| On October 4-5, 2000, the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding (CCJU) of Sacred Heart University sponsored a 2-part lecture by Rabbi Mordechai Gafni. He was full of stories as he spoke with faculty members and students at Sacred Heart University. A unique blend of academic, mystic and philosopher, the Israeli rabbi explored a topic he calls “Soul Prints: Paths to Interreligious Spirituality.”
Rabbi Gafni noted that on a recent trip, his young son handed him a small package before his flight. When he returned home to Jerusalem, his son probed hopefully, waiting for a personal evaluation from his father. “In fact, I hadn't even opened the package,” he admitted, noting his son's heartbroken reaction. The box had contained odds and ends the boy had accumulated for his father. “That was my stuff,” he protested. “I gave it to you, but you didn't receive it.”
This interplay of giving and receiving is at the heart of Rabbi Gafni's analysis of Sacred Scripture and its uniquely Biblical approach to life. Genesis opens with a striking series of affirmations: God creates the world and sees everywhere that it is good. “What is definitely NOT good is for the human to be alone. The fundamental question every generation must ask is not simply what is the meaning of life, but what is the meaning of my life? And the Bible has a reliable answer: it is to move from loneliness to love.”
The author of a series of books that are slated for release in the new year, Rabbi Gafni is a phenomenon in Israel, where he has lived for 10 years. The Orthodox rabbi is the dean of an influential think tank and the originator of a provocative weekly television program that explores the depth of Biblical ideas. He is the subject of upcoming specials on National Public Television and the Discovery Channel, and his first book, Soul Prints, will be Simon & Shuster's lead spring title.
His reading of the kabalistic – or mystical – Jewish tradition persuades him that God is best understood in terms of relationship – of giving and receiving. In the Bible, he insists, “the creation of the world is God falling in love with the world and us.”
Rabbi Gafni emphasized the value of what is called imitatio Dei, the “imitation of God.” If believers work to imitate a God who is coldly perfect and needs no one to make Him fully who He is, then they will become like that God. “But if they look to a God who cannot be God without being in relationship, without giving and receiving, then that is what they will become.”
He explains that the answer to the age-old question concerning the meaning of life is found in exchanging our “soul prints,” or those unique definitions of ourselves, with others. “The Bible says that true happiness is not found in sex or power or self-fulfillment; as others have often argued. Rather, it is found in developing healthy relationships with others: it is not good to be alone.” |