What is the Jewish Holiday of Sukhot? Sukhot is the festival in which God embraces the people, after they've confessed their sins on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. At Evergreen I would pray in the four directions and up and down with the Lulav as Jews were doing around world, in the Evergreen Sukkot. The Lulav is made 3 different types of plants (myrtle, willow, and citron) and also includes a lemon. The Lulav's existence has Biblical basis in Leviticus where God orders the lulav's use on the holiday of Sukkot.
Two of the coordinators of Evergreen Hillel drove me to Chabad of Olympia. Once there I helped set up the tables and the Sukhot dinner. Over the course of the day I came to know them as friends.
I was welcomed, but I don't think religion and ethnicity combined has helped the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in any way. If anything, it's the reason behind it. You have two peoples who believe they are entitled to the land because of God's will. When you are enacting will of God, anything is worth dying for God's name (at least according to all the martyrs of history). When ethnicity and religion are combined it's easier to have an in-group - out-group mentality, which is the basis behind conflict. It's harder to kill someone who is just like you. But you can kill someone who is an "other."
Our differences can be great things though. I don't agree with all religions traditions, but I have seen many people find fulfillment and make a difference within in these traditions. Tradition were what I experienced there with the Hasidic Orthodox community of Chabad of Olympia.
I took part in the prayers and songs before and during when we moved to the Sukhot. Afterwords the coordinators of Evergreen Hillel and I talked with the Rabbi about Judaism, Hasidicism and Kaballah.
Hasidicism is a mystic orthodox tradition that was founded in 1740 by Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer in answer to Jewish legalistic tradition. I hope to learn more about this specific Judaism. What I discovered that night was the sexes are separated so both of them can be fully focused on God while the Rabbi preaches (I do think this is necessary in any faith, I can understand the want for people to be focused on the prayers and connecting to God though). I also learned that Judaism gave up animal sacrifices around the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Prayers, then became the sacrifice during worship. Orthodox judaism is also the only Judaic tradition in which women cannot become rabbis. The justification I heard was that women are closer to God because they were made from creation (made from Adam) while men need rules,structure and a group in order to be close to God. Women receive that closeness to God by virtue of being women.
I have much to learn about the many faiths I will be exploring. Each visit and conversation is another chance to explore the tip of iceberg and beyond of what each religion believes, and through those discoveries more on what it means to be human.
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