Rabbi Eliezer Havivi's Message
March 2012 Interfaith
Study Mission to Israel
View the pre- and post-mission videos
Following are remarks I shared in shul on Shabbat morning after returning from an Interfaith Study Mission to Israel. There were 12 Jews, 35 Christians and one Muslim, and it was a remarkably wonderful experience!
Shalom,
Rabbi Eliezer Havivi
Last Friday night, I sat on the pavement of the Western Wall at Robinson's Arch, and taught a group how to sing the concluding words of every Passover Seder, and of every Yom Kippur, " L'shana haba'a birushalayim- Next Year in Jerusalem!"
As many of you know, I've just returned from 10 days in Israel, participating in an Interfaith Study Mission, sponsored by the Greensboro chapter of National Conference for Community and Justice, and the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, and the Greensboro Jewish Federation.
From my perspective, there were two main goals for this mission: To create social capital - positive relationships based on shared memories and experiences with group participants that will continue when we return home to Greensboro; and second, to show the non-Jews a positive picture of our Israel. I think we succeeded in meeting both those goals.
We packed in a lot on our visit. We visited Haifa, and the Galilee and toured Christian sites there - Capernaum, the Mount of Beatitudes, Tabgha.
In Nazareth, we visited the beautiful Church of the Annunciation and the White Mosque. We spent several days in Yerushalayim - at the Kotel - the Western Wall, and Yad Vashem, and the marketplace, and in the vibrant city, and churches and Jesus- related places and the Dome of the Rock on the plaza of the Temple Mount. And we floated on the Dead Sea, and climbed Masada and rode camels and walked around Tel Aviv.
Because this was a learning/study mission, we had a lot of briefings - about the issues Israeli Arabs face, and regional security challenges and Israeli politics and civil society needs - poverty, and fairness and integration.
- We met and heard the story of a Shoah survivor, Eliezer Ayalon, who toured us around Yad VaShem.
- We visited a youth village called Yemin Orde, where high school students from Ethiopia and Russia and Arab lands who cannot live at home learn to get on their feet and excel and strive for excellence, and always have a home there to come back to.
- We enjoyed wonderful hotels and lavish breakfasts.
- We welcomed Shabbat at Robinson's Arch, and the the Kotel, the Western Wall, with hundreds of Jews and tourists.
- We bid farewell to Shabbat with Havdala in the courtyard of our hotel, followed by communion, and a Muslim prayer.
Israel was packed with tourists and pilgrims. There were buses with Christians from tens of different countries at the site of the Sermon of the Mount and at the Synagogue at Capernaum, and we could barely move through the museum at Yad Vashem because of the tours in different languages.
And one of the best parts - when we weren't at a site, and weren't listening to Issy, our guide, teach us about Israel, there was a constant buzz on the bus - people getting to know each other, and laughing together, and sharing who we are and our thoughts.
For me as a Jew, there were several high points of this particular visit. Last Shabbat morning - when you all took out three Torahs here at Beth David, I was at a synagogue in Jerusalem - Shira Hadasha - an Orthodox, egalitarian service where there was beautiful singing for Hallel, with harmony echoing off the walls and ceiling, and those same three Torahs and a bar mitzvah to boot! It was a really wonderful opportunity for me to sit in the congregation, next to Howie Mezer, and just daven and sing, and even nap a little during the Torah reading. What a mechaya!
- I loved waking up as the sky began to get light, and daven from my hotel balcony facing the Sea of Galliee, the Kinneret.
- I loved the Israeli breakfasts - the fresh bread, and tens of different offerings of fruit and cheeses and yogurts and salads, and of course, pastries and halva.
- I was able to visit my parents' graves in Jerusalem, and the grave of Gail's mother, and my great grandfather's grave - my great-grandfather, Mori Musa - the Chief Rabbi of the Yemenite community, in Tel Aviv.
- I loved speaking and hearing Hebrew.
I felt safe, and at home, and tremendous pride in sharing my Israel with new, non-Jewish friends from Greensboro. I was proud of how we tackle social issues. I was proud of how we absorb immigrants and refugees, and in the cases where we get it right, we help the underprivileged get a leg up. I was proud of the examples in integration of Israeli society, in a bilingual school called Yad b'Yad - hand in hand- in Jerusalem, where Jewish kids and Arab kids learn together. We brought them pizza, and they sang for us -- a rap song called "Where is the Love" by the Black Eyed Peas!
What does it mean to go to Israel with non-Jews - with Christians and Muslims?
First of all, there is a joy of watching the Christians thrill as they have a sense of walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Many of the non-Jews on our trip are active Christians, and watching their spirits soar in Galilee, in the room of the last supper in Yerushalayim, and seeing them weep with emotion, as they emerged from baptism/ immersion in the Jordan River, was truly powerful to many of us.
Many of the group did not come with a great understanding of the complexities of Israel's history or political and security situation. (And why should they - after all, they don't read the paper like we Jews do - first we scan the front section for articles about Jews or Israel, then we go back and read everything else!) Watching them gain understanding from each day of observing, and learning and meeting our presenters, and hearing from our wonderful guide, gave me nachas, and comfort, in seeing them "get " that Israel is a brave little country with tremendous challenges, and it/we have achieved so much, and that the situation is complicated and far from simple.
It's interesting to see participants' sense of history change. For Americans, two hundred years seems a like a long time. The scale of time is different in Israel; there we speak of 3,000, and 2,000 years ago, and 1,500 years ago, and look at physical remnants of that time, and how one is built on top of the other.
In some ways, unlike here in predominantly Christian American where we grew up, in Israel, we the Jews are inside, and they, the non-Jews, are the outsiders. Israel is my Jewish country. I'm happy that they - the Christians and Akir, visit, and that they experience their roots, but I get great pleasure from being the host.
I loved showing them Jewish time: the frenetic preparation for Shabbat on Friday afternoon in the Machaneh Yehda marketplace, with people buying and vendors shouting, and then the calm of Shabbat. I loved sharing the way we prepare for Shabbat - with singing , and planning, and Kabbalat Shabbat, and tefilla at the Kotel, and blessing our children and embracing our spouses and welcoming angels and saying Kiddush and Motzi at the Friday night dinner table that we all shared. It was elaborate and deliberate and thoughtful, with a kind of being present in time that was new to some of them. And then we ended Shabbat with a beautifu havdala - arms linked and singing, with fire and spices and wine. And then, we somehow made a smooth transition for the Christians to share a Communion ritual, and for Akir, our Muslim representative , to share with us a Muslim night prayer from an app on his iphone!
It was a joy to share some of the wonderful tools of our tradition - not just Shabbat, but the opportunity to say shehechayanu when first looking out over Jerusalem, or even on the bus, having just landed at Ben Gurion, when we were all carrying, each of us, our ancestors on our shoulders.
Yad Vashem was interesting for me to watch. The opportunity to meet a survivor who spoke about his experiences made an impression on all of us. The heaviness of the museum was felt by all, and we wiped away tears in the yad layeled - the children's memorial. And in reflection afterwards, many of the African- American participants spoke of slavery and its lingering consequences in our own communities until this day.
So, all in all, it was a great trip. I have to give credit to Marilyn Chandler, who used her practiced skill in setting much of it up, and making sure that it ran smoothly. And Susan Feit, from NCCJ, and Tara Sandercock from the Community Foundation; and members of our congregation, Cathy Levinson and Nancy Brenner, were chairs, together with Pat Cross, and they all shaped the trip in important ways.
And I think we met our goals - we showed a warm, vibrant positive face of Israel. We taught a lot about its very complex challenges, and we created warm relationships among members of our larger Greensboro community - with ministers and churchgoers and non-churchgoers; and blacks and whites, and Christians and Jews, and a Muslim, that will last and, hopefully, will help us build continued good will towards Israel, and will strengthen our shared community here in Greensboro
Shabbat Shalom.
Eliezer Havivi
It may be interesting to read Walker Sanders' "trip log." Walker is the President of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.
