A Priest and a Rabbi Walk Into a Story

Rabbi Neal Rose

A podcast released in a previous version in 2011, from our ideaExchange series - Rabbi Neal Rose and Jamie Howison in conversation around how the Jewish and Christian traditions have read and understood the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, as told in Genesis 22:1-14. In the Christian tradition this story is called "The testing of Abraham" or even “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” while in Judaism it is known as Ha-Aqedah or "The Binding of Isaac, and even the differences in title begin to tell the story of how the two traditions engage the text. Because this story was read as our first scripture lesson on Sunday June 28, 2020, we thought it timely to offer it again.

Neal Rose spent close to 50 years living in Winnipeg, where he served as a Rabbi, a university instructor, and a marriage and family therapist. Active in the community and committed to building friendship and community across religious and cultural lines, such that in 2015 he and his wife Carol Rose were awarded the Lieutenant-Governor's Award for the Advancement of Inter-religious Understanding.