Study
results will be reported to CRIHL in May of this year, with as many as three
thousand entries in their database.
Two
audience questions were then taken.
First,
an Arab man asked how we can spread the cultivation of peace among peoples.
When a Muslim leaves his mosque and sees Israeli barricades, he realizes that
he can't get to any mosque in Jerusalem. We need consistency between words and
action.
First
to answer was Rabbi Daniel Sperber, professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University.
God
makes peace in the heavens, he said. His angels are of fire and water, but he
must make them work together, just like the hailstones among the plagues he
sent to biblical Egypt, which were also composed of fire and water. CRIHL works
with fire and water despite their differences. This describes the road we must
take toward peace.
Susan
Hayward of the USIP Religion and Peacemaking Center asked the second question,
noting that all of the panelists were men and that women have different
priorities than men. Several respondents admitted that they didn't know but
that the council would include women in future sessions and that younger
religious leadership would include women.
Said
Rabbi Metzger, there are two signs that the Jews are the Chosen People: first,
that they constituted a large percentage of the non-Aryans put to death by the
Nazis during World War II.
The
second sign is that Jews must be an example for other nations to follow.
Israeli hospitals treat Arabs from Gaza as well as other Israelis. We are equal
to others but expect more from ourselves.
*****
As
the event ended and I was walking out, an old man called out to the first
audience questioner, "Hey, Arab." The other man, also old and gnarled, gave him
a friendly look.
"It's
not so easy to be one of the chosen people."
The
Arab nodded. The two looked alike, both short and round-shouldered with
prominent noses.
"The
problem is religious extremism," they told each other, each using different
words but saying the same thing.
( c )
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