In the first days after the October 7 massacre, Rabbi Oury Cherki sent an extraordinary letter to hundreds of Muslim clerics across the Arab world. Titled “What Judaism Thinks About Islam,” the Jerusalem rabbi asked: Is a theological correction in Islam possible—one that allows mutual recognition not only between people, but between religions themselves?
The message did not fall on deaf ears. A few months later, Rabbi Cherki was invited to lead a delegation of national-religious rabbis to Abu Dhabi for talks with religious and political leaders of the United Arab Emirates. The result was rare conversations on previously taboo topics, including the binding of Isaac, the validity of the Torah, and the Jewish people’s right to its land.
“I heard answers from them that I never expected to hear from Muslim clerics,” Cherki recounts. “Answers that recognize the Zionist movement as morally legitimate.”
Ishmael and Isaac – The root of a modern conflict
The conflict, according to Rabbi Cherki, is not political but theological in nature. “The biblical narrative is the foundation for...
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