| Subject: Interfaith Encounter Association Report ~ March 7, 2003 |
Author:
Giovanna
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Date Posted: 08:50:27 03/07/03 Fri
In reply to:
Giovanna
's message, "Interfaith Encounter Association Report" on 23:06:48 11/23/02 Sat
forwarded message
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Dear friends,
In order to ease the load off your email boxes I am trying this way
of grouping messages together.
In this digest you will find first a report by Chananel from the
launch of the Jerusalem Youth Interfaith Encounter on 24.2.03 and an
invitation to young adults to join the group on its next meeting on
Sunday 16.3.03.
You will also find a report from the first study session, on 2.3.03
about the muslim perspective, of the series in Tel Aviv University
about Life after Life, and in invitation to join the next meeting on
Sunday 9.3.03 about the Jewish perspective.
Best of wishes,
Yehuda
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"The Story of Creation" - Launch of the Jerusalem Youth Interfaith
Encounter, Swedish Theological Institute, Monday 24.2.03
Despite the snow the group had its first meeting. Mira, Ghassan,
Salach, Dotan and myself participated the atmosphere was very warm
and friendly. We started by introducing ourselves and giving a short
explanation what had brought each of us to the meeting. After that
Dotan presented the story of the creation of man from the Bible. We
didn't get very far though (Dotan had intended to deal with the
status of the woman in the creation), because we immediately got
involved with the concept of being created in the image of G"d and
what does such a concept mean. Ghasssan and Salach explained that in
Islam it is impossible to say that G"d has an image of any kind.
Dotan presented the dispute between Maimonides and the Ra-avad as to
whether it is forbidden to think that G"d has a body. We then talked
quite a bit about Maimonides in comparison to the Islamic
philosophers/religious leaders of the time ann in relationship to
the ashkenazi Jewish leaders who were much less philosophical and
more similar to their Christian environment.
Towards the end of the meeting we got into a very deep discussion on
the subject of the importance of action as opposed to theology both
in Islam and Judaism. At 9pm Ghassan gently pointed out that it had
been snowing for 2hrs straight and that we ran the risk of getting
stranded.
We arranged for the next meeting, on Sunday 16.3.03, that Dotan and
Salach would prepare something about the status of the woman in
creation. Young adults of all religions are invited to join.
Chananel Rosen
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LIFE AFTER LIFE - Muslim perspective, Tel Aviv University, 2.3.03
The series in Tel Aviv started with some twenty five Jewish, Muslim
and Christian participants. The first presenter was the writer and
journalist Sheikh Ghassan Manasra who spoke about these times of the
beginning of the Islamic Hijra year. In this time it is customary to
visit the dead in the cemetery. He quoted his grandfather who used
to speak to the dead and told him that they do hear and listen and
like very much being talked to by their relatives. Later, when he
grew up and studied, he found the sources for that belief in the
Prophet's sayings.
What is death? According to Koran there is the 'small death' of
sleeping, and the 'big death'. Ali Ibn Taleb said that people are
asleep and when they die they wake up. What does it mean that we are
asleep? The human is composed of the body and the spirit - the
spirit keeps the body alive and when it leaves back to God, the body
dissolves. Death is called in Islam "the middle" - between the life
of this world and the life after redemption.
When a person dies he start talking and every creature can hear him -
except fellow humans. He then goes to his next home and for that to
happen two angels come to hear from him and assess his full life
story. When the person is buried, the grave pushes the body - first
a gentle push and then either again a gentle push or a strong
squeeze that makes the bones enter one another, all according to the
person's deeds before the death.
In the day of judgment, the angel Gabriel will blow the horn,
everyone will rise and each nation will follow its prophet. The
Muslims will follow Muhammad into heaven. Some Islamic scholars say
that only Muslims will enter heaven and some say that all who really
believe in one God will enter too. In heaven they find full life
with rivers of honey and wine (only for those who never drank it in
this life), but much more important:
life that include meetings with God. Every Friday the men dress up
and go to a special place where they meet God. From that meeting
they come back different - much more beautiful. Women also meet God -
in the Holidays - and also come back different.
Following the presentation we held a joint discussion about
reincarnation (in which Muslims do not believe), gates to heaven in
this world (e.g. Jerusalem), moral concerns (violators do not enter
heaven), fear from God and love of God (and the three ways of
worship: of slaves [out of fear], of merchants [as a way to buy part
in heaven] and of the free [out of love]), the real interpretation
of Jihad (fighting to remove oppression from another nation - Muslim
or not: the original Jihad was instructed by the Prophet to Ossama
Ibn Zaid in order to remove the Roman oppression from the Jews and
Christians in the Holy Land. Then the real fight is against the
INNER devils who tempt the person to negative attitudes of
pride and hatred.), signs for the approach of the day of judgment
(that, as in other religions, are not reliable. Ali Ibn Taleb gave
the advise: work on your earthly interests as if you are going to
live for ever, and on your heavenly interests as if your are going
to die tomorrow).
* * * * *
The next meeting will take place on the coming Sunday 9.3.03 at
19:30 in room A3 in Einstein Dormitories (Einstein Street, just off
Levanon Street). The Jewish view will be presented by Prof. Daviv
Blumenthal of Emory University.
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The Interfaith Encounter Association
P.O.Box 3814, Jerusalem 91037, Israel
Phone: +972-2-6510520
Fax: +972-2-6510557
Website: www.interfaith-encounter.org
Yehuda Stolov, Director
E-mail: msyuda@mscc.huji.ac.il
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