By Dr. Yehdua Stolov | Executive Director
March 7
The Interfaith Encounter has launched a new online group in collaboration with Project 929. The group has three coordinators: Adi, Majeed and Jose, and each of them will present and discuss sources of their respective religions about the encounter’s topic, with the group's participants.
The first encounter was dedicated to mutual introductions, with each participant bringing their favorite quote from their traditions and what it means for them.
March 21
IEA-929 online study group has dedicated this encounter to talk about Joseph in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. We wanted to understand how the same character is described in each of the Holy Books, and what lessons each religion takes from his story.
April 4
IEA-929 online study group met on Zoom to discuss the topic of “time” and the yearly calendar.
Jose explained a little about his traditions on Easter. He spoke of time not just as a cycle, but also as the cycle of the presence of God and His redemption.
Majeed described the Islamic months. Every year the calendar “moves” 11 days behind the solar calendar, which means the Ramadan month falls on different seasons - and no one in the world needs to fast in the summer every year.
Adi spoke about the Jewish calendar and the importance of time and rest for the Jewish tradition.
April 19
IEA-929 online study group met on Zoom to discuss the topic of Fasts.
Adi described the difficulty of fasting for 25 hours during Yom Kippur, and how she is touched by her grandfather’s experience of fasting even in the extermination camps in Europe. She also explained that in Judaism some fasts are related to mourning (of the destruction of the Temples), while Yom Kippur is biblically commanded as a way of connecting to God and suppressing the body so as to let the soul prevail.
William, who was Jose’s guest speaker, described the types of fasting in Christianity, such as the ones related to a specific time (Lent and 4 weeks before Christmas) and to a person’s voluntary promise.
Majeed explained about the Ramadan fast, and its motives: Mercy, Forgiveness and moving away from sin. He also explained how the fast itself is not enough, it should come with acts of kindness and charity, as the human aims to improve itself. He also explained about different Ramadan laws.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
