God's October Suprise

A call for sharing the sacred seasons of the Abrahamic faiths to heal the world.

BY: Rabbi Arthur Waskow

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There is much that we could do to heal the world during this sacred season:

First, there is the process used by 15 Jews, Muslims, and Christians who have come to call themselves The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah. Meeting in a retreat setting for four days each time, the Tent has gone beyond intellectual "interfaith dialogue" to the spaces of heart and soul.

Participants began by sharing with each other some important parts of their spiritual journeys. They worked out ways of sharing prayer that respected the boundaries of certain prayers within each of the three communities, while creating authentic prayer forms open to all the participants though clearly rooted in each one of the traditions. Not till then did they explore what common action they might take in the world.

As a result of these meetings, the Tent reached out to persuade a broad religious spectrum to call for all Americans to set aside the time from sunrise to sunset on Oct. 13--which for Muslims is one of the Ramadan fast days and for Jews is the fast day of Yom Kippur--as a nationwide fast for Reflection, Repentance, Reconciliation and Renewal. The National Council of Churches; the Islamic Society of North America; Pax Christi; ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and its rabbinical affiliate Ohalah; and the Jewish Committee for Isaiah's Vision (more than 100 rabbis and other Jewish leaders from all religious branches) have joined in this call.

They have also urged that the participants affirm through their fast that together, later in the month, they will support public multi-religious action to "Seek Peace, Feed the Poor, Heal the Earth."

In this way, all three traditions could learn from the passage of Isaiah--whom all three join in revering as a Prophet--that in Jewish tradition is read on Yom Kippur morning. God, speaking through Isaiah, says, "Do you think the fast that I demand this day is to bow down your head like a bulrush? No! The fast I demand is that you feed the poor, house the homeless, clothe the naked, and break off the handcuffs on your prisoners."

In some communities, trust among the three traditions is being newly built through sharing a fast and food; in some, it is already strong enough to shape joint public action in the world. On this spectrum, groups might choose different possible actions: -- Perhaps in groups of congregations--a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a temple--each congregation could host one meal for members of the others, after nightfall on any of the evenings of Ramadan, and share a reflective conversation and learning during the meal: What does fasting mean in each tradition? How can we teach beyond what might seem the violent passages in each of the sacred wisdoms?

Jews could invite Muslims, Christians, and others into the Sukkah, a leafy hut, open to the wind and rain, in which Jews are commanded to dwell during Sukkot. Traditionally, "sacred guests" are invited in and the ancient rabbis taught that during Sukkot, blessings are invoked upon "the 70 nations" of the world. Traditional prayers implore God to "spread the sukkah of shalom" over us. These are perfect rubrics for peacemaking among the children of Abraham and all humanity with each other and with all the earth.

Muslims could invite other communities to join in celebrating some aspects of Eid el-Fitr (the feast at the end of Ramadan), and Jews and Christians could (as Jews have long done in Morocco) bring food to the celebration of the end of Ramadan's fasting. Eid el-Fitr marks and underlines the month-long commitment to fast that for Muslims is a way of offering food and life-abundance to God as a sacrifice, and focusing on devotion to God instead of on material success.

Blessings from a miracle of time
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