Guest Columnist: Local Congregations Take Part In Interfaith Trip

The following was submitted by Rabbi David J. Meyer:

Reflecting back on two weeks that were more than two years in the making, there’s little doubt that the Interfaith Trip to Israel shared by members of my congregation, Temple Emanu-El, and members of Marblehead’s Old North Church will leave many enduring spiritual,intellectual, and emotional impressions.

From the beginning, our goal and our hope was to enrich and deepen the long standing bonds of covenant that are shared between our two communities of faith. Yet even while designing such a unique trip to the land that is held sacred in both of our religious traditions, it was impossible to know precisely where and when the most powerful experiences would take place, and how our most lasting memories would be shaped.

I was quite certain, for example, that the lovely gardens inside the walls of Notre Damede Sion monastery in southern Jerusalem would provide a tranquil and fitting location for contemplation and reflection immediately following upon our visit to Yad Vashem, theHolocaust memorial and museum only a hilltop away. But later, welcoming the Jewish Sabbath with candlelighting and songs at the Western Wall was an even more beautiful end to the day than I would have imagined.

I was confident that we would experience one another’s times of worship with both joy and humility, sharing what we could, and stepping back when appropriate. But I hadn’t expected how easily our singing voices could join and rise together during our Saturday morning services overlooking the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, and equally during our Sunday Christian worship at Bethlehem of the Galilee.

I knew that we would be going places where Christian groups rarely visit, such as tunnels beneath the Jewish Quarter which lead the way alongside the original stones of Solomon’s Temple. Likewise we visited sites that Jewish groups generally choose to omit, such as the beautiful church on the Mount of Beatitudes. But the ancient synagogue at K’far Nachum(Capernum), where Jesus of Nazareth preached to a Jewish congregation, held great meaning for those of either faith. And likewise, enjoying lunch and tastings beneath the vines at a picturesque winery on the slopes of the Carmel Mountains certainly bridged any and all theological distinctions!

But throughout our journey, one theme in particular seemed to recur like a leitmotif or refrain, that spoke to our group in a manner that I had not anticipated:

As we walked in the very footsteps of the earliest Israelites, who came to their Promised Land poised to bring to the world an entirely new and radical idea of Ethical Monotheism; As we explored the remains of the community in Qumran, home to the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, who forsook the comforts of an urban lifestyle so as to create in the Judean Desert a community of believers in the coming of the Divine Kingdom; As we sailed the Sea of Galilee and stood upon the very places where Jesus and his followers sought to spread a renewed message of hope, love and faith; As we sat in the first Kibbutz courtyard, where Zionist pioneers brought to life their vision of a social utopia, and realized their dreams of an arid desert blossoming into life after some 2,000 years of neglect;
And even right now, as Israeli and Palestinian teenagers are working together at an “Ecological Greenhouse” project, not only to solve the environmental challenges facing the region, but even more, to help bridge the political and social chasm between peoples.

This optimistic and hopeful theme has been sounded -- and lived -- over and over again: that here, in this land, we can create a new vision for human society. Beginning here, we canchange the world for the better!

And so it was for us, members of our two Marblehead communities of faith, Temple Emanu-El and the Old North Church. We came away from our adventure inspired and determined to do our part, working on our own and in partnership to help bring to our world a greater measure of hope, of love, and of peace.
Repairing the world, even to the smallest extent, is a daunting task at best. But in the words of Theodore Herzl, father of the modern Zionist movement: “If you will it, it is not simply a dream.”

Rabbi David J. Meyer is Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, Marblehead, MA and together with The Reverend Dennis Calhoun of Old North Church, Marblehead, MA, led 36 people on an interfaith trip to Israel from February13-25, 2011.