Period of intense activity at Elijah
25/07/2025 | Na stronie od 25/07/2025
Source: Elijah Interfaith Institute
Wisdom Newsletter July 25
Invitations, Invitations, Invitations.
This is a period of intense activity at Elijah. We would like to invite members of our community to several events that they may join on zoom or in person. Future issues will report on these events, but let us for now offer you options to share in our processes of sharing wisdom and offering prayers for peace and for the world.
- Resurrection in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
- Visions for a Future Redeemed World
- Jewish Theology – Conversations
- Praying Together in Jerusalem
- Sharing Wisdom
- Resurrection in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
As part of our summer school program, devoted to “Visions of the Afterlife”, we’d like to invite you to join Prof. Jon Levenson of Harvard Divinity School, Prof. Anne Marie Reijnen of the Institut Catholique de Paris and Imam Yahya Pallavacini, head of COREIS, the Islamic Muslim community of Italy. Prof. Levenson will explore the biblical foundations of the faith in the resurrection and Prof. Reijnen will explore to what degree has Christianity fully adopted faith in the resurrection and how has that changed over time. Imam Yahya will offer a response. When: July 30th at 4:00 pm Israel time.
- Prof. Jon Levenson
- Prof. Anne Marie Reijnen
- Imam Yahya Pallavacini
2. Visions for a Future Redeemed World
We would also like to invite you to join the closing session of the summer school. A panel of leaders associated with the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders will explore “Visions for a Future Redeemed World”. Typically, we think of the afterlife as the destiny of the individual following death. But was is the vision of a future redeemed world in this world, and in what way might such a vision constitute part of a vision of the afterlife? What are the moral consequences of such a vision?
When: Thursday July 31st at 4 pm Israel time. We will begin with a few minutes of prayer, as we do every week (a little earlier than usual) Please stay with us for the following 3 hour session.
Join Zoom
- Swami Atmapriyananda
- Archbishop Antje Jackelén
- Rabbi Arthur Green
- Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh
- Prof. Fuad Naeem
3. Jewish Theology – Conversations
The World Congress of Jewish Studies is meeting in Jerusalem, August 4 th to 8 th . This is also the occasion for the launch of Alon Goshen-Gottstein’s theological magnum opus: In God’s Presence: A Theological Introduction to Judaism, published by Baker Academic, 2025 and distributed, and first featured, by Magnes Press as part of the Congress. Two sessions will be devoted to engaging issues that arise out of this work.
a. Reintroducing Judaism: Jewish Theology, Jewish Story
Chair: Miri Freud Kandel
Session abstract: How to describe Judaism, to make sense of it, to offer a framework through which it makes sense to both insider and outsider? Describing a religion and making sense of the ensemble of facts that make up its reality is never something self-evident, to be taken for granted. Every attempt to make sense is an interpretation of a larger whole through the interpretive lens of the thinker. Judaism, thus, can never be described “correctly” or adequately. Every description is an act of construction.
Presenting Judaism involves us in providing a theoretical framework (theological) as well as in a reading of history (story). Within a broader theological framework, history is part of story, the story of Israel and its relationship with God. It is “story” that allows one to present the history of ideas and institutions in theological terms, as expressions of Israel’s relationship with God.
There is something very personal in attempting a synthetic presentation of Judaism, seen as a whole. It is personal because there is something fundamentally unscientific in the exercise, insofar as the scientific describes something predictable and repeatable. A presentation of a religion is more of an art than a science.
This session will be devoted to three different attempts to present Judaism, theologically and in the particularity of its story. It seeks to claim for Jewish theology a central place in providing meaning, in constituting identity and in serving contemporary educational and consciousness-forming challenges.
Participants:
- Alon Goshen-Gottstein: Towards a New Definition of Judaism.
- Jerome Yehuda Gellman: A Plea for an Esoteric Turn in Judaism.
- Arnie Eisen: Theology Up Close and Personal.
When: Tuesday, August 5 th , 9-11 am, Where: Humanities building, Mount Scopus, room 47236
b. Holiness and its Expressions
Chair: Alon Goshen-Gottstein
Session abstract: the notion of holiness is central to multiple dimensions of Judaism –time, space, people, holy individuals. In God’s Presence covers these dimensions and offers a theory of how holiness operates in its different expressions. Speakers at the session will examine specific manifestations of holiness in dialogue with this theory.
- Pinchas Giller: Kabblah: The Ontology of Holiness
- Reuven Kimelman: What is the function of the holy in the Liturgy?
- Ze'ev Harvey: Holiness, Space, and the Joy of Bride and Groom.
- Ron Margolin: The Crisis of the Sanctity of Life after October 7, 2023 (Hebrew).
When: Tuesday, August 5 th , 11 am to 1 pm Where: Humanities building, Mount Scopus, room 47236 (last minute venue change may occur for this session . Consult Elijah’s Facebook for any changes)
4. Praying Together in Jerusalem
August’s Praying Together in Jerusalem gathering will take place on Thursday, 7 th August at St Peter’s of Gallicantu and on Zoom. The theme will be “The Individual in the Community; the Individual and the Community,” a topic which arose out of our rich conversation last month. Our three teachers will be Qadi Mohammed Abu Obied (Muslim), Yael Unterman (Jewish) and Sari Johanna Kuittilo (Christian). Prayers will be offered by Sr Rita Kammermayer and Hanna Yaffe.
All welcome.
- Meeting ID: 896 5428 9538
- Passcode: Elijah
- Pacific time: 8 am
- ET time: 11 am
- London time: 4 pm
- Central European time: 5 pm
- Jerusalem time: 6 pm
- India time: 8:30 pm
5. Sharing Wisdom
Summer school has been a rich offering. We will be sharing with our readers some of the content over coming issues. For now, we would like to share two poems that were discussed. Both are representative of the spiritual life. The first was discussed by Archbishop Rowan Williams. It is the famous poem by George Herbert (d. 1633), Love Bade me Welcome. The second by Rabbi Yehudah Halevi (d. 1141) was the focus of a discussion by Prof. Michael Fishbane.
George Herbert
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything. ‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’ ‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’ Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’ ‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’ ‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’ ‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.Yehuda Halevy
O Sole One, My Only One, God of Faith,
Increase my song and make my melody sweet.
Let your law be your desire and right,
At all times seek to pour out your plea.
Then wealth and honor will be easy to forsake,
In your eyes, seek wisdom and understanding.
Flee joy for joy’s sake, for the revelers—
They are fools, without insight or sense.
Behold, your time is short—even if long,
It is but a fleeting moment in its season.
You have turned me back, quickly I understood—
My friend, all this is true and certain.
Call forth like a pauper begging God's face,
Forever with a voice of thanks and song.
If You will heal me, know this:
My heart is awake, though I sleep.
Wandering from on high, confined
In death's shadow and given unto death.
O Mighty God, swiftly grant me rest,
Bound in the bundle of life, hidden away.
My Redeemer lives—He will bless again,
And thus my cheek to the Living God shall sing.
The assembly of His faithful shall arrange
In the secret of life that is life in delight.
Sharing Wisdom
Elijah’s motto is “Sharing Wisdom, Fostering Peace.” Our mission is to share the wisdom of the world’s great religious traditions and here, in this 2014 video, the way in which Elijah fulfills that mission is described.
Our scholars have collated and produced excellent resources for religious leaders, academics, teachers and students. You can find sources and commentaries on the following topics: