#interfaithadventures

[omelian42]

I suggest that the most significant basis for meeting men of different religious traditions is the level of fear and trembling, of humility and contrition, where our individual moments of faith are mere waves in the endless ocean of mankind's reaching out for God, where all formulations and articulations appear as understatements, where our souls are swept away by the awareness of the urgency of answering God's commandment, while stripped of pretension and conceit we sense the tragic insufficiency of human faith.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, from No Religion Is an Island

[omelian42]

These are of the tiny, out-of-the-way "synagogue church," which commemorates the supposed site in Nazareth of the synagogue Jesus would have gone to and taught at*

*Luke 4:14-30

[omelian42]

The Benedictine Crusader Monastery, now run by the French Benedictine Monks of Abu Gosh

We chose this site to commemorate the "Road to Emmaus" episode from the Gospel of Luke,* since no one is quite sure anymore where Emmaus was. I thought it was a perfect selection, especially since all of the crusader artwork has had the faces worn away--a neat parallel with the story and its questions of identity. (It is an unintentional beauty, however, since the faces were obliterated during the Muslim conquests as part of their opposition to what they saw as graven images**.)

Not going to lie, this was/is my favorite church.

*Luke 24:13-35

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniconism_in_Islam

[omelian42]

The Crusader Church atop Masada

[omelian42]

Was just spat upon by a Hasid* for the first time. I'd like to think this means I'm doing something right.

*a member of a branch of ultra-orthodox Judaism