fish out of water?

[cellio]

My synagogue has several committees that focus on various things -- adult ed, worship, fundraising, and all sorts of other things. This is pretty normal. One of these committees is the social-action committee, which focuses on activities to help the surrounding community. These are the folks who usually organize the food drives, the litter picker-uppers, the petition drives for various humanitarian causes, the building of houses with Habitat for Humanity, and so on. And once a year, this committee leads a Shabbat service, as do a couple of the other committees. And when they lead a service, they get a guest speaker.

Last year they brought in the district attorney to talk about capital punishment. (This was, sadly, a guest who had a lot more potential than actual delivery, but oh well. I still enjoyed hearing him speak, not least because he didn't simply rail against capital punishment for 30 minutes.) Last Friday was this committee's service again, and this time they brought in a minister who is also in charge of a local inter-faith action group.

This inter-faith group is pretty new, and we're the first Jewish congregation to take part as far as I know. From what I gather, it's basically the social-action arms of all the member congregations getting together to do bigger projects, which is a worthy goal.

I thought this was what the speaker would talk about -- what the group is doing, where they're headed, how we can all help, and so on. That would have been informative, interesting, and productive. Alas, he did not speak about this.

What he actually did was interpret the week's Torah portion.

Now I think it's great that a guest in our community would try to speak to the things that are central to us. I really do. This required work on his part, and a degree of consideration that is probably well above the norm. But, completely unintentionally I'm sure, he missed the mark, from a Jewish perspective, on a lot of things, and it left me feeling kind of odd. I mean, here's this minister, who lives Christianity, and he's trying to step back from that, but he's not a religious-studies expert and he's not used to looking at scripture from such a different perspective. Most rabbis and imams would have the same problem in similar situations, I'm sure. So I think it's cool that he made the effort, but that next time maybe he shouldn't go there.

I know this sounds kind of proprietary, and that's not how I intend it. The problem, I think, is that three religions -- Christianity, Islam, and Judaism -- have a common starting point, the written Torah, and all three have deviated from that and added many layers of interpretation. There is stuff in Judaism that, while derived from the Torah, is unique to Judaism; I'm sure there are things in both of the other two religions that they see as derived from the Torah that are unique to them. It is easy to think of Judaism as the starting point and assume that the religion stopped there, but the rabbinic tradition is at least as rich as Christianity and Islam, and if you don't know that tradition you're going to miss the mark on a lot of things.

As many of my friends know, I'm fascinated by religion. I enjoy discussions with people of other faiths. I enjoy learning from them, exchanging ideas with them, and, if they like, debating with them. I enjoy the intellectual aspects and the spiritual aspects of such discussions. I would actually like to hear more about Islam, as it's the one of this trio that I know very little about.

But I can't help thinking that the pulpit is the wrong place for it. Seminars, lectures, informal discussion groups, and the like are great fora for such exchanges of ideas. But when visiting a congregation of a different faith from your own, I'm starting to think you should stay away from the pulpit.

I hope next year the social-action committee chooses a speaker who will focus on an issue relevant to their work.

Comments

[rectangularcat]

I feel the same way about Islam except that my dad's family (except him and my other siblings) are all muslim. I didn't know them at all until I moved to Vancouver last year.

It's really weird to go with the Catholic upbringing from my mom and having a family dinner at my dad's when my uncles/aunts and cousins take a break at sundown for prayers. It was really neat to share in the various Ramadan feasts this past year. The food was amazing.

My dad is agnostic and he insists on raising my half-brother and sister that way until they can choose their own religion at 18. I find it a bit harsh and find it too bad that he doesn't want to instill traditions with them but I guess he has his reasons.

Whenever I visit him, we end up talking about the current world events. I love talking to him because he always has a different perspective. I can't describe his views to do him justice but little by little, I feel like this arabic world is starting to make sense to me.