Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He graduated from McGill University with honors in psychology and from the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1945 with the degree of Master of Hebrew Letters and Rabbinical Ordination "With Distinction."

Rabbi Shuchat was the Rabbi of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal for 47 years, retiring in 1993. He also taught Midrash on a congregational level throughout his career. Rabbi Shuchat's approach to the Midrash, while not political, ideological, nor theological, is to focus on making the text meaningful to the reader. In his view, the purpose of the midrash is to show the Torah's relevance to human nature and therefore to each generation.

Rabbi Shuchat is the author of The Gate of Heaven, published by the McGill Queens University Press. It is the story of the Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, set against the background of Montreal Jewry and general history.

Rabbi Shuchat's other activities include founding the Board of Jewish Ministers of Greater Montreal, which was made up of a cross-section of Rabbis from the different streams of Judaism in Montreal. He was also the creator and program chairman of the Pavillion of Judaism at Expo '67, which attracted three million visitors-the most popular exhibition of its kind. For many years Rabbi Shuchat was the chairman of the Religious Welfare committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress and of its commission on Marriage and the Family.

Rabbi Shuchat's work on The Creation According to Midrash Rabbah is his first publication in the area of Midrash, but he is now hard at work preparing the next work in the series.