NEWS Jewish Community of Rome Looks at the Jubilee with Attention and Respect

By Rossella Tercatin

The Jewish Community of Rome looks at the “Jubilee of Mercy”, which was inaugurated by Pope Francis last Tuesday, “with attention and respect.” Detailing it was the Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni, in an op-ed published in the Italian daily Il Messaggero.

“This Jubilee is most certainly not a Jewish event. However the Jewish Community looks at it with attention and respect. The call for mercy is deeply tied in with Biblical and Jewish roots,” rav Di Segni wrote. “Undoubtedly for both faiths mercy cannot do without justice. Mercy and justice are two indissoluble aspects of divine reality and human effort. But focusing on mercy in the times we are living, when religion seems to be associated only with blood and destruction seems to be an appropriate message,” he added.

Rav Di Segni started his op-ed piece recalling the Jewish origin of the ritual of the Jubilee, which made its first appearance in Chapter 25 of the Book of Leviticus.

The Jubilee of Mercy will end on November 20, 2016.