Interfaith Songs of Peace for the Holy City Hopes to Inspire Unity
Jerusalem is back in the news again this week. It might be the one city that has stayed continuously in the news for the past three millennia. This week, Christian Churches are speaking out about mistreatment. Other weeks, the Muslim community expresses grievances. And for 2,000 years, Jews, too, have joined Christians and later, Muslims, in a seemingly unending litany of concerns.
We all take turns complaining to whomever will listen, and praying to God for the peace of the city named for peace: Yerushalayim (Shalom). The truth is that God's Holy City is the sacred city of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. Each of the Abrahamic faiths locates seminal events and sacred structures there.
For Jews, Yerushalayim marks the spot where Abraham offered his son Isaac, bound upon the altar, to God. On that spot Jews made sacrificial offerings to God in King Solomon's Temple, and following the return from Babylonian exile, did so again in the Second Temple. For the past 2,000 years it has been a focus of Jewish prayers.
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For Christians, Hierosolyma, Jerusalem and its many churches, commemorate the places where Jesus taught, was crucified, buried and resurrected. Jerusalem has been a place of pilgrimage for believers who wish to walk on Jesus' path. Because so many Christians around the world look to the country where Jesus lived and died as a source of inspiration, Israel's tiny Christian community is of special interest. Four of the five most recent popes have visited Israel; Pope Francis traveled there in 2014, even though Christians make up just two percent of Israel's adult population.
For Muslims, al Quds is the place of the far Mosque, where the prophet Mohamed ascended to heaven. There is the Dome of the Rock where the prophet arose. There is the ancient Mosque of Aqsa. Al Quds is the third holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.
Each of the Peoples of the Book pray for the welfare of al Quds/Hierosolyma/ Yerushalayim. Each in their own language. Each beseeching the one God for the peace of the Holy City and so, peace in God's world.
How powerful these prayers are separately. Yet God commands us all to know one another and to love one another. Imagine if we could join our prayers and lift our voices together in song. How powerful a notion that my prayer might lift up your prayer, your prayer amplify her prayer, his prayer support mine. How beautiful to sing together in harmony to God.
It's why my Jewish seminary is collaborating with a Catholic center housed at the Pontifical University in Rome where Pope John Paul II graduated, to bring together Rabbi Tamar Elad Appelbaum, a charismatic spiritual leader from Jerusalem, with Turkish Imam Abdullah Antepli, chief representative of Muslim Affairs and adjunct faculty of Islamic Studies at Duke University, and Armenian musician, Ara Dinkjian, world-renowned oud player and liturgical musician in the Armenian Apostolic Christian Church. (They will be joined by more voices -- master Turkish kanun player Hasan Isakkut, spiritual vocalist Master Onnik Dinkjian, Rabbi Roly Matalon, and Ms. Shelley Thomas.)
Because we believe this event will be so inspirational at a time when hope and inspiration are much needed, we invite people from around the country to watch the livestream online: www.jtsa.edu/live March 7 at 7:30 EST.
Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky serves as Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he directs the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue. The event is free; to attend in person in New York City, please register (required): www.jtsa.edu/holy-city-interfaith
