A Lovely Tribute

Below is a lovely tribute to a man I never read or knew but now deeply regret his absence in my thinking - Father Richard John Neuhaus.

Like the moment you first understand Shakespeare and regret you hadn't started reading him earlier, I am discovering a new voice at the moment the man behind the voice joins his beloved creator. Another reason to look forward to heaven.

This is from NRO-Corner

RJN & the Jews by David Novak
Along with his many other friends and admirers throughout the world, I mourn the death of my co-worker Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

I first met Richard, briefly, during the mid-1960s, when he was a Lutheran pastor and leader in the anti-Vietnam War movement. I became a foot soldier in that movement when my late, revered teacher, the incomparable theologian Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — Richard’s mentor and fellow leader — enlisted me. From my teacher and his, Richard learned to love Jews, especially those Jews whose faith he saw as intending the same God he himself served. And this God, for him and for us, is not only Creator of heaven and earth, but also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — and, for Richard as the faithful Christian he was all his life, the God of Jesus, too.

This God in common, the deepest teachings of whose Torah we both loved, is what brought us together again — this time with true and ever-deepening friendship, in the mid-1980s, when Richard was organizing his Institute on Religion and Public Life (then called the “Center on Religion and Society”). He enlisted me as a Jewish theologian and ethicist. This renewal of our relationship changed my life forever, and I am convinced that change was for good.

One of the highlights of our friendship was my annual two-day visit to his summer cottage in the Ottawa Valley, where we would engage in the most intense conversations possible between two persons. These talks could only deal with “first things,” and took place over the tasty kosher food I brought from Toronto and the good cigars, good whisky, and good accommodations he supplied.

Alas, those conversations — at least in this world — are over. But I know from time to time, when I am confused in my thinking, I will hear his rich baritone voice saying, “Now David, you don’t really mean that!” and I will gain some clarity. And that, no doubt, will whet my appetite for resuming our conversation in the true future, before the same God whose world-beyond is without end. Richard, I hope you can save a place for me there, God willing (see Malachi 3:16).

Rabbi David Novak is the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.

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