Friday, November 1st
Friday morning we woke up early to meet with the Greek patriarch, known as The Beatitude (the title given to the 14 patriarchs in the Greek Orthodox Church). This was a unique opportunity, and is unprecedented for a Jewish group to meet with such a great figure of a different religion. Part of the Kivunim ideology is to learn about all kinds of religions; the more knowledge we have about other cultures and practices will only help us become more informed world citizens.
On our way to the church where we would meet him, we explored the Christian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem and really took in our surroundings. Our educator on Christianity told us that the last time someone planned the layout of the Old City was 1800 years ago...that is a long time ago!!!! There are many Christians living in the Quarter who are also local Arabs. Some are Christians of Palestinian origin.
The main message I got from The Beatitude was that the presence of the Greek Orthodox Church in Israel promotes interfaith dialogues and mutual understanding between all kinds of people (most notably, conversation between Palestinians and Israelis). The Beatitude wants to eradicate any prejudice and hatred that stops the progress of peace. The purpose of The Beatitude is to serve as the highest leader in the Israeli Greek Orthodox Church and to watch over the religious practices and any matters relating to maintaining the well-being of the Church. But, in Israel his position is not that black and white. He also interacts with the state to ensure peaceful coexistence. Therefore, his position does not only deal with the church but also with the state. This leads to the concept of "corpus separatum," which is the discussion of whether or not Jerusalem should be the capital for both Palestinians and Israelis (which relates to state), while keeping religion as a separate entity. In reality, state and church always coincide in society, which I think relates to how The Beatitude naturally is active in both the idea of church and state. It is interesting how so many topics connect to each other, because during my Civilization & Society class we studied about Ancient Greece, and we discussed the relationship between politics (state) and philosophy found in Plato's writings. Although not totally the same as church vs. state, I think individual thought (philosophy) vs. state still has implications regarding the symbiosis (good) or conflict (bad) found in combining the entities. Here is an excerpt taken from Plato's Republic:
"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evil...nor, I think will the human race."
I hope you enjoyed my food for thought!
Shabbat (Friday, November 1st-Saturday, November 2nd)
This is an excerpt from my diary:This weekend was arguably the best one yet on Kivunim. It was not amazing because it was planned out perfectly (in fact, the unexpectedness of the weekend made it all the more enjoyable). The beauty behind the weekend was that there was no structure and the sequence of events that unraveled in front of me was unknown until I seized the moment. There was a beginning and an end, but the journey in the middle was unwritten and meant for us (my friends and I) to create. We knew we would start off the day with Kivunim in the Christian Quarter and that Michal (my lovely roommate), her friend from home, Danielle, and I would be going to a place called Moshav Aviezer for a Breema meditation workshop retreat weekend, but we had no idea what to expect from anything or the path we would take to get there. There were a lot of miscommunications that occurred today, between the correct meeting time with the Greek Patriarch (an advisor at the church told us that we could not meet with The Beatitude when in reality he was prepared to meet with us on schedule) and what bus we were supposed to get on from Bet Shemesh (we took a bus from Jerusalem to Bet Shemesh but then we had to find a bus to get us to Moshav Aviezer [one of Israel's cooperative agricultural community of individual farms], but since a bus never came we had to end up taking a taxi). In my opinion the day's worth of confusion encouraged people to persevere as a team through the struggles. Humans are totally capable of problem solving and can make adversity into a positive experience of growing and learning.
After the miscommunication between the patriarch's advisor and my Christianity educator, we finally met with the patriarch and he was so happy to speak with us and you saw his jolliness from his smile and lovely, eloquent words. He explained the story of Christianity and he reminded us that the Old Testament and the New Testament are both significant in the religion of Christianity, and that one cannot make sense without the other (the religion of Christianity would be incomplete without the two parts of the bible). The Greek patriarch kept mentioning how the church in Jerusalem acts as a buffer between the Palestinian and Israel communities, and that mutual understanding is very important for the Beatitude to instill in the Middle Eastern conflict and the rest of the world. (I know that I am repeating much of what I previously posted in my blog regarding my encounter with The Beatitude, but there is a reason for this; the visit with him connects perfectly with what I experienced at the retreat).
It is interesting because today we learned in Breema that mutual touch, energy, and non-judgement is at the core of its ideals. I find it fascinating how the different parts of today fit together so well and the ideals sprinkled throughout the day had a fluid presence in the day's progression, despite the various bumps and obstacles we encountered before finding a beautiful connection and a common thread between the starting point and ending point of our miraculous Friday (ending in a wonderful Shabbat B'yachad in a cozy, loving environment).
The Shabbat dinner and evening was so meaningful. We had a potluck meal with homemade salted bread, hummus, avocado spread, lentil soup, salad, and overall just delicious vegetarian food. We all sat around a side table (about 12 or so of us) in the common room where the Breema meditation sequences were previously being taught, and it was a beautiful sisterhood of women of many ages. Everyone was talking to each other and got along so well. I honestly believe that women who open their hearts up to Breema remind me a lot of myself personally. One of the girls who is going to the a herbal school on the farm grew up in Hawaii, went to college in California, and now wants to be a professional world traveler. She is not Jewish, and did not think twice about applying to this school and living in Israel, which I think her open-mindedness and willingness to live amongst a culture different than hers is quite inspiring.
I forgot to mention that before Shabbat started we went outside to see the extraordinary sunset. Since it had been raining for most of the afternoon, the sun setting was different than I have ever before witnessed in Israel. There was a dearth of warm colors present in the sky, and the main light illuminated from the consummated ball of white sun. We looked out at it from a cliff in the backyard (there is a steep drop and at the bottom of the hill is either part of the moshav or another village, and I saw many solar powered plates/dishes, which is a typical find in Israel).
When we came outside (this was before dinner) we lit Shabbat candles, and let in the Sabbath queen into our hearts and souls. Also, after dinner we went around the room to say what we were thankful for at the moment (I of course said that I am thankful to have been given the opportunity to be part of the wonderful Breema community of strong and supportive women), and we sang many songs (shira)/danced (rikudim).
While talking with one of the Breema instructors I learned that Breema is coincidentally very present in Berkeley, and two of the instructors had lived in Berkeley before making aliyah to Israel. Oh, the connections! Maybe I will take Breema classes once I get to Berkeley. What I found so amazing about Breema was that you could feel so connected and close to women you had just recently met, and could feel totally comfortable opening up to them and letting them help revive your body...it does not matter where each woman comes from, all that matters is keeping our minds in the present moment and appreciating the beautiful diversity of people that make up the room (we all have different stories, but what matters is that we are sharing the present moment together).
If you are a tad bit confused about what Breema is, I suggest you explore its website...in fact, if you are following what I am saying I still suggest you explore for yourself what Breema is, because it is amazing and probably could benefit you too!
http://www.breema.com/
Breema is based on 9 principles:
- Body Comfortable
- No Extra
- Firmness and Gentleness
- Full Participation
- Mutual Support
- No Judgement
- Single Moment/ Single Activity
- No Hurry/ No Pause
- No Force
Sunday, November 3rd
Today we explored the Christian Quarter again and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre!! Here lies Jesus' tomb (site where Jesus was crucified and also where he was buried/his sepulchre), and also what makes the church so unique is that five different sects of Christianity share the sacred site. The five sects are: Armenians, Catholics, Franciscan, Coptic, and Syriac. The caliph at the time of the Crusades let all the communities pray so long as they payed their taxes.When we went into the Church we went to the Coptic section where believers were chanting, and I noticed that males and females sat separately like how people in some Orthodox Jewish shuls do. Men were wearing black gowns, and a little girl was handing out handkerchiefs to the men, and there were lots of candles scattered around the sacred space.
The church was built by Constantine in 339 C.E., and around 1193 during the Crusader period the Omar mosque was built to symbolize how tolerant the Muslims were of Christians and Jews. The Muslims claimed that the Church does not belong to any one of the five Christian sects, and instead it belongs to G-d. Each Christian sect serves a different purpose in the keeping up of the church, and have different parts of the church designated to them, but all the groups have to agree on changing/renovating the church before any progress can be made. The Greek Orthodox Church has the responsibility to clean the holy corridor, which they consider to be a privilege.
There is a wooden ladder that to this day is still standing on the second floor balcony (it can be seen from the front of the church). Armenians have property on the second floor and they put up a ladder to reach up to their window so that they could get out and send a rope down to the ground level to retrieve food. The problem was that the balcony belonged to the Greek Orthodox and they did not want the Armenian's ladder on their property, so they went to the Turks and sought out a compromise, and the Turks decided that the ladder be kept there but to serve no purpose. (What a silly and entertaining story this is!) Since the different groups were stubborn to keep some rights and retain their dignity, the Armenians decided that the compromise would suffice. The groups feared being seen as weak, because then others could walk on top of them and subdue their freedoms.
The presence of candles in the church represents something mystic and gives attributes to Jesus as being the "light of the world." The candles symbolize Jesus' resurrection and since Jesus was crucified at age 33, churches typically light candles in multiples of 33 (kind of like the number 18 in the Jewish realm to represent chai-life).
We also went into the Ethiopian church next to the Holy Sepulchre to see how their religious culture differs from the others. There is a famous story that goes along with the Ethiopian church. It is said that King Solomon was impressed by an Ethiopian woman's beauty and she was impressed by his wisdom. So Solomon got her pregnant in Jerusalem, and Solomon brought the Arch of Covenant with him to protect him on his way to Ethiopia to visit the woman and the baby. People thought the Arch of Covenant was under the Dome of the Rock, but it is more probable to be somewhere in Ethiopia.
There are many pilgrims who come to Jerusalem to visit the Church and other holy sites year round. After going to the Church, we walked around the Christian Quarter and took an ethnographic approach to understanding the culture better. We took a stroll through the alleyways and streets of the Quarter, and went up to Christian Pilgrims asking them questions to better understand their intentions for being here, where they are from, and their connections to the Christian faith. We got very fascinating responses, and my group met pilgrims from Nigeria, Norway, South Africa, and Colorado. It was inspiring to see the diversity found in the Christian Quarter, and to learn that there are many Christian pilgrims from all over who come to visit their holy sites in Israel, because I did not realize that the influx of pilgrims is so large.
