Tel Aviv Youth Interfaith Encounter on 29 May 2006:

After the impressive discussion we have had several weeks before with the Turkish lecturers about Peace and Islam we met again on Monday, 29th of May, in order to share a discussion about the concept of "Matan-Torah" (receiving of the Torah, or the revelation). From the Jewish perspective it was about the most appropriate time: the last days of the Omer's counting, the seven weeks the Jews count from the beginning of Passover till the Shavuot's holiday (Feast of Weeks, Pentecost) that are parallel to the historical counting of the people of Israel at the time they where on the Sinai desert, preparing themselves to the great occasion of the revelation (the Mt. Sinai revelation during which the Torah was given).

In addition to the conversation about the Shavuot's day which stands in the background for the Jews, we've heard also about the receiving of the Holy Spirit among the ancient Christian community in Jerusalem as it is depicted on "Acts", as well as the revelation to the prophet Muhammad as it described in the Islamic tradition. From some point in his life, Muhammad used to isolate himself in the mount Chira which is near to Mecca. That ritual continued until on a certain Ramadan month the angel Gabriel has revealed to him under the command of God. Adeeb talked about the Islamic tradition which calls this first night of the revelation as the night of destiny or decree ("Lilat Elkadar"), a night that the Islam sees as stands in an outmost importance, in which the fates of people are determined. Till then without knowledge of reading and writing, Muhammad saw during his sleeping an angel (Gabriel) presents a bolt before him, ordering to read the script. At the beginning he didn't understand what's the angel's purpose was, and answered that he has no reading abilities. Then the miracle was happened, with the angel's repeating his order "you shall read in the name of your God, the creator of yours!" Then Muhammad read the script. Since this event the revelation continued. Muhammad turned his massage to the idolater audience around him who where deeply rooted on materialistic aspirations. He wished to convert them from this way of thinking to the faith of one spiritual God.

During the discussion we talked about the need to expose our activity more widely to the students and were happy to know about the students association of Tel Aviv University's willing to cooperate with us.

Reported by Shabi Elashvili and Adib Zoughbi


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