Last night, we gathered after dinner on a platform above the pool and the 16 of us crammed into an oval for a group meeting. Just as we began speaking the music began to play outdoors. I smiled, as the cheesy stylings of Roxette’s “Listen to Your Heart was blaring. We persevered as we listen to the instructions to explain to each other what draws us to interfaith. The number one commonality was people identified as “people persons”. They also shred how important it was to understand the other faith communities around them. A handful of people said they particularly came on this pilgrimage because we were going to Jerusalem and that they were traveling for family members who had always wanted to go to Jerusalem but died before they had the chance. One pilgrim explained that her mother had finally planned to go after wanting to go her entire, but canceled her trip as a result of her fear of violence there. Her mother died without ever seeing Jerusalem and that has been her lesson to not let fear or life stop her from doing what she wants to do.
I shared that I consider myself a universalist who inherited the Jewish story. And that my passion for Judaism mixed with my desire to connect to the divinity with people, made interfaith exciting and rewarding for me.
We circled again this time reflecting on the experience of the day. People expressed the awe and wonder at the pyramids—the hand of the Divine in the building of them. Caroline and I both expressed the sadness they represented to us. 10,000 people died creating the pyramids of Giza and they recently discovered their mass grave. I wondered out loud if we should have visited their graves too. One person shared that it was incredible to them that people would claim that aliens built the pyramids before recognizing that people from Africa had the technology and ability to build something so monumental and enduring.
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