Late last month, Pope Francis received a local gift from New York that served as a goodwill gesture to promote greater understanding among people of different faiths.
Pave the Way Foundation — a Wantagh, L.I.-based organization whose mission is to “end the malevolent use of religion” — organized a trip to Rome to present the pope with a copy of a Jewish sacred text for use in the Vatican Library.
The document was a replica of the English translation of the “Tikkunei Zohar,” an ancient sacred text of the Jewish Kabbalah, a mystical movement that interprets the Bible. The Tikkunei Zohar is a collection of 70 commentaries written in Aramaic on the opening of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible.
“It was a special opportunity to be able to present the texts in the presence of the Holy See, and it opens the doors of religious and cultural exchange,” said Gary L. Krupp, co-founder of Pave the Way.