Day 10 of Elijah Interfaith Summer School
Thursday 13th August 2020 — Hosted in Jerusalem, participants zoomed-in from around the world
We started the last day with listing 2 insights of the previous day,
- COVID 19 is called 19 because of it started in 2019
- It is airborne
That probably comes from David Rutstein being a former Deputy Surgeon General of the United States.
I knew these were not the answers that Alon would be seeking but as with the previous 9 days, I like to surprise him.
So I had more ‘appropriate insights’
- Armenia is a nation and a religion (Armenian orthodoxy)
- An aura usually surrounds a leader
to make up for my mischief I added in a few others
3. Leadership is recognised by others
4. The difficulty for some of the word leadership
5. An unplastered square on the wall of a Jewish home
One of my fellows used the phrase, ‘The crystal in the crisis’ aka the positives of COVID 19, such a great term.
We were then asked to take 10 minutes to reflect in silence after which we would take 10 minutes to write about our experience of the school.
“The Elijah summer school story starts for me in August last year 2019 when I was staying at the Abraham hostel in Jerusalem. I picked up a leaflet about the summer school and I believe I emailed Peta when I was there.
I joined the mailing list and in February I was planning Leave and to book. COVID 19 was putting a question on whether it would happen. COVID 19 also brought Praying for Jerusalem to zoom and from April I was able to join those meetings. I then learned that the summer school would be happening by zoom.
I would have only been able to do a week if I had been in Israel but via zoom two weeks were possible.
I was very taken by the idea of being a part of the school from home and organising my life around it. I think you may recall my excitement on the first day. When I get excited about something I go to the max.
Shifts have occurred particularly on the Bibiogenius of Gregory the Great. Oration 14 spoke to me and softened my heart and caused me to act which fits with one of the teachers who said, “If your meditation is not leading to acts fix the meditation.”
We have formed a community. I was a bit concerned about the second week and numbers but it is has been fine.
I am concerned about leaving this place and the withdrawal.”
The words of Rabbi Tamar were shared,
“Each and every creature in the world of God has a voice. Religion is not about saying to everyone, “Everything is okay.” Religion is about inviting everyone to be present, where they are right now in the world of God, to acknowledge that they are. To acknowledge that they are going through something. They are not erased by religion; they are more present by religion, to voice what they are going through and to blow that “shofar” (ram’s horn), to make it present and heard before even the words. Prayer is before all words. It is allowing God to come back and to breathe into them.”
Rabbi Tamar Elad-Applebaum (Jewish), Israel
It was good that we spent the last day reflecting as it helped me prepare to leave.
The last session was spent looking at what changes could be made and how the school itself could attract future participants.
The session ended with Alon singing in Hebrew Psalm 42. When he ended there was a silence and then someone said, “Goodbye everyone”. We said our goodbyes and then pressed the button, ‘Leave meeting’.
Where does the song go after it sung? Where do we go after 10 days?
Next year Jerusalem,
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