Audrey spoke beautifully about the two main focuses of the book of Bemidbar and her Parashah: being in the wilderness literally and metaphorically, and that individuals matter.
Each journey can both enrich and challenge us at the same time. And, that might be the point of our journeys: to grow while on them and not just to reach our desired destinations.
10 years ago I came back from Israel where I had ended up during the previous war with Gaza. I was probably a bit traumatised by shelters, rockets and crying with my friends and family about the news of more Israeli solders being killed. Israel is a small country so almost everyone knows someone whose child or friend or family member was murdered.
On the day of my arrival I saw a huge pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the BBC studios and came back to my scared community, slightly traumatised by the level of increased antisemitism, with some refusing to come back to the Synagogue out of fear.
Jewish and Muslim communities of Nottingham were being torn apart by the conflict thousands of miles away almost literally in front of my eyes. I promised myself to do something about it.
When 6 months later my Muslim friend Sajid Muhammed and I agreed to start a joint project together between our communities feeding people in need and tried to secure some funding to rent a place in the poorest area of the city we failed to succeed. After several interviews with various organizations one of my Christian colleagues told us honestly that to get this project off the ground in the current climate would be a miracle because everyone knows that Jews and Muslims don’t work together.
4 months later Sajid and I with a few more committed people from our respective communities were anxiously waiting for people to show up at the our launch. At 6pm we had more media in the room than local people from our communities. The sense of fear and anxiety was unbearable, until we quietly agreed that if only our friends and families showed up, the fact that we got to the point of the launch was a good start.
By 7 o’clock we were overwhelmed with more than 100 people showing up. It was a success. All the challenges were behind us and a new dream Muslim-Jewish project called Salaam-Shalom Kitchen was born.
Little did we know then that it was just the beginning of our long, beautiful and extremely challenging but rewarding journey to the Promised Land.
The book of Numbers is full of broigus, complaints, deaths, dramas and even rebellions. The whole generation of slaves who were not able to embrace the change, to face the challenges and to spiritually grow as people died in the wilderness.
It would be very easy for me to be judgemental of our ancestors and to blame them for not seeing the bigger picture, for their fears, cowardice or impatience, for stabbing each other in the back and not being able to live up to the challenge.
But I can’t because I know how difficult or even impossible it can feel to an individual or a group or a nation to face a challenge or to address it.
As a nation, as a country we have many challenges to address on our journey but it does not feel like we really face them or deal with them: increasing number of illegal immigrants, struggling NHS, inflation, decreasing lack of opportunities for young people, political instability. And I am not sure that a change of Government can solve these problems if we, as individuals, won’t get involved with providing support to those in need and keeping our politicians accountable for their undelivered promises.
Salaam-Shalom kitchen saw several steering groups changing over the years, with some people from both communities resigning over the war in Gaza or Muslim terrorists. We went through some challenging times but this year was most challenging…
But despite all the challenges we celebrated our 9th birthday last Sunday and were called “the beacon of hope in our difficult times”.
Over the years we have learnt to face the challenges and embrace them rather than to run away from them. We are a beacon of hope because despite the pressure from the far right ends of both communities we make it work and we walk the path of cooperation, friendship and peace.
We have learnt over the years that “perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.”[1]
We also learned to enjoy and embrace the journey, without losing sight of our destination.
Andrew Doyle, playwright and journalist from Northen Ireland remarked: “In a principled effort to shield children from harm, we have put them at greater risk by promoting the idea that to be challenged is a form of emotional abuse.” [2]
The book of Numbers urges us to do so. Audrey said that the second theme of her Parashah was the lesson that individuals matter.
And they do.
One of our journeys at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue is the journey of peace and friendship. Here we don’t just talk about peace, we work for peace. Our next interfaith event is the interfaith walk on June 20th later in the afternoon, where our EcoGroup members together with their interfaith friends will measure the quality of air at different places of worship in Barnet. The success of this walk and us hosting it here at the Synagogue will depend on many of you supporting it and being here on the day.
Our journey will not be completed if the next generation of our community, our wonderful and brilliant young people like Audrey, don’t support us in this noble endavour and a beautiful aim of living in peace and friendship with our neighbours. This journey might be a long one but I know that with our young people at EHRS we will continue on the right path towards our destination.
Rabbi Tarfon said: It is not our job to finish the work, but neither we can abstain from it. Our journey continues, lets enjoy it together.
[1] Walter Elliot, The Spiritual Life, in The Macmillan Treasury of Relevant Quotations, collated by Edward E. Murphy;
[2] Andrew Doyle in the New Puritans.
If you would like to learn more about or support Salaam-Shalom Kitchen please click the link below:
Salaam Shalom Kitchen Nottingham – A joint Muslim / Jewish charity project
