Faithful Friends: Inter-Religious Dialogues on Faith, Tradition, and Community

🎙️ Episode Summary Deacon Anthony and Rabbi Chaim begin a multi-part conversation on death, the afterlife, and what happens beyond mourning. Building on earlier discussions about grief practices, they shift focus to the fate of the soul, comparing Jewish and Catholic perspectives. From early biblical ideas like Sheol to later developments such as Gan Eden, Heaven, and the “world to come,” the epis...

Episode Notes 🎙️ Episode Summary Deacon Anthony and Rabbi Chaim begin the new year by exploring how Catholics and Jews structure their days around prayer. Comparing the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours with the Jewish cycle of daily services, they discuss shared roots in the Psalms, Temple worship, and early Jewish-Christian practice. The conversation highlights how fixed times of prayer sanctify ord...

Episode Notes 🎙️ Episode Summary Anthony (a newly ordained Catholic deacon) and Rabbi Chaim explore ordination, religious leadership, and ritual roles in Catholicism and Judaism. They discuss what it means to be called, how leaders are formed, and how roles like deacons and rabbis function in community life. With candid stories and thoughtful comparisons, they unpack differences in sacramental the...

In this seasonal episode, Deacon Anthony Cullen and Rabbi Chaim Edelstein explore Christmas and Hanukkah through open, respectful dialogue. As these holy days often overlap, they raise important questions about history, meaning, and belief. This conversation offers clear explanations of why Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25 , the origins and significance of Hanukkah , and how each trad...

🎙️ Episode Summary Deacon Anthony Cullen and Rabbi Chaim Edelstein sit down for a thoughtful, reverent conversation about death, dying, and mourning in their respective faiths. They reflect with dignity on how Catholics and Jews navigate grief, burial rituals, and the care for both the dead and the living. This episode honors the sacredness of loss while highlighting shared values of community, re...

🎙️ Episode Summary Anthony (a Catholic deacon-in-training) and Rabbi Chaim dive into the theme of atonement —how Catholics and Jews approach repentance, forgiveness, and coming back into right relationship with God and community. They swap stories, compare practices like confession and Yom Kippur , and laugh about the quirks of tradition, while also reflecting deeply on what real change looks like...

📌 Episode Summary: In this episode, Rabbi Edelstein and Anthony dive deep into the delicate—and sometimes uncomfortable—topic of correcting others within the framework of Jewish and Catholic moral teaching . Is it ever our place to call someone out? When do religious traditions encourage us to step in, and when are we called to step back? Drawing from Scripture, Rabbinic wisdom, and Church teachi...

In this episode, Anthony Cullen and Rabbi Edelstein discuss the practice of fasting in each of their traditions, inspired by texts from the Bible, the Rule of St. Benedict, and Tanya Iggeret haTeshuva (The Tanya Letter on Repentance). Fasting, it turns out, can be about a lot more than just not eating for a while... Texts quoted in this episode: Matthew 6:16-18: When you fast, do not look gloomy l...

In their inaugural episode, Rabbi Edelstein and Anthony Cullen explore the deep biblical, spiritual, and liturgical connections between Shavuot and Pentecost—two feasts separated by tradition but united in spirit. Listeners will journey from Mount Sinai to the Upper Room, examining how revelation, covenant, and the gift of the Spirit form a common thread across Jewish and Christian faith. Welcome...