If you haven’t already noticed, I use both the word Sabbath and Shabbos to describe the unique period of time between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday. I also could use the word Shabbes. They all mean the same thing and are transliterations of the Hebrew for the word. I tend to use Shabbos because it reminds me of the very distinctive break from the rest of the week that I’ve come to experience with my Jewish friends. To me, Sabbath is still very Christian, and doesn’t yet have that sacredness drawn around it.
After sitting in the middle of the Old City drinking freshly pressed juice on Friday afternoon, we walked back towards Jaffa Gate. We stopped for a bit of coffee at a little cafe and watched the sun go down. Then we went our merry way for a long trek through the new city to the house where we would celebrate Friday night dinner. Up and down many hills, it was a long walk, but here’s the peculiar thing. The town had literally almost stopped. We probably saw about 3 cars driving by in the half hour we were walking. And everyone was walking somewhere. Some people were dressed up. We saw many of those with the Eastern European hats. There were big black brimmed hats and the round fuzzy ones. Some women had their heads covered, some didn’t. The variety of celebrants was incredible, but the feeling in the city was the same. There was a peace and stillness that descended across the city at the same time that darkness descended. Very peculiar, and completely out of whack with life in Los Angeles. There is somewhat of a similar feeling here in Dublin on Sunday morning, but in general life normally picks up after noon.
When we arrived at Aaron & Glenda Amit’s house, Aaron, the scholar, was sitting quietly with his kids and some books. We were warned that this was most unusual. When I heard that they had 5 boys, I was not surprised! Our friends in Oregon, the Thompsons, have 5 boys, and it’s always a live-action adventure... so Aaron and I were ready. The graciousness of our hosts was outstanding. Glenda had broken her foot or sprained her ankle the day before, but still had enough food for the 15 or so people joining us for dinner. And apparently this is a weekly preparation for her! I mean, in general, most of the people I know don’t have two people over to their homes very often, must less doubling in size every Friday night! The house smelled amazing, and the kids were quite friendly. Aaron Amit is a Talmud scholar. He also is beginning a new project looking at Paul in relationship to the Talmud. I was so excited to talk to him I could hardly bear it! I know that I’m very nerdy, but I just get so excited to talk to Jewish scholars. And the criticisms of Christian theologians are so valid! I love it. It’s absolutely brilliant. And connecting personally with someone like that means that when it comes time for me to study the Talmud for PhD or other projects, I will have an actual mentor who will help me exegete the text authentically, outside the context of the Christian faith. Alright, alright, I know that I can never leave my Christianity at the door, but to be taught by someone who stands in the Rabbinical tradition rather than the Christian gives me a new way to read the text and helps me stay faithful to the communities rather than reading Jesus into everything. I love Jesus, but academically, I love the challenge of learning from different perspectives. So anyhow, Aaron & I sparked up a fascinating conversation about the New Testament, Paul, and Talmud. It was brilliant.
We chatted while we waited for the other guests to arrive. They began trickling in: a young woman adventuring in Jerusalem for the year and her mother from America, our friends Deborah and Josh, and Gabe - visiting on his “birthright” trip. For those who don’t know, there are various organizations in the world which believe that it is the “birthright” of every Jewish person to see Israel. Thus, they foot the bill for people to adventure in Israel as long as they have never been. So Gabe was in the Holy Land for his first time. Each of these people had a story to tell, and I was so blessed to sit among them. I began to really remember the connection I had with Jesus and hanging out with the so-called outcasts. Because the “different” people are the ones with the most powerful stories. How sad it is that to the Christian church the Jewish community has at times become “outsiders!” The cultural memory of the people at this table is remarkable. Even Glenda, from Brazil, has been so thoroughly integrated into the community that her cultural memory is influenced and informed by the Jewish people and history. I envy that kind of cultural memory. I envy that people can tell stories about 200 years ago and still feel psychologically connected to it. This happens in Ireland, too. They talk about the Potato Famine and battles and Cromwell as if it were yesterday. I just don’t have cultural memory as a Southern Californian. I think I’ve been trying to find it in the church, but it’s hard to connect to a cultural memory when people fear the word “Tradition” and are always trying to move to more “contemporary” things. I think that this may be why I have veered so far away from contemporary services and held so tightly to the high liturgy that the Presbyterian church does have. Because somewhere in that liturgy and practice, there is a cultural memory to be had! I just have such a hard time uncovering it!
So instead, I discover bits of the ancient Christian memory by placing myself in the Rabbinical tradition. By remembering Shabbos and learning about those things that were part of the world of Jesus. We blessed the cup, washed our hands, and blessed the bread, then tucked in to a mighty feast of fantastic flavor and variety. Bless Glenda! The prayers were all in Hebrew, and I had a blast remembering how to read it. Some words were sung, and Lizzi’s voice rang out so beautifully over the table. The meal went literally for hours. Over dinner conversation topics ranged across the board. We talked about the abuse that various people have suffered at the hands of evangelical Christians, and even looked at the definition of Evangelical. We talked about prayer, and I was astonished to learn that Judaism, for all its rich heritage of prayer, at times envies the Protestant ability to spontaneously pray and pray intercessorily without any fixed prayers. While I’m busy envying their liturgy! I guess we all have things to learn from one another, right? But here’s an example. I had a date(the fruit) for the first time. And I said in my head, something along the lines of “God, way to go! That’s a good fruit you made!” But while I was thinking this, Glenda asks, “Doesn’t the Christian Church have a prayer for the first time you try a new fruit?” Stumped, I replied, “No, I don’t think so.” Apparently, there is a Jewish liturgical prayer that blesses God for the experience of trying a new fruit for the first time. Prayers have been developed for thousands of years reflecting humankind’s experiences with God and nature. I love the connection between the reality of the planet and the reality of God’s goodness and existence. It tempers the rampant gnosticism of today. There is so much more I could say about the conversations we had that night, but suffice it to say that I was ridiculously blessed. I felt loved, honored, and welcomed to a table that could then *become* part of my cultural memory. These amazing 15 people invited me to share that memory with them in a way that was significant, personal, and intentional. Incredible. With that, I’ll move onwards.
Exhausted, we trekked home, bumping into Benj and Emma, who were excited to learn that I was living in Ireland and interested to hear about our Bethlehem experiences. Benj works with Encounter, a group that is aiming towards peacebuilding in the territories. He mentioned something that we were unaware of, that the Palestinians are paid (at near poverty level) in dollars. Thus, when the US dollar tanked, their wages dropped below poverty level. So the financial difficulty with America, tied with the support of Israel creates a sort of tension between desiring the tourist dollar and needing to stand against it. Apparently before the Intifadas, the only way people could express their defiance was by throwing rocks -- after all, there are a lot of them in Israel. So we, on our walk, became a way for these children to express the anger, hostility and defiance that their parents were feeling. Because they don’t understand the nuance, they reflect the feelings bubbling just under the surface. After promising to meet up the next day so that Benj could hear about my experience in Belfast, we finally arrived back to Lizzi’s in order to fall blissfully and completely asleep.
It had been our intention to attend shul with Lizzi, Abe, Rebecca, and Josh, but we opted for the Shabbos rest of sleep instead. We woke up at 11am, praise the Lord! and got ready to head over to Abe and Rebecca’s to eat the meal we had prepared the day before. Upon arriving, we blessed the cup and waited for little Odelia (Oh-dell-ee-ya) at three weeks old, to finish her lunch with mom, Rebecca. Conversation again flowed, and it was good to be among friends. This was just the beautiful reality of the day. Everything happens at a different pace. So lunch took awhile to get eaten (about 4 hours, really) and we just had some amazing conversations. We talked a bit about school and life and the conversation that day was really more catching up among friends. It was exciting to hear about the joys of parenthood and to chat about the Ecumenical program here in Ireland. After lunch, we took a walk in their neighborhood, which is on the hills overlooking the valley of Jerusalem. We’re really hoping that they’re able to make it up to Dublin sometime this summer, as we’d love to share it with them.
Around 5pm, we got ready to leave, and had a discussion about the politics about building walls. It does seem peculiar that the wall in Israel has been turned into a tool of aggressive warfare rather than a tool of national self-defense. After all, aren’t walls supposed to be built on your own territory to keep people in and safe and keep intruders out? Why then would you build it on someone else’s territory and install a checkpoint, complete with some serious military backup, unless you were making claims about that territory in the first place? Hmmmmm. Something to think about. Well, here are a few photos.
In the one on the left, look at the top, and you’ll see the great grey scar wounding the countryside. In the right side picture, you can see the Dome of the Rock and the wall of the Old City which is pretty much older than everything "historical" in the US and many in Europe!
We moved onwards to our friend Amitai’s house. I had only ever super-nerded with Ami before this trip, him helping me with interpretation of numbers in Daniel, and I helping him with interpretations of genealogies in the New Testament. So our knowledge of each other was purely cerebral, until agreeing to meet for Havdalah, the ceremony in which you say goodbye to Shabbos and drink wine, smell spices, and light a candle to preserve the feeling of Shabbos through the next week until it comes again. There is a beautiful sadness to this ceremony, because after 24 hours of peaceful Shabbos, I didn’t want to go back to normal. I can’t wait for the eternity, mainly because I imagine it will be something very much like Shabbos. Conversation, food, peace, and camaraderie all infused with the very real presence of God and prayers and praise to God. Afterwards we went to dinner (dairy again!) and had another lovely three hour meal of conversation, discussing Messiah, exclusivity and inclusivity in traditions, and after Benj’s arrival, we discussed the power of the peace process in Northern Ireland. Benj’s interest in the conflict and peace process mostly had to do with his fascination with Irish folk music, but also stemmed from his work in Palestine, and the comments by people that perhaps Northern Ireland might be a model for Israel-Palestine.
And here’s my two cents on the whole thing, in case you were interested. First, it won’t be solved overnight. Northern Ireland took about 75 years to accomplish just speaking to the other side without killing each other. The peace process is going, but funding also doesn’t tend to follow up past 5 years, and reconciliation is a much longer process. Also, until both sides are willing to recognize first their own history and mistakes, and second the humanity and inherent dignity in the other people group, nothing is really going to move forward. I also do not believe that a two state solution will work. The city, the countryside, everything is so multi-national. I agree with a friend of mine who explained that it’s already culturally and economically interdependent and somewhat globalized. To attempt to separate that interdependence would probably cause more harm than good at this point. I also, however, believe that the government needs to start recognizing Palestinians as citizens (either of Palestine or Israel, I don’t care), because by keeping them politically “other” in the way they have, they have created the perfect environment in which Palestinians can grow terrorists. If you have no government or social or political processes to be invested in, then tribal connections and ethnic affinity and the violent political activity often fostered can be the only outlet for a political voice. So I think that there are errors on both sides, that it’s going to take at least another twenty-five years to sort out and it will take a revolutionary peacemaker to come in and build bridges between the people groups. So there. :)
I’ll tell you all about the Dead Sea and Masada next installment. That night, we finished up our evening by packing up at Lizzi’s and heading to Deborah’s empty apartment with the soft, delicious bed of delightful softness and loveliness. We slept incredibly well.
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