{"id":131,"date":"2012-08-13T08:36:13","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T12:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/?p=131"},"modified":"2012-08-13T08:36:13","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T12:36:13","slug":"a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html","title":{"rendered":"A Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jews and Muslim share a remarkable history. Medieval Jewish scholars read Aristotle and Plato in the Arabic translation. The masterpiece of Jewish philosophy\u2013Maimonides\u2019 Guide to the Perplexed\u2013was written in Arabic.<\/p>\n

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed the deterioraton of that relationship. While Jewish-Christian relations have never been better, Jewish-Muslim dialogue consistently falters.<\/p>\n

What We Share<\/strong><\/p>\n

Focusing on shared religious values is one way we can improve them. The month of Ramadan is an ideal opportunity. The parallels between the traditions and teachings of Ramadan and the message of the High Holy Days are striking. Consider the following:<\/p>\n

1. Fasting:<\/strong> During Ramadan Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. On the Jewish Day of Atonement\u2013Yom Kippur\u2013Jews undertake a 25-hour fast.<\/p>\n

What is the purpose of fasting? To focus our minds on matters of the spirit.<\/p>\n

Too often we live purely in the physical and material world. As the poet Wordsworth put it, \u201cGetting and spending, we lay waste our powers.\u201d Fasting helps us avoid that trap. It reminds to look at the higher purpose of our existence<\/em>. What do we live for? What is most important to us?<\/p>\n

2. Mercy:<\/strong> A traditional practice of Ramadan is to ask El Raham<\/em> (the God of Mercy) to open the gates of rahim<\/em>, or \u201cmercy.\u201d On Yom Kippur, Jews implore and refer to God as El Molei Rachamim<\/em>, the God of mercy.<\/p>\n

While both faiths emphasize God\u2019s attribute of justice\u2013that is, the idea that God asks us to do good and reject evil and provides reward and punishment for doing so\u2013both also conceive of a God who accepts and forgives our missteps. The great Jewish commentator Rashi suggested that God\u2019s greatness consists of balancing justice and mercy (Din<\/em> and\u00a0Rachamim<\/em>).<\/p>\n

3. Law<\/strong>: Judaism and Islam share a core religious concept: the centrality of a system of law. In Judaism it is known as Halakhah, which means \u201cthe way.\u201d In Islam it is known as shari\u2019a, which also means \u201cway.\u201d<\/p>\n

This concept finds concrete expression in Ramadan and in the Days of Awe. Each has a set of positive and negative commandments. Their goal is to concretize sacred concepts in daily life.\u00a0Or, to use the elegant phrase of Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, both faiths seek to translate the poetry of heaven into the prose of everyday life.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jews and Muslim share a remarkable history. Medieval Jewish scholars read Aristotle and Plato in the Arabic translation. The masterpiece of Jewish philosophy\u2013Maimonides\u2019 Guide to the Perplexed\u2013was written in Arabic. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed the deterioraton of that relationship. While Jewish-Christian relations have never been better, Jewish-Muslim dialogue consistently falters. What We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan - Truths You Can Use<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan - Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jews and Muslim share a remarkable history. Medieval Jewish scholars read Aristotle and Plato in the Arabic translation. The masterpiece of Jewish philosophy\u2013Maimonides\u2019 Guide to the Perplexed\u2013was written in Arabic. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed the deterioraton of that relationship. While Jewish-Christian relations have never been better, Jewish-Muslim dialogue consistently falters. What We…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Truths You Can Use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-13T12:36:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/08\/Muslim-Jew-Coexist-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Moffic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@chicagorabbi\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan - Truths You Can Use","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan - Truths You Can Use","og_description":"Jews and Muslim share a remarkable history. Medieval Jewish scholars read Aristotle and Plato in the Arabic translation. The masterpiece of Jewish philosophy\u2013Maimonides\u2019 Guide to the Perplexed\u2013was written in Arabic. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed the deterioraton of that relationship. While Jewish-Christian relations have never been better, Jewish-Muslim dialogue consistently falters. What We…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html","og_site_name":"Truths You Can Use","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","article_published_time":"2012-08-13T12:36:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/08\/Muslim-Jew-Coexist-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Evan Moffic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@chicagorabbi","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html","name":"A Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan - Truths You Can Use","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/08\/Muslim-Jew-Coexist-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2012-08-13T12:36:13+00:00","dateModified":"2012-08-13T12:36:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/08\/Muslim-Jew-Coexist-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/truthsyoucanuse\/files\/2012\/08\/Muslim-Jew-Coexist-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/2012\/08\/a-rabbi-reflects-on-ramadan.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Rabbi Reflects on Ramadan"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/","name":"Truths You Can Use","description":"Jewish Wisdom, Jewish Blogs, Daily Jewish Inspiration and Jewish News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/#\/schema\/person\/55ddc5e03d79abbfcc6d4f944687d65d","name":"Evan Moffic","description":"Rabbi Evan Moffic writes for people of all faiths. His book, What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus was a 2015 best-seller. His upcoming book of devotions\u2014Shalom for the Heart\u2014takes short biblical passages and show they way they can help us make better choices and live with fewer regrets. With Rabbi Moffic, you will find an open, accessible guide to life\u2019s deepest truths. A husband and father, he graduated from Stanford University in 2000, and was ordained a rabbi in 2006. He leads a congregation in suburban Chicago. You can connect with him directly at emoffic@gmail.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.rabbimoffic.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RabbiEvan\/","https:\/\/x.com\/chicagorabbi"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/author\/emoffic"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/truthsyoucanuse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}