faith and understand the past in a way that allows for a shared future.” It is also, essentially, a major act of repentance on Joseph’s part: Joseph was an arrogant young man at the time of his brothers’ betrayal. When he is vindicated by seeing them bow before him, he doesn’t say, “ ‘I was right,’ ” she said. “I think the acts of his brothers at this point, PHILIP CUNNINGHAM especially his brother Judah, who pleas for the release of his young brother Benjamin just as he failed to do at the time of Joseph’s betrayal, are also evidence of repentance.” Professors Philip Cunningham and Adam Gregerman are, respectively, director and assistant director of the Institute for CatholicJewish Relations at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Cunningham, a professor of theology, is Catholic, while Gregerman, whose specialty is ancient Jewish and Christian sources, is Jewish. During the 2013-2014 academic year, the two co-taught a class called Jews and Christians: Estranged Relatives or Total Strangers?
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INSIDE FALL 2014
ADAM GREGERMAN
Session nine was titled Sin and Repentance. In a recent joint interview, Cunningham said that “both Judaism and Christianity ask similar questions about how human beings stand in relationship to God. There is a sense that human beings are capable of sins — and that is displeasing to God. There is also a sense that people can be
penitent and change their ways.” To understand the concept of sin in Judaism, Gregerman said, it is essential to keep in mind that Judaism is based on a series of mitzvot, or commandments. Failing to perform the commandments or violating the negative commandments — those that dictate one’s relationship to others, to community and to God — means that one has to repent to be in good standing with both the body politic and with God. “The Jewish idea is to see sin as a misdeed. The sin reflects