A. Definitions and concepts

Dialogue in general, and especially inter-religious dialogue, , is the way forward to an increasingly complete, but never fully complete, grasp of reality, of the ultimate meaning of life and how to live accordingly. Thus, inter-religious dialogue must be -- and in fact is becoming -- the new religious heart at the core of the emerging pluralistic Global Civilization.

If dialogue among the religions, and ideologies, is the heart of the emerging Global Civilization, providing it with the vision, motivation and direction every civilization needs to prosper, then this core spirit of dialogue is fundamentally democratic, egalitarian, person-in-community-and-context oriented. For dialogue can occur only among free, reflective persons. If there is no freedom of mind and the liberty to express it, there will be no dialogue. Furthermore, dialogue can take place only among equals.

It should be clearly emphasized that religious liberty is not an act of charity or a tolerant concession towards misled persons. It is a fundamental right of everyone. To claim it for myself implies ipso facto that I am disposed to claim it for my neighbor too.

Dialogue, as the term is used today to characterize encounters between persons and groups with different religions or ideologies in order to find common grounds, is something relatively new under the sun. When different religions or ideologies met in the past, the main purpose was to overcome an opponent, because each was completely convinced that it alone knew the secret of human life.

In recent times sincerely convinced persons of different religions and ideologies have slowly come to the conviction that they did not hold such a secret entirely unto themselves, and that in fact they had something very important to learn from each other. As a consequence, they approached their encounters with other religions and ideologies not primarily in the teaching mode but rather in the learning mode--seeking together to find more of the meaning of life. That is dialogue.

B. Basic approaches to the dialogue

One of the profound insights that more and more humans have been gaining in recent decades is that all knowledge, all �truths�, that is to say, all perceptions and all convictions about reality, by definition are limited, because all my �statements about reality� are always answers to my questions, they are always placed in my thought categories and in my language. While all these statements and insights may very well be true, I should always be aware that they are limited by definition. They can never be the whole story, because they come from my own perspective! .

This �de-absolutised� understanding of truth (the word �ab-solute� comes from the latin ab-solvere , meaning to be �loosened from all limitations�) is valid not only in general, but with special intensity in the �truth� about the �ultimate meaning of life, and how to live accordingly�- namely, in religion.

Even if my view of reality is �true�, that is ,even if it describes things the way they really are, I should realize that it cannot be the whole truth. Whereas in the past I would simply have said to those who differed from me in religion that they were clearly mistaken, I now have to ask myself whether they might not also be describing aspects of reality, �,about the ultimate meaning of life and how to live accordingly�, from a perspective different than mine, that allows them to perceive and describe aspects of reality which I do not perceive from my perspective and that consequently I might learn more about reality and the ultimate meaning of life from the religiously other Hence, for the sake of an ever fuller meaning of life I need to be in dialogue with those who differ from me religiously.

I believe there should be little or no surprise at all in the statement that people, engaged in inter-religious dialogue should not develop any expectations in the theological dogmatic dimension. It is highly improbable that one�s belief, which is based on spiritual and emotional convictions, can be changed through a process of dialogue. If we look, for instance , at Islam which is founded on the revelation of G-d to Mohammed (given to the Muslim in the book of the Koran), or the Torah, given to Moses by G-d on Mount Sinai, according to their believers they are words of G-d, complete and intact and surely are not liable to be doubted ,� dialogued� or �negotiated� in one way or another by their believers. In other words, there can be no dialogue about the substance , or shall I say the �what�. The only possible exchange is on the �how� or rather on the �how much�. To give an example: how much is it permitted for a Muslim community to build a mosque in Rome, and on the other hand, how much is it allowed for a priest to wear a cross in Riad or build a church in Teheran. That �how�, or �how much�, could be better defined as religious liberty or freedom of cult. In order for This freedom to exist between the various religions, two fundamental principles are indispensable: mutual respect and the absence of violence (in defending one�s religion or Attacking the other�s) .

If the philosophical, metaphysical truth(s) of every religion remain out of discussion, what then, are the possible meeting grounds for the inter-religious dialogue? It seems there are at least three of them: tradition, culture and politics, and talking about tradition, I would like to draw your attention to the famous book �Sefer Hakuzari� by the renowned 12th century Jewish poet rabbi Yehudah Halevi.

One of the most famous Jewish philosophical works, written by Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi over a period of twenty years and completed in 1140, The �Kuzari� has enthralled generations of Jews and non-Jews alike with its clear-cut presentation on Judaism, and its polemics with Greek philosophy, Christianity, Islam, and Karaitism. Parly a historical novel, The �Kuzari� records a dialogue between Bulan, the eighth-century King of the Khazars (a powerful people occupying the region which is now southeast Russia), and a rabbi. The story is told that a righteous king was plagued by a recurring dream in which an angel told him 'Your intentions are desirable to the Creator, but not your deeds'. This prompted him to summon a Greek philosopher, a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew to his palace to guide him on the proper religious path. He was dissatisfied with each theologian until he heard what the rabbi had to say, and finally conceded that Judaism was the one true and correct religion. History records that Bulan and his entire kingdom then converted to Judaism. Never before in Jewish history had an entire nation of non-Jews embraced Judaism.

The Kuzari describes the theological struggles of King Bulan and the convincing arguments of the rabbi which led to the mass conversion. Using this premise and the dialogue format as his vehicle, Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi succeeds in presenting, in a passionate and convincing fashion, some of the most important fundamentals of Judaism, including the different levels of creation, how God interacts with the physical world, the sanctity of the Sabbath and other holy days.

The dialogue between religions was already very common in medieval days, but the reason I have mentioned �HAKUZARI� was to highlight what I think is an interesting point and a helpful approach for a better understanding between religions: the focal point of Yehuda Halevi in the book, is not based on the spiritual or philosophical concepts of religion, but rather on tradition - namely the actual living and tangible encounters and narratives, the existence of which is undeniable. While philosophy claims to present an absolute truth, rabbi Yehuda Halevi�s approach is supported by tradition, which is a much stronger testimony than any logical deduction. In fact, in order to explain or convince someone about the way the world was created, one can only use logical or rational deduction, but on the exodus of Israel from Egypt, for instance, there is a living testimony that runs through generations in stories told by fathers to sons. The same is true in every religion, where each narrative is a living one, passed from one generation to another by word of mouth. Thus, in order for me to connect with the story of the exodus of the sons of Israel from Egypt, I�d better go to my grandfather rather than to the public library.

Universal moral challenges, which religions have to face as part of humanity, are the cultural common denominator which generates the inter-religious dialogue in our days. These challenges, however, can energize that dialogue in the concrete and practical level of collaboration, but they are not sufficient in order to provide an ideological infrastructure for the formation a common inter-religions theology. The common denominator that generates the inter-religious dialogue is focused on the human being, on humanity and its needs, rather than on metaphysical truths. Underlining the value and the importance of man, in some way shifts the attention from the classic religious issues, and thus renders less importance to the philosophic heritage as the basis for the �encounter� between the religions.

In recent decades we are witnessing a new approach between the various religions, that can be attributed to some new characteristics in that field and which present a major change in respect to the past. For the most part

This change has been happening contemporaneously with the formation of a new universal awareness which tends to see our world as a �global village�. This broad new approach is accompanied by the notion that old borders and differences must give way to unity of mankind, generating from the very sense of partnership or common fate within this global existence.

C. Why is there a need for the inter-religious dialogue

Much as it is hard for us to acknowledge it, the most fundamental rivalries in the common era started with religion. 2000 years ago, the bifurcation of Christianity from Judaism marked the beginning of a new phase in human history. Some six hundred years later another monotheistic religion was born. The centuries that have followed have witnessed hatred, suspicion, prejudice and wars, holy wars!!!. More people have died in the name of G-d than for any other reason!!!!. Think of all the �isms� that were born as a result of religious confrontations: anti Catholicism, anti Judaism, anti Semitism, anti Islamism, etc.

Terror, fear, atrocity and animosity were bred by people in the name of the very same G-d but, I am inviting you to reflect on ( what I think is) the worst enemy that religious bigotry and rivalry have created throughout the years : An abyss of ignorance among them!!!! . the insurmountable walls of alienation and demonizing have led us to the sad reality we are facing today, in which we hardly know anything, in depth, about the other religions. We live in boxes of prejudice and stigma which are direct results of our own communities�� mechanism of defense�, and of the way in which we were brought up, as well as the �dogmas and doctrines� which are deeply rooted in our own religions.

How, than, can we knock down those walls? how can we build bridges over these abysses? The answer is embodied in one single but very challenging word: Education with capital e. We need to engage in an never ending process of teaching, both ourselves as well as the others, while putting an emphasis on the young generation, the decision makers of tomorrow. Yet, in order to reach that answer and fill the enormous gap that has been creating throughout the centuries (and since that goal will not be achieved by itself), another indispensable step is needed: we have to build the awareness and prepare the psychological infrastructure of believers of all faiths who would understand the urgent need to carry out this � marathon of education�. This is where the inter-religious dialogue comes into the picture!!

D The task of launching the �marathon of eduction�

In order to reach out to the largest possible number of people in the world, a vast scale campaign should be planned and launched in as many countries as possible. Than, the next logical step should be the harnessing of governments and political leaders to prepare educational programs for the schools, starting from kindergarten all the way to university and then of course, appropriate the budgets needed in order to implement these programs. Unfortunately, here we would face a big problem: how to convince governments and politicians, whose horizons are usually narrowed down to the next elections, to engage in an unending �marathon� that brings no immediate, tangible political profits to those who live by politics? The answer to that is to take one step back and give the responsibility of this selfless project to the religious leaders of all world religions!!! Because they don�t depend on politics and do not have to be re-elected, they surely would be highly motivated and dedicated to the cause as educators by definition, and they certainly share the far reaching vision of the indispensable necessity of this �marathon�.

If this proposal makes sense and I hope to G-d it does, than in order for it to work and �start rolling�, the next step would be to find the proper and a consensual �driver� to lead and conduct this �machinery�. This could be an interesting challenge for the Muslims, only problem is that while there are many leaders in the Muslim world, none amongst them is considered to be the highest representing authority. For various reasons the Jews can not be the leaders of this project and so we come to the largest world religion today, Catholicism, and to the most consensual leader and world moral authority: the Pope.

It is my firm belief that the chief mission of the inter-religious dialogue today is therefore, to invest all the resources and efforts it takes in order to promote and execute the �marathon� of formation and education for a better future for mankind.

Contemporaneously, I would like to underline what I consider to be another very important avenue for the inter-religious dialogue and I am referring to pilgrimage . If a dialogue is defined as a process in which people exchange ideas through mutual learning about each other, than pilgrimage is one of its highest expressions. Pilgrims of all faiths who travel to other countries, are actually carriers and messengers of the inter faith dialogue and their encounter and exchange will the local populations contributes, undoubtedly, to the promotion of better understanding and better knowledge between nations, cultures and religions.

E. The contribution of the inter-religious dialogue to world peace

We have seen in our days how religions fundamentalism and ignorant fanaticism can be a major root cause to perpetrating hatred and violence, as well as to the inseminating of terror and fear, using the false pretext of � defending G-d�. G-d does not need our protection!! it is rather us, his creations, made in his image, who need to be protected from those who wish to kill �in his name�.

There should be no reason to doubt that the same religions which bred evil, animosity and wars, could be the unifying factor that through an open, sincere and serious dialogue among them, would build bridges of reconciliation and enhance understanding and cooperation among believers of all faiths, along the road to peace.

It is my sincere wish that one day, not too far, a true inter-religious dialogue will take place in the schools, in kinder gardens and in the universities, throughout the various communities and countries the whole world over. When that day comes, inter-religious gatherings just like this one today and many others will no longer be needed�

We know this day will not arrive unless we, all of us together, children of the same G-d make it happen.