{"id":3111,"date":"2020-09-15T14:51:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T18:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/?p=3111"},"modified":"2022-11-11T17:30:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T22:30:53","slug":"rabbi-asher-finkel-1934-2020-rest-in-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/rabbi-asher-finkel-1934-2020-rest-in-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Asher Finkel (1934-2020): Rest in Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rabbi Dr. Asher Finkel<\/b>
Professor Emeritus
Jewish-Christian Studies
Graduate Program
Seton Hall University<\/p><\/div>\n

You are righteous, O Lord<\/em>
\nAnd all your deeds are just;<\/em>
\nAll your ways are mercy and truth;<\/em>
\nYou are the Judge of the world.<\/em>
\n(Book of Tobit 3:2)<\/p>\n

As the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies and the Master\u2019s Program in Jewish-Christian Studies commemorates 45 years of academic work, it is with great sadness that I share the news that Rabbi Asher Finkel departed from this world on August 17, 2020. He was surrounded by his beloved wife, Jane, and his children and grandchildren as he gave his life into the merciful hands of his Lord.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are righteous, Lord, and your judgment is right. True and righteous Judge, blessed are you, all whose judgments are righteous and true.\u201d (Philip Birnbaum, Daily Prayer Book,<\/em> p. 738).<\/p>\n

When we studied the Book of Tobit, probably from the third century B.C.E., Rabbi Finkel pointed to the above quoted prayer of Tobit as an example of the continuity in the tradition of Judaism. Over the decades of his teaching as well as in his publications, he often drew attention to the resonances of the Biblical heritage that are shared in teachings of the Rabbis and the Christian Scriptures. His knowledge of both Jewish and Christian classics was unparalleled!<\/p>\n

Over several generations the Finkel family has brought the profound moral message of Lithuanian Jewish education to Israel and the Diaspora. Rabbi Finkel\u2019s uncle had brought the entire Mir Yeshiva to safety in Shanghai in 1940, thanks to the heroic deeds of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese Counsel in Kaunas, Lithuania. This is background to the message in Mishpacha<\/em><\/a> at the occasion of Rabbi Finkel\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

This story of Rabbi Finkel\u2019s deep love of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) reminds me of a quotation in one of Father Thomas Stransky\u2019s essays:<\/p>\n

Youth, what man\u2019s age is like doth show,<\/em>
\nWe may our ends by our beginnings know.<\/em>
\n(Sir John Denham (1615-1669), “On Prudence”).<\/p>\n

May Rabbi Asher Finkel be bound up in the bundle of life, in the care of the Lord, his God! (1 Samuel 25:29).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You are righteous, O Lord And all your deeds are just; All your ways are mercy and truth; You are the Judge of the world. (Book of Tobit 3:2) As the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies and the Master\u2019s Program in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3828,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions\/3828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}