An Opening Evening with Gershom Gorenberg

After our nap and dinner we had an amazing discussion with this author and journalist. Gorenberg has written a few books and covered a variety of charged situations about the conflict between Israel and Palestine much of which to summed up in an hour long lecture type of discussion with us. He posed questions to the group and then answered them as a way of conveying his perspective to us, which comes from his study of the interaction of religion and politics. Some of the most fascinating were, Why is Jerusalem here? How many times is Jerusalem referenced in the Torah or Quran and are we prisoners of stories and symbols? How would you answer these questions, or better yet do you feel like you have enough background to be able to answer them? I know I didn't feel like I could last night, but now I feel like as a part of my change mantra it is a duty to help others begin to explore them, and because I think a part of my constant change is to feel more capable and confident with religion and my ability to critique it and accept what I believe as a result of the education and critique. Why is Jerusalem here? In short because of the sanctity of the place. Specifically, rulers and kings conquer or take over (perhaps you could use the word supersede here, as in supersessionism of Christianity over Judiasm) holy places, things that are of value to others in order for them to loose hope or to make them follow the new regime. Temple 1 built by Solomon on a mound and destroyed by Babylonians, Temple 2 built and on the same mound then Herod expands the mound to give a larger space to worship and builds walls around the mound, all of which were destroyed (except for the Western Wall), by the Romans in the siege and the Jews were banned from being there, Muslims then built the Islamic shrine (mosque) on the site of temple known as the Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem is NOT mentioned in the Torah or the Quran. That doesn't mean that is isn't eluded to in other ways but it is never mentioned as Jerusalem. For instance is Genesis the binding of Issac is talked about and it happens on Mount Moriah. It is however mentioned in the New Testament as where the ultimate religious individual goes through the ultimate religious test (Jesus & the crucifixion). Finally we are prisoners of stories and symbols if we wish to be. People can be controlled by them and/or they can also use them. Stories and symbols are peoples facts and people need to own them and honor them. This does not necessarily make them historically factual. And thus brings me to the end of Gershom, which was also the same meaning of my blog from yesterday. You must recognize that people are telling their stores and their truth is factual for them, you however have to choose how you will interpret those stories.