andrew's Priory,
in California, by Cantor Baruch
Cohon of Valley Beth Israel,
Sun Valley, has been cleared for
publication in Anglo-Jewish
newspapers.
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The Southern Israelite