Rabbi’s Corner – Ripple effect
This week I had the pleasure of meeting Imam Rafiq Ismail Patel in Blackburn. Rafiq is the chair of the council of Lancashire Mosques which covers over 100 Mosques and institutions. We met together with Andy Pratt who is the chair of the Lancashire Forum of Faiths and the newly appointed Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner in Lancashire.
The meeting was basically a get to know session and it was fascinating sharing our daily struggles as faith leaders.
My long term goal is to start building better Jewish-Muslim relations in our Lancashire area.
If we want people to understand us – what we believe and hold sacred and cherish – then we must be proactive to present ourselves to those of different faiths. With so many competing narratives we cannot just leave people to “work us out”.
I am delighted and excited to have been invited to speak at the Islamic college Jamiah in Blackburn at the end of June where I will be addressing an assembly as well as an open questions session with boys aged 15-18. I want to be able to answer the difficult questions but most importantly to show a human face to our faith.
The Abrahamic faiths are all ultimately sourced in the Torah. And prior to God’s covenant with Abraham, at the very outset of creation mankind was taught that “And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27). This is the basis of mutual understanding tolerance, respect, compassion and empathy for each other. If we all have one source and one Author then we can discover
Sadly I think the secular approach to the origins of life without the underpinning of (what we term) Judaeo-Christian values is bereft of any moral value. Reinterpreting morality in Darwinian terms will ultimately not work and so actually it is extremely important that different faith groups work together to promote a moral basis for living in peace and harmony.
I am proud to represent Judaism and in particular our St Anne’s community. We live in a era where there is so much misinformation about Judaism and Jews that is “out there” on the internet and it is incredibly important that we put out there the true facts.
I mentioned to someone this week my plan and their response surprised me “Why bother speaking to those of other faiths. There are millions of Muslims so do you really think your words can have an impact?”.
My response was that this is flawed way of thinking in general. If we think along those lines then why bother doing anything positive as we cant change the whole (eg giving charity etc). The truth is that Judaism believes that change must start with ourselves. When we live up to the Torah’s ideals then the light we generate within ourselves shines outwards to others and the impact is far greater than we can imagine or even measure.
To illustrate this point let me share a wonderful story I saw this week about Rabbi David Lapin’s encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1976. Rabbi Lapin was working both in business and teaching Torah in an Academy but had become overwhelmed with the dual responsibilities and its impact on family etc. He was unsure if he should continue in both fields and so he went to see the Rebbe to discuss. The Rebbe advised that he should continue to work in both fields
But Rabbi Lapin could not contain his thoughts and emotions and burst out —-“I don’t think that this is realistic. I’m already up to here … I feel very humbled and very honored that you would even talk to me this way, but it just isn’t realistic!”
I remember clearly his response to my outburst. He said: “I’ll tell you what your difficulty is – you think that human interaction is like a chemical reaction. But it isn’t. In a chemical reaction, there are two elements which interact with each other, and they result in a third compound.
“But people aren’t chemicals. When people interact, the result is a nuclear reaction. A nuclear reaction occurs at the core and then it radiates in a spherical, rather than a linear, way. As the outer rings of your sphere get bigger and bigger, the number of people you are touching gets bigger and bigger – indeed, there is no limit.
“When you touch the heart of one person, there is a nuclear reaction because that person in turn touches so many other people. So, each person you touch – even if it is a moment’s interaction – represents a nuclear reaction in terms of impact. That’s what it really is.”
He was right of course, and way ahead of the research that, since then, has proven his words to be true. For example, the Framingham Heart Study showed that people’s mood affects others three times removed – that is, one’s friend’s friend’s friends. We impact people not just with our words but with our moods and our energy.
Coming back to our lives never underestimate the power you have to influence your surroundings.
Hashem puts us in exactly the place we need to be in order to fulfil our potential and make our corner of the world that bit holier, light-filler and Godlier.
Shabbat Shalom. |
Inter-faith dialogue, especially during a time of increased tension and the perennial problem of the proliferation of misinformation, particularly on social media, is imperative if greater understanding of what unites us, ultimately our common humanity, what we share from revelation, but also, and importantly, where we have different traditions, that don’t have to be a source of antagonism but rather an enrichment of our spiritual identity. The French express it well: vive la difference. We live in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, pluralist society and it is very important we do not allow, by default, the ghettoisation of minority communities; by reaching out to our neighbours, we have much to gain. I wish Rabbi Danny a positive encounter with our Muslim brothers.