By Dr. Yehdua Stolov | Executive Director
August 24, 2023
Today’s topic is the sacred day of the week in each religion: Shabbat/ Sabbath for Jews and Friday/Jummah for Muslims. Gilly told the group that she believed that God “rested” from creating the heavens and the earth in six days on the Sabbath. Ahmed spoke about the importance of Friday for Muslims, and its special prayers.
September 21, 2023
We discussed the Jewish holidays and Islamic customs on fasting.
We started by talking about Yom Kippur, one of the most important holidays for Jews. Jews fast for 25 hours and spend a lot of the time praying. Even non-religious Jews have the custom of coming to the synagogue or fasting on this day, and there is also an emphasis on repentance. Asher asked about fasting among Muslims: Is it similar to the practice of fasting among Jews?
One of the Muslim participants answered that it is similar to Ramadan in terms of customs, but fasting for Muslims begins from dawn to sunset, not like Yom Kippur, which is from sunset to sunset the next day. Whoever does not fast among Muslims must make atonement, which is feeding 10 poor people or giving money to charity. Fasting begins at a young age, but in the beginning, one fasts only for a few hours of the day until they reach the age of 10 or 11, and begins to fast full day.
Jewish participants talked about the upcoming holiday of Sukkot, and the plants used to say its blessings. This holiday is a remembrance of the 40 years the children of Israel lived in tents in the desert, after the Exodus from Egypt.
November 30, 2023
We had a hybrid encounter, in which Palestinians from the West Bank joined remotely. The topic of this encounter was “Light”, since Hanukkah is approaching.
Jews explained about the custom to light candles for eight days in Hanukkah, as well as on the beginning of Shabbat and sometimes also for remembrance of relatives who passed away.
Muslim participants shared that light is important in Islam also as an abstract concept, and that every human being has light in his heart, but only the righteous person can see this light. We also spoke about light as divine revelation, such as in the story of Moses (seeing God as light, or emanating light from himself).
We concluded the encounter wishing peace and safety for everyone.
December 21, 2023
We had a hybrid encounter, in which Palestinians from the West Bank joined remotely. As we approach the end of the civil year, we decided to speak about our calendars. What are the months of the year?
Despite some differences, we found that the Islamic and Jewish calendars are very similar. Both are lunar calendars, while the Gregorian is a solar calendar.
Then we moved on to talk about our wishes for the New Year and how this year was. All participants wished that there would be peace and that the war would end and that the two peoples would live together in brotherhood. At the end of the encounter, Mohamad played the oud for us, and we planned the next encounter.
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By Yehuda Stolov | Executive Director
By Dr. Yehdua Stolov | Executive Director
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