The Pope, The Asham and the Chatat

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
March 24, 2000

In the opening chapters of the book of Leviticus we read of two unique sacrifices, the chatat, the sin offering, and the asham, the guilt offering. The chatat was offered when one "missed the mark" in their actions, the core Judaic meaning of sin. The order of the instructions in chapter four of Leviticus is critical. The first one mentioned is the chatat of the Kohen Gadol, the high priest. This is followed by the chatat of the community, then that of the general masses of people. Lastly are the chatat of specific cases; such as for a witness who failed to give testimony and one who omits to fulfill his vow. The asham sacrifice was offered by those who caused a loss to the Sanctuary by appropriating, taking some holy thing which wasn't his to take. It had to be restored with an added fine as a penalty. The asham was offered when there was a trespass of sacred objects or a breach of faith. As much as the details of the sacrificial worship seems distant to us, a form of Israelite practice which we wouldn't recognize, I believe that its ancient text helps us view the events of these days concerning Pope John Paul II and the State of Israel. I am also concerned that the presentation of history is constantly skewered either purposefully or even inadvertently. In either case it does Israel and the Jewish people a great disservice, creating false impressions and detrimental dynamics on every level. I believe that we are living through one of the most critical eras in our people's history. The shadow or current decisions will be cast for a very long time.

I would have wished that the sacrificial cult was in force today so that I could suggest to Pope John Paul II, a most complex and complicated individual, that he offer a chatat in our Temple in Yerushalayim because he has missed the mark on several matters. Leviticus, a book he also accepts, clearly teaches that before making atonement, asking forgiveness, or offering any other sacrifices, one offers it for himself. I will readily agree and acknowledge that this Pope, more so than Pope John XXIII, has made extraordinary outreach to our people and to Israel. Yet before the Kohen Gadol could offer a chatat on behalf of the masses of Israelites, he had to offer it on behalf of his community. The Pope's community is the church.It was the church, which inspired the massive destruction of European Jewry during the Crusades. It was the church, which demonized Judaism and Jews from its earliest history. It was the church, which instigated the Spanish Inquisition. It was the church, which lit the fires of the auto-da-fe and the burning of the Talmud in the streets of Paris. It was the church that demanded our participation in the great disputations, which was always a lose-lose proposition. Pope John Paul II took a tremendous step on behalf of the Catholic Church with his Papal Apology and statement in Yad VaShem. The only other Pope to visit Israel never even mentioned its name. Yet I don't know how he or any of us can apologize for perpetrators of such deeds who are long dead. And in one sense, since they were not done towards me but to our ancestors, I don't know if I have the right or the ability to accept an apology. These pieces don't fit together. Most respectfully I say that the Pope needs to offer a verbal chatat on behalf of the Vatican, on behalf of the Catholic Church. And we, in any of our structures, or maybe the synagogal, non-synagogal and Israel together could accept such a statement on behalf of Knesset Yisrael, the assemblage of Israel, our collective ancestry. Then the two halves match.

But I believed that he missed the mark and a chatat sacrifice is necessary in another way. The chatat is necessary for one who has not fulfilled a vow. The Church, by its own teachings, has sworn to love others. It has proclaimed a rewritten verse of our Torah, as a central tenant not to do unto others what you would not have done to you. Having studied the Holocaust era for nearly forty years I am aware that the Catholic Church also felt threatened by the Nazis. Yet they need to bring a chatat for not fulfilling their vow to love us. If you love someone you don't let harm come to them. You don't let them be taken away in your silence. You don't close your nose to the stench of human beings treated less than like animals and their death and demise. You love by protesting. You love by doing something. You love by standing in front of them and saying "Over my dead body!" That wasn't done by Pope Pius XII or by his cardinals and bishops. They are all dead. The Jews of the Holocaust are dead. The Church was silent. The dead cannot be revived before the Messiah. And the dead cannot undo their deeds. The living can offer a chatat for the vows their predecessors left unfulfilled.

The asham sacrifice was offered for misappropriation. In all due respect I think that Pope John Paul II should offer an asham for he has misappropriated our history, perhaps in his worthy zeal for peace, put it does him and us a great disservice. I have worked very hard to say the following without sounding like an Israeli hawk. It isn't easy. There is no such country as Palestine and there were no Palestinian Arabs. There hasn't been an identifiable country in that land since the Romans defeated us in 135 C.E. in the Bar Kochba rebellion. Ever since then Eretz Yisrael, called Palestine by the Romans after the long disappeared Philistines, has been someone else's province, play ground or conquest. It has been inhabited by small numbers of Jews and Arabs. Only with the renewal of Jewish settlement there in the 1880's was the land able to support larger numbers. As Jews came from Europe and elsewhere, so did Arabs. They came in greater numbers. Our relatives came to America instead. At different junctures these two communities clashed. But in 1947, when UNSCOP - U.N. Special Committee of Inquiry on Palestine recommended the Partition of Eretz Yisrael, it was the Arabs who rejected the compromise, which would have required Arabs and Israelis, Jews and Moslems to live peacefully in proximity and in cooperation. We said yes. They said no, and invaded. They bombed Jerusalem. They bombed the Old City. The Vatican did not say a word when Jerusalem was violated. It didn't say a word when the Jews of Palestine, then Israel were threatened with a second Holocaust in 1948, with a third in 1967, with a forth in 1973. It flies in the face of the true historical record to ignore the overtures made to King Abdullah the first not to fire on Jerusalem. Israel did not conquer the West Bank in 1967. King Hussein was begged by Golda Meir, dressed as a man, surreptitiously in the night, not to bomb Jerusalem. Israel's control of this area was the result of his desire to destroy Israel by cutting it off in the narrow of its neck. The Vatican did not protest when we couldn't set foot inside the Old City and pray at the Kotel, but when we can, calls for internationalization. And when Israel gained control of this area, it brought sanitation, medical facilities, roads, electricity, education the likes of which no Arab country or organization ever did. When Arabs remained in refugee camps it was due to their own leaders forbidding them to leave for better circumstances, so that they could point at Israel and say: "The Jews did this!" For his citing the incorrect and politically distorted historical record, creating detrimental impressions and destructive dynamics, Pope John Paul II should offer an asham sacrifice.

I have couched these remarks in a most respectful manner, mindful of great strides Pope John Paul II has made. But I would hope that in his lifetime, before the end of his Papacy, he would take one more step. The Hebrew word for sacrifice is korban, whose root means, "to come close." A korban is offered when there has been an estrangement between people, or between them and God. The Catholic Church traces its origins in the Jewish people. The Pope is in Israel because Jesus was a Jew, and a good Jew at that. In the long lens of history, which is only a twinkling of existence, the Jewish people and Catholic Church are family. We are family, which has been estranged. If he really means his words, if the Pope truly wishes for peace, then he should love us, his family, embrace us, his lineage, even more than he does Arafat. If he would offer the verbal and spiritual sacrifices of chatat and asham, then together with the Palestinian Arabs, all could offer the sacrifice of shelamim, the offering of peace. I pray that we will live to see that day.

Amen.