Having gotten a bit of sleep, I'll continue to document the most memorable parts of our incredible Israel experience.

In addition to what I wrote yesterday, it's worth noting two other things I heard from the Imam who spoke - first that his community (the Ahmadiyah) believe that it is their job to live and teach the true Islam, and that waiting for the messiah to come is not what it's all about. He also talked about Haifa being his holy city because the people who live there truly listen and hear one another, especially across the religious spectrum. A powerful reminder that no religion causes hatred - people choose how they live out the teachings of their faith tradition. And that is what leads to hatred or to love.

On Shabbat in Jerusalem, I attended a wonderful, progressive Orthodox morning service with Rabbi Dana Saroken (Beth El, Baltimore) at Shirah Chadashah. Typically I wrestle with the presence of a mechitzah - the separator between the women's section and the men's  - but found this service to be heart-warming and meaningful despite the mechitzah. Women are participants in the experience and while they maintain the mechitzah, there is no sense of diminishment of women's voice. The best part for me was meeting Dr. Esti Eshel, of Bar Ilan University, next to whom I happened to sit down. Dr. Eshel was warm and welcoming, generously sharing some stories of her life with me. A scholar of the Second Temple Period, she suggested that I check out the Herod exhibit at the Israel Museum when we had our final dinner there. I did and saw one of the inscriptions she had worked on. It reminds me what a small town Israel still is.

btw - do you know that the first documented use of the term "Sabra" to mean a native Israeli is found in a memoir published by one of the early settlers of the land, the Chalutzim. In it, he worried that his generation had taught their children to be too strong, too unemotional and tough. But he learned, upon reading his son's letters after his son died, that their generation did feel emotion and deeply. In order to endure the harshness of their reality, though, they guarded it from the world like the prickly-skinned sabra fruit of the cactus.

More to come...

Wednesday May 8

I had such good intentions about blogging my way through Israel. Unfortunately ICJS and BJC did far too good a job filling our heads and hearts each day so that by the time I reached my room, there was not a drop of energy left for writing. But as the ancient Rabbis believed, "ein mukdam v'ein meuchar baTorah" "there is no earlier and there is no later in the Torah" or in other words, who cares  about the chronology - what matters is the meaning.

On that note - some highlights and moments of meaning in roughly the order they happened, but only roughly:

In Haifa we visted Beit HaGefen (house of the vine) where Muslims, Christians, Bahai and Jews find various means of dialoge and sharing their own visions of the world with each other. The director, Asaf Ron (who was the shaliach in West Hartford, CT when I was a rabbi there) believes that fear is the biggest barrier to living in true haromny with one another because fear means people cannot see the person standing in front of them, only the stereotypes they've learned. Through art, conversations, and shared festivals,Beti haGefen is beginning to break down those walls. I was thrilled to hear from an Ahmaddiyah Imam because that is the community of Muslims who have established themselves just across the street from BHC. I deeoply admire their opennes and willingness to share and listen.

Despite high hopes, that's all I can manage tonight - a ten day lack of sleep is crashing down on me and no way to stop it. more highlights tomorrow.

Lhitraot, (See you later)

Thursday

As we got back on the bus after looking out on Mt Hermon and the Syrian/Israeli border, listening to retired commander from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), one of my colleagues quipped, "If I learn anything more today, I'll have to forget something I already knew to make room." And it's only 10am.

Having traveled in Israel somewhat extensively, I am always amazed at how much more this tiny land contains. 

Yesterday's itinerary brought this idea into sharp relief as we visited holy places where none of the rabbis had ever been. It was a remarkable thing to be in Nazareth, the birthplace of Jesus and to visit the Church of the Annunciation where Christian tradition says the angel Gabriel informed Mary that she would be the virgin mother of Jesus. (or as I learned - perhaps he asked for her permission or assent - Jews are not the only ones with varying interpretation of sacred writings!) Who knew that a long discussion would ensue among the Protestants and Catholics in the back of the bus about the significance of the placement of that church? 

After visiting the church we had afternoon coffee and burekas with Amell, an inspiring Arab Christian Israeli  woman who is pushing against Nazareth's status quo of relative poverty and obscurity.  Rather than (as she expressed it) feel angry or disrespected by the Israeli government's unequal financial support for the community where her family has lived for three generations she has started a non-profit organization to promote small business development, to help the community advance from within. When our group sat down to reflect together on our experiences so far, many of us mentioned meeting Amell as well as another young woman named Racheli whom we met earlier in the day. 

Racheli is an Ethiopian Jewish woman who works at an amazing place called Yemin Orde. Yemin Orde is a youth village where teenagers come to live who do not have families who can adequately care for them of any number of reasons. The director of the village, Chaim Peri has an incredible philosophy of caring for children, helping them heal the traumas of their past and enabling them to move forward in life instead of repeating their troubled history. We were deeply moved to hear Chaim say that what motivates all the people work at Yemin Orde is a sense that these children belong to all of us and that they deserve justice - the justice of a future with real possibilities. And then we were even more impressed with the way that Racheli spoke about managing her immigrant identities - as a teen rejecting everything Etiopian, including the clothing and language of her parents and people, but coming later to a deep appreciation of her roots and of the sacrifices her parents made especially her father who left a position of prominence in Ethiopia to be a factory worker in The Promised Land. 

So much more to do and hear and see....

Boker Tov l'kulam (good morning everyone),

Driving through the stunning landscape of Northern Israel, with vibrant green orchards lining the roads, mountains which are owned by Syria on one side and Lebanon on the other, I am inspired not only by the beauty outside but also inside our tour bus.

The men and women with whom I'm sharing this incredible experience, Jews, Christians and Muslims, are interesting, generous, thoughtful and wise. We have openly talked about our differences of faith, language, loyalties and histories. There have been tense moments as we talk about the difficult political realities of Israel and the Palestinians, but these have been navigated with openness and real respect. I don't think we'll solve the conflict, but if people a lot smarter than we are could speak about the issues with same level of respect and attempt to understand each other, perhaps they could find a solution that would work.

It's a Tikvah  - a hope - as in Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah.

Next blog will detail yesterday's visit to Nazareth. L'hitraot - see you soon.

Tuesday in Tel Aviv

Shalom Shalom,

We arrived safely at Ben Gurion Airport at 7am local time, midnight "our bodies" time and hit the ground running. Our guide, Daron, a native Kibbutznik who also grew up in Chicago and studied at Duke, is so far doing a wonderful job of speaking to his eclectic audience of clergy from the three Abrahamic faiths.

At our first stop off the bus, he told some of the history of Tel Aviv and the Old city of Jaffa which existed as a city in Biblical times and is where tradition tells us Jonah caught the boat going anywhere but where God wanted him to prophecy (Nineveh). We didn't catch sight of any whales, or more accurately the 'big fish.' We stopped in at the Church of St. Peter and all learned that this is the site of Peter's dream in which God essentially tells him that keeping kosher won't be necessary anymore and as one of the Rev. Adrien Dawson explained, this made it possible for Peter to break bread with the Gentiles who were hoping to join the community following Jesus. The rabbis on the trip (Jay Goldstein, Ari Sunshine, Daniel Berg, Dana Saroken) all agreed that when we come with Jewish groups, we've passed that church hundreds of times, but never gone inside. I am sure that will be a frequently repeated observation as we travel through this land we know so intimately, but experience it through the eyes of our Christian and Muslim colleagues.

We ate a typical Israeli brunch at Regina in Tel Aviv's newly renovated old train station, the Tachana (station), then headed back to clean up and while some of us crashed, others strolled through Nachalat Binyamin, with its sidewalk artists and cafes.

Tonight we'll eat at Liliyot, a restaurant with a mission - giving troubled young people a way to contribute productively and set themselves on a better path. I'm told the food is delicious as well. At dinner, we'll hear from Paul Liptz, one of my professors from HUC-JIR in Jerusalem and a wonderful speaker, about the current state of Israeli society. It's been a terrific first day. Just think what we'll be able to accomplish on a full night's sleep!

More to come....

Preparation for Journey

Shalom Shalom!

Early in the morning on April 29th, I'm going to board a bus and ride to New Jersey with about 20 colleagues - ministers, rabbis, priests, and an imam. From New Jersey, we'll fly directly to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and commence on an Israel trip unlike any I've personally experienced. We will visit the sacred places that each of our separate traditions claims and explore the intersecting lines of meaning and holiness. We will learn what we share and what we don't. If we are truly engaged, we will most certainly have some disagreements as well as, I am sure, many moments of connection and understanding.

 I'm grateful to the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Institute for Christian Jewish Studies for inviting me and making this trip possible.

This blog will be my way of bringing all of you along on the wonderful journey.

As with any trip to Israel, our itinerary will be fluid, but for now I'm looking forward to:

Learning with my Paul Liptz, my always-engaging and widely knowledgable teach from HUC-JIR in Jerusalem

Visiting Yemin Orde Youth Aliyah village, serving the needs of immigrant youth.

Visiting Beit Hagefen Arab Jewish Community Center and learning from coexistance activists there.

Walking through Nazareth and learning about that important Christian holy site.

And that's all in the first 3 days of the trip!!! Check back here after April 29th to hear more about what we've learned, seen, and experienced.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi S-K