3rd Meeting of the Students' Environmental Interfaith Encounter - 5th April 2005:

Meetings of the Students' Environmental Interfaith Encounter:

During the second semester of the academic year we had 5 meetings of the students' environmental interfaith encounter group. As you may recall, the first meeting dealt with "The Tree" and the second in "Water" from the Jewish perspective.

The 3rd meeting took place on April the 5th. Before the meeting we were contacted by Prof. Aron Wolf of Oregon State University, who deals with issues of use in the precious resource of water and of solving regional conflicts around questions of water. We asked Prof Wolf to open the meeting with a short overview of his work and he agreed. Prof. Wolf presented a fascinating possibility of solving water disputes through interfaith understanding.

Then we discussed together the issue of "Water" from the Muslim perspective. Several quotes from the Koran were brought, dealing with water and their significance and the issue of purity came forward especially. The issue fo purity through water turned out to be also significant in Judaism. Participants who are knowledgeable in those rules in Judaism and Islam compared them and with their help we discovered that there is a lot of similarity.

Water as a vital factor to all life came up as a central motif. Water comes directly from God. In Koran there is also scientific knowledge about the formation of rain. The rain comes to earth clean, from the sky, and the cleanness of the water coming from the sky is what makes them pure and gives them the ability to purify the human.

This was the second meeting on water and, as Prof. Wolf pointed out, one of the understanding that can grow in an interfaith encounter is that the joint standing in front of God, in prayer, when we all stand equal in front of God, is a standing that makes possible a deeper understanding to the needs of the other, who is near me and who needs water as I do.

This encounter got a lot of media attention. It was briefly mentioned in the Hebrew local newspaper "Kol Ha'Ir" and more widely covered in the Jerusalem Post, that can be read at: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1114049939361&p=1077423454793. We were also interviewed by the "All for Peace" radio, that works to promote understanding between Palestinians and Israelis.

Reported by Noa Milikowsky & Rasha Abu Arshid


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