Report One: First Impressions of a Troubled Land

March 9, 2005

Our journey to a land of deep sorrows has begun. We hear the cacophony of the songs of vegetable sellers, the stirring prayers of the children of Abraham, our Jewish sisters at the Western Wall consecrating prayers with tears, and angelic voices of Russian Orthodox girls in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where our brother Jesus denied death and inspired the hearts of his followers. We see our Muslim brothers opening up a perfume shop after hours to honor the urgency of guests. We hear the powerful stories of human beings who overcame the crushing loss of brothers, sisters and beloved children. 

The sheer courage of Muslims, Jews, and Christians living here and reaching out to befriend the other side erased the barriers in our own hearts. Nadia’s response to the horrible murder of her brother was to organize circles of Muslim, Jewish and Christian women to seek understanding through faith. Rami, whose daughter Smadar was taken by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem seven years ago, told us the greatest stupidity is the Wall. There is no wall that can prevent people who want to love each other or kill each other from going under, around or over it. Many have blood on their hands and only going forward can heal the deep wounds that shatter hearts.

the first day of travel, it has become clear that thousands of Israelis and Palestinians have devoted their lives to reaching out to each other to build bridges of hope and life. Profound loss can hurtle one into an abyss of anger and despair, where the desire to murder tormentors can overwhelm one’s life. And yet, in a land of faiths, even the secular have been raised to honor life. They seek each other out to heal the pain that cannot be healed, and devote themselves to saving even one life.

In both the Talmud and Qu’ran it is written that to save one life is to save the life of the entire world. This is the message we learned on the first day.

As we face numbing statistics about the brutality of the occupation, the amount of land lost, the number of lives taken, the rows of coffins and the eternal well of tears that stain the landscape, we took hope today from unsung heroes, never noticed in the steady stream of bad news reported about this contested land.

Beyond the sacred stones and revered sites, where prophets inspired millions to envision peace, humble families speak the truest form of devotion, the truth of the grieving who refuse to surrender hope.  Day by day, from place to place, they travel to the other side together. Day by day, year by year, bereaved Israelis and Palestinians sick of the politics that divide and kill, grow wise from their loss. The ones whose children lie buried stand together on the common ground of hope and demand an end to the stupidity of brutality that can never secure the peace.

They challenge us to embrace a just solution to the conflict before one more precious life is taken in the madness of war. They challenge us to embrace reconciliation and the relentless requirements of peace.

-- Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb for the delegation