From the Archives: "Ashes: A Biblical Sign for Jews and Christians"

Each month, our blog features articles from the archives of Liturgy. Our goal is to share the wisdom from decades past so that we might celebrate the work and insights of these excellent ministers and scholars.

In 1997, Liturgy published an article by Rabbi H. G. Perelmuter entitled “Ashes: A Biblical Sign for Jews and Christians.” In this essay, Rabbi Perelmuter describes the use of ashes in ancient Jewish practice so that Christians and Jews alike can grasp our commonality. Today, as we watch wildfires burn, leaving destroyed communities, leveled forests, uprooted families, and death, we can see in palpable images of devastation the power of ashes when they become a cloak for people mourning what has befallen them. Think of whole peoples putting on sackcloth and ashes. The ashes, a sign rich in meaning,  are used in diverse ways throughout scripture. Ashes carry power as both the dust from which God created human beings and the dust that awaits our bodies in death. The ashes we use on Ash Wednesday, because they are the remnants of the palm branches from the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to face his own death, mark us with an honesty we often would prefer to ignore.

Selected Quotes from

“Ashes: A Biblical Sign for Jews and Christians”

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“How did ashes become a symbol of mourning and of repentance? For Jews, the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians (586 B.C.E) was a disaster deeply etched in the community’s psyche. “How can we sing songs of Zion in a strange land,” they mourned. (Psalm 137).”

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“For perhaps the first century of its history, early Christians saw themselves as messianic Jews and hence naturally incorporated many Jewish customs into their religious structures.” 

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“When Ash Wednesday comes, though it marks the beginning of the season that perhaps most exemplifies the Christian experience of mystery, the ritual gesture of signing each other with ashes also underscores how Christianity is linked to its sibling, Judaism. “

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Rabbi Hayim Goren Perelmuter was, at the time of this essay, the Chautauqua Professor of Jewish Studies at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. He was a lifelong scholar who especially worked at interfaith relations.

If you would like access to this article, please follow this link:

H. G. Perelmuter, “Ashes: A Biblical Sign for Jews and Christians,” Liturgy 15, no. 1 (1998): 1–4, https://doi.org/10.1080/0458063X.1998.10392426.