{"id":1414,"date":"2012-03-17T17:13:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T21:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/?p=1414"},"modified":"2012-03-25T17:06:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-25T21:06:27","slug":"good_grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2012\/03\/good_grief.html","title":{"rendered":"Good Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Moslem<\/a>
Moslem Tov?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Note<\/strong>:\u00a0 I continue to fill in for Aziz Poonawalla on this site for the next couple of weeks.\u00a0 For those who are interested, these posts will also be available on my own blog Notes from The Heart<\/a>as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a bar mitzvah ceremony at a conservative temple here in Los Angeles.\u00a0 I am well known to many in the congregation due to my profession and I was greeted with warmth and acceptance, despite my Muslim faith.\u00a0 Although this was not my first temple service, it was the first I attended that fell on Shabbat.\u00a0 As such, it was the first time I participated in the full religious ritual.\u00a0 The result was a transformative experience in many ways.<\/p>\n

The similarities were eerie, almost like practicing Islam in another dimension.\u00a0 The sermon was basically about a favorite Muslim topic–tawhid<\/em> <\/a>(but as it related to Moses and Aaron, a different subject for a different time).\u00a0 The head coverings, the segregation of men and women (though not as strict), and the bowing during prayer all evoked images of Muslim services.\u00a0 Since we share a common heritage, it will come as no surprise to those versed in history or theology that our services have so much in common<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At first, one thing I found a little surprising was the emphasis on holocaust remembrance.\u00a0 While I am reasonably familiar with the inhuman atrocities committed during the holocaust, I was initially taken aback by the emphasis placed on the holocaust during the services.\u00a0 After all, my thoughts went, this happened seventy years ago in a far away land, and most of the younger people in the room had never actually met a victim.\u00a0 Did they really need to perseverate on it so much?<\/p>\n

Three words \u00a0from my wife caused perspective to crash down upon me, however, as she whispered to me “It’s their Karbala”.<\/p>\n

Karbala<\/a>, of course, refers to the infamous massacre at Karbala, Iraq perpetrated 1400 years ago on Husain ibn Ali<\/a>, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed<\/a> (SA).\u00a0 It is commemorated regularly to this day by Shi’as (such as myself), especially during the Islamic month of Muharram<\/a>.\u00a0 It is mentioned at almost every Shi’a service, and often evokes almost uncontrollable expressions of grief, even today.<\/p>\n

The power of grief to unite and galvanize a community is second to none.\u00a0 The massacre of Karbala and the holocaust share this trait in common.\u00a0 Both are grotesque acts of violence, willfully perpetrated on innocents.\u00a0 Both of these events are used to unite, and indeed define, their respective communities.\u00a0 Most historians consider the massacre at Karbala to be the coalescent moment of the Shia movement, which had actually begun a generation earlier.\u00a0 Similarly, while the modern Zionist movement<\/a> was in existence long before World War II, the holocaust served to coalesce the movement into a definable and concrete entity.\u00a0 Even the events of 9\/11 can be understood in a similar fashion, as they served to unite the country like very few times in our history. Unfortunately, along with the patriotism, they also awoke the xenophobia which long lived under the surface of the American psyche.<\/p>\n

Grief is the ultimate expression of love.\u00a0 Without love, there can be no grief.\u00a0 And thus expressions of grief help us to realize the love we harbor inside ourselves.\u00a0 The grief that we feel serves a true barometer of our internal value for the lost, a barometer immune even from self-delusion.\u00a0 In this way, grief serves as a true reflection of our soul.\u00a0 To grieve with someone is thus to share a special bond with them, a bond between the souls.\u00a0 In this way, shared grief can unite a community like no other single experience.<\/p>\n

The holocaust is a trauma on the Jewish experience which will never, and should never, heal.\u00a0 Much like the effect of Karbala on the Shi’as, the holocaust unites the Jewish people, and even defines them in a very real sense.\u00a0 Thus, it will very likely be remembered and commemorated 1400 years hence, much as Karbala is today.\u00a0 The critical observer will find many differences between these events, however.\u00a0 They would be correct in doing so.\u00a0 But I would endeavour to focus on the similarities instead, as collective grief is one of the common bonds of humanity which unite us.\u00a0 With my wife’s simple but profound sentence at that moment, I was privileged to share in that grief; and at least for a moment I became one with my Abrahamic brothers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note:\u00a0 I continue to fill in for Aziz Poonawalla on this site for the next couple of weeks.\u00a0 For those who are interested, these posts will also be available on my own blog Notes from The Heartas well. 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