Editor's Note: We asked the Rev. Dick Lawrence, pastor of St. Vincent DePaul Roman Catholic Church, to reflect on his participation in the ICJS's annual Beit Midrash for our news-letter. Below are Fr. Lawrence's remarks.

The Beit Midrash is an institution well known in the Jewish community but relatively unknown to non-Jews, even to non-Jewish clergy. In Baltimore this is changing, as the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies continues to bring together rabbis, ministers, priests, and religious educators for shared, intensive study of the sacred text.

On January 20, 1995, the Institute sponsored it sixth Beit Midrash led by Noam Zion of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Grace United Methodist Church and Dr. Emora T. Brannan, Senior Pastor, graciously hosted fifty participants who spent the day studying the Cain and Abel story in Genesis 4:1-16. Together we explored the many ways in which Chris-tians and Jews have read and interpreted this story, which, in the words of Walter Brueggemann, "...would have Cain dis-cover that life with the brother is not lived in a void, but in relation to God, and that whoever violates the brother must face the riddle of God." We examined how our two traditions have struggled with this theological puzzle and how each has shed light on our understandings of communal rivalries, con-flict, and violence.

By the end of the day, we had not only learned more about the passage; we had learned a lot more about each other's approach to the study of the text. Christian participants seemed to ask mostly theological questions, while Jewish participants took more interest in asking questions about the text itself. One of the Christian participants speculated that this difference might be due, at least in part, to the fact that most Christians, even clergy, study biblical texts most often in translation, whereas their Jewish colleagues are immersed in the original language of the text itself. For instance, most of the Christians present seemed surprised when Noam pointed out that in Hebrew, the name "Abel" is the same word for "vapor" that is often translated "vanity" in English translations of Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes). "It's like on a cold morning, when you can see your breath: that's a hebel: a reality so trans-parent and so short lived that it almost isn't a reality at all," Noam explained. The same word, he added, is sometimes used to describe idols, which appear to be real but aren't (e.g., Dt. 32:21). More to the point, the same word is used by Job (7:16) to describe his days, and by the psalmist to describe every member of the human race (144:4) because our existence is so fleeting. Thus Abel, whose existence is so short-lived, is a type of us all. As one participant observed, "One little insight like that makes a day of study worthwhile."

Those of us who, over the years, have studied with Noam Zion know he possesses rare gifts. He has a talent for engaging people in learning that carries profound ramifications for what we do in our congregations and classrooms, and his creative pedagogy truly reflects the work and spirit of the Institute. There was general consensus that Noam's scholarship and enthusiasm, as well as the opportunity to learn from and about each other, made participants of all faiths eager to study together with him again soon.