The Truth - Interfaith Conference in Mghar, 12-13 May 2006:

Unlike previous conferences held by the Interfaith Encounter Association, it was decided that this conference will be dedicated to the coordinators and members from the different groups in the IEA, in order to allow all the members to know each other better, create connections between the different groups and acknowledge that the groups, even if geographically distant from one another, have similar ideology and share the same vision.

Another new component in the conference was the hosting in private homes in the village - people from all over Mghar volunteered to share their homes with the conference participants, thus adding another dimension of interfaith encounter- a very personal and homey dimension.

The subject chosen as the conference theme was "The Truth", a subject which turned out to have many interpretations and very complex, and it appeared to be not only in the lecture room and discussion groups, but also in the coffee breaks, meals and the rest of the activities in the conference.

As much as 90 people arrived Friday noon to the community center in Mghar. The opening words to the conference were carried out by the Mayor of Mghar, Mr. Ziad Daghash; The Executive Director of the Interfaith Encounter Association, Dr. Yehuda Stolov; and the Director of the Community Center, Mr. Adnan Trabasha. Following them the representatives from the different religions and communities came up and congratulated, emphasizing the importance and the need for such encounters, bringing together people from different religions and backgrounds to sit together and share their thoughts and opinions.

Leaders of all religions represented in the conference spoke in the main panel; The Christian representative - Gosh Halav Priest, Father Fauzi Hori; The Muslim Kadi - Mohammad Abu Abid; The Druze Kadi, Sheikh Abu Azam Hatam Halabi; and Rabbi Shmuel Shaish, Rabbi of Tagel Arava Synagogue in Eilat.

After the panel had ended, the participants split into smaller discussion groups. Each person introduced him/herself, where they came from, and a member of which group in the Interfaith Encounter Association s/he is and why this specific encounter interested him. In all the groups, the participants chose to dive straight in to the Truth pool and discuss the meaning of the word and they perceive it.

One of the Druze women described the Truth as something that is common to all of us: "Both in the words àîú (truth) and àì (God) the first letter is Alef. The same happens in àãí (Adam- Human being), and each human being has àá åàí (father and mother- and that is a basic truth)- the Letter à (Alef), first letter of the Alfa-Bait, is in common with all these words- and the real truth is within the person, not external behavior, but his inner faith".

Before the Shabbat, the participants left with the families that were about to host them, some of the participants took a tour around the village, and heard from their hosts about the difficulties, the tensions and the everyday life in a village compiled out of people from 3 different religions.

After welcoming the Shabbat, the participants gathered to share a lovely dinner and a very special performance by the George & Salaam pair, George Saman and Salaam Darwish that sang in Hebrew and Arabic about coexistence and peace.

The next day, the discussion about Truth continued. Religions' representatives opened by expressing their understanding of Truth (summary of their presentations can be found in the end of the report), after which everyone went to their discussion groups. The concept of Truth continued on being fascinating. Most of the participants said that in their eyes, the absolute truth comes from God, and only man and society are the ones that distort it. One of the women said in her group that "truth is to love the other, respect him and give of myself as much as I can, and from here, spread my wings".

A dancing workshop was supposed to take place in the afternoon, but a tragic incident disrupted the original program. One of the village residents disappeared in the Sea of Galilee on Friday, and it turned out he drowned to death – he was a young man, married with little children. His mother and uncle attended the opening panel of the conference without knowing that in those minutes the dear son was lost. Sadness surrounded the village, and all the conference participants wished to share their respects with the deceased's family – some of the participants could not attend because of the Shabbat, the rest went to console the grieving family. It was a powerful experience for all of us, and some even said that if one looks for an absolute truth, death is it - we have no idea what will happen during our lives, but from the day we are born, there is no doubt that one day we will pass on from this world.

When it was time to say goodbye, everyone was sad, each participant was asked to sum the experience in a few words - the reactions were positive, and many said that these kinds of encounters should be continued and each one should share this amazing experience we had this weekend with as many people as possible. One of the participants said "One does not need to wait for quarrels and disputes to hold encounters; we should meet in peaceful times as well". Some of the participants made personal bonds with their hosts and other group members, and promised to meet again.

Reported by Tamar Alon
 

Some of religious representatives that spoke in the conference:

Christian representative, Sister Carmen Farrugia, Zion Sisters order:

In my short presentation, I would like to relate to this subject somewhat differently than usual. I would do this by asking questions concerning the subject. Some I will give some sort of answer, others will be left for individual thought.

1. What is the truth?
2. Who has the truth?
3. Whose truth?
4. How do we relate to the truth?
5. Is this truth far away from me, it has no connection with my daily life or that my life gives expression to my truth?
6. Can my truth and that of the other exist side by side?
7. What is required of us so that the many facets of the same truth can exist at the same time?

- It seems to me that I’m invited to come to the other (others) with an open mind. I’m invited to put in action all my gifts from the human, social, cultural points of you and the religion I derive my values from. While I do this myself, I’m also called to allow the other (others) do the same and in their own way. I should refrain from imposing my own way on the other (others).
- Listen to the other.
- Trust the other.
- Be tolerant towards the other.
- Accept that I do not have all the truth.

In this way, we can all be together, build a world that is pleasant to live in. We hope that if each one of us is faithful to his/her truth and tolerant to the other, truth in its wholeness, possessed only by the Holy One be He, will bless us, unite us not with human unity but by a divine one.

Shiah Salah Akal Hatib, Druze representative:

The monotheistic religions appeared in a certain chronological order, each religion relating to the preceding religion/s. The interfaith relations are important for understanding and a better life.

Chronological speaking, the Druze religion appeared after the 3 main religions in our area: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Therefore, the definition of "Truth" in the Druze perspective is derived from previous religious ideas, and an attempt to crystallize a "super concept" that units all of the ideas together.

Every discussion about the subject of truth raises many questions, some of them without any answers…

What is truth?
Is there truth?
How is that expressed?
Can we understand the truth beyond its dictionary meaning?
From the dawn of human history, man was searching for the truth, and not always finding answers.

Much has been written on the subject, but with no doubt, the religions scriptures approached the issue on a larger basis than other writings, and with a different perspective, and objective one.

The Creator's truth was on the minds of Prophets, Apostles and believers alike. Can we understand the divine essence which the religion perceives as "absolute truth"?

Many people debated around this important issue. Not only the Creator's truth was in the base of religious discussions, but also the truth of the human existence! In other words, why are we here? How did we become? Created? Who created us? Why do we die? And what comes after death? And so on, endless questions.

In Arabic truth = Haquiqa (حقيقة), the root of the word comes from Haq (حقّ), the word Haq is one of the 99 names of God mentioned in the Quran.

Alef (à'): àéï ñåó (infinity), àîåðä (faith), àìå÷éí (God)

Mem (î'): îöååú (commandments), îååú (death)

Taf (ú'): úôéñä (conception), úçééä (resurrection)

Rabbi Shmuel Shaish, Rabbi of Tagel Arava synagogue, Eilat:

There is an absolute truth, God is the endless truth and there is none other than it- the problem is that people are limited because of their human nature, therefore it is hard for us to have a full concept of the truth. Each person interprets the truth as he sees it, and is certain that he understand the full meaning of truth, and he and his understanding are the only true ones- thus trying to convince others of the truth he believes.

During time, the belief that "my truth" is the correct one became so strong that people began dieing for God and his truth as they understood it- Death in the name of God, Martyrs and Shahidim.

We were created in God's image to live, not to die; we must learn to live together, with the differences and to sanctify life. Not to die for a cause, but to live for it.

The Jewish sources speak about "Charity of truth" being done for a deceased person- bringing him to burial, that is true charity, because the dead do not say thank you. My hope is that we establish charity of truth towards the living and not only the dead. There is a debate in our sources (Jerusalem Talmud and Midrash) between Rabbi Akiva and Ben-Azai, regarding the most important verse in the Torah. Rabbi Akiva claimed that "Love your friend as you love yourself" is the most important, while Ben-Azai thought the verse "The day God created man, in the image of God he made him, male and female they were created" is the most significant. The reasoning for this is that "Love your friend as you love yourself" is an egotistical saying, one fears for himself thus loves the other the same. The second verse on the other hand reminds us that we were created in the image of God and we damage his holiness and our holiness if we hurt another. Further n this matter, when it was said that God created us in his image, it does not mean we look the same as God, but that we should try and follow his attributes: "Merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty". Our duty is to remember that we were created in his image and that holiness is part of our human lives.

Prophet Zacharia said "Truth and Peace you shall love", if you judge by the truth, peace prevails. And some emphasize the word "peace", because for the sake of peace, sometimes one has to compromise for the whole truth, and when peace is at hand, truth will also triumph.

Last thing about truth- The word àîú (truth) is comprised of the first letter of the Alfa-Bait, Alef (à), the middle letter Mem (î) and the last letter Taf (ú) - truth is everything, from the beginning until the end, together with everything in the middle.

The word ù÷ø (lie) on the other hand, is comprised of letters which stand near each-other in the Alfa-Bait, but not in the correct order- this is because lies have to stand close to one another, or they will collapse.

Let us begin with recognition that we can live in peace despite of the differences. The time for historical hatred should pass on, now it time for eternal loving.

We should remember that we are all created by God, and to him we shall give judgment one day, and most importantly - truth and peace.

Mr. Salah Shini, representative of Islam:

There are many examples, from science and history that prove that our disability to see thing does not indicate of their non-existence, on the contrary, there are many elements in the world which are not visible but exist- the most common example is bacteria, that lay in our bodies and surroundings, that would have never being discovered if not for science. Another example is the universe and the galaxies which are not easy to understand merely because of their enormous size. All this brings us to the conclusion that there is a great power that is God, who created in great wisdom all that we can see and "not see", to the extent of that the human mind cannot grasp the great wisdom of God. God has sent messengers to tell people of the God that created them, and whet is written in the scriptures does not contradict common sense and human intuition.

God is merely asking human beings that he created to serve him, and if we examine his commandments, we will discover that they are basically good principles for people to follow. It is important to mention that most of the religious commandments deal with higher values of human relationships.

None the less, there is a problem people have to face, that was mentioned many times by God in the Quran: Satan (the devil), invisible creature for the human senses (but as I said before, if you cannot see something, doesn't necessarily mean that it does not exist).

God speaks to us in one of the verses and says: " يا ايها الناس كلوا مما في الارض حلالا طيبا ولا تتبعوا خطوات الشيطان انه لكم عدو مبين* انما يامركم بالسوء والفحشاء وان تقولوا على الله ما لاتعلمون" (البقرة 168-169)               

- Meaning that one should not listen to the devil's voice although it sounds as his own voice. That is because Satan speaks to humans in the same frequency as the human voice, thus confusing us. Satan works to stop people from serving God and making them follow the path of the wicked and evil.

Another important issue is the Islamic perspective on different areas of life- if we examine it we will discover that it calls for equality, justice and liberty with other nations and between all people, and this bring prosperity in this life and the other life, in heaven.

Therefore, I think that the real war for humans should be with Satan, who is the one that drove or forefather from paradise. God has tested us with the devil, in order to see how should be in heaven, and who will wrong do his human brother thus condemning himself Hell together with his Satan friend.

To conclude, through Islamic philosophy one can reach the living paradise and the one after death, because the creator knows best for the humans he has created.


(Back to Reports)