Celebrating Sukkot: a luncheon club talk - Wednesday 30 September 2015

Pictures below from here

Celebrate Sukkot 

in the very heart of the Melbourne CBD

The Council of Christians and Jews (Victoria) 

would like to invite you to a Luncheon Club talk on:

For God's Sake - who speaks for god? 

Passion, tolerance and extremism

Date: Wednesday 30 September 2015

Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00pm

Location:

City Sukkah in "old City Square", 

Swanston Street in front of Starbucks and the Westin Hotel

 

About the speaker:

Born in Zimbabwe, raised in South Africa Rabbi Ralph Genende is a well-known and popular Modern Orthodox Rabbi. Ralph was Senior Rabbi to the Auckland, New Zealand Jewish community for ten years. He then became College Rabbi at Mount Scopus College and rabbi of Beit Aharon congregation. Currently Rabbi Genende is Senior Rabbi of Caulfield Hebrew Congregation, one of Melbourne’s largest congregations, Senior Rabbi to the Australian Defence Force, Chair of the Religious Advisory Council to the Minister of Defence (RACS), Executive Member of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, board member of AIJAC and member of the Premier's Mulitifaith Advisory Group. Rabbi Genende is a trained counsellor with a Masters degree from Auckland University. He is married to Caron, a psychologist and they have three children – Eyal, Daniella and Yonatan.

 

Cost: $10.00 including lunch

 

RSVP: phone 03 9429 5212; email: ccjvic@bigpond.net.au 

"I believe religion can be a force to reduce warfare, even if warring cannot be eliminated. "

Ethiopian Elders and Sukkot: Wisdom in the Wilderness

Another in our series of blogs sees Tanenbaum Peacemaker Dr. Ephraim Isaac from Ethiopia, talk about how locally led initiatives are key to building peace on Peace Day in Africa and around the world

During the last fifty years, there have been terrible conflicts in the Horn of Africa that have cost millions of lives. In that period, about five hundred large and small conflicts worldwide have occurred in which a larger percentage were inspired by religious motives or promoted by religious leaders.

I was born during the Italo-Ethiopian conflict. When the war ended in 1941, I was about three years old. One of my playmates was killed during the liberation war. As a child I never understood what it meant to be killed by a bomb, but it left a deep hatred of war in me. Fortunately, my father, a Yemenite Jew, was a strong believer in the Hebrew Prophets who taught peace, love and respect.

A favorite of my father was the Prophet Isaiah. He said about three thousand years ago “nations will no longer wage war against each other; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks”.

I believe religion can be a force to reduce warfare, even if warring cannot be eliminated. Messages about peace are practically universal in religion.

In general, since ancient times, the tradition of all the peoples of my homeland, Ethiopia, have been known as a tolerant, hospitable, and generous peoples. So, my mother too, who came from an Oromo-Cushitic tradition taught me love and peace.

I grew up seeing wise Oromo elders sitting under big sycamore trees talking about peace and reconciling with enemies. The tradition of the Oromo I knew was among the most tolerant and peaceful.

In 1989, together with a distinguished group of Ethiopian professions and elders (among them Dr. Haile Selassie Belay, Dr. Tilahun Beyene, Dr. Ahmed Moen, Dr. Mulugeta Eteffa, Dr. Astair GM Amante, and others) I helped found an ad hoc peace committee that has now evolved into the well-known Horn of Africa Peace & Development Center (PDC) in Addis Ababa.

This group has remained intact with a Horn of Africa elders group for over twenty years. From time to time the group also forms Coalition of Ethiopian Elders for specific conflict resolution purposes. We as a family of peacemakers and elders have led many successful peace building efforts in modern Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa.

Such actions have to be locally led. That is why village elders worldwide are the key to world peace and reconciliation. Only simple and modest actions taken by wise unassuming local elders in specific contexts and regions can contribute to lasting peace. Is the world ready to show respect to such wise elders and collaborate with them?

In my humble opinion, sitting under a tree and speaking directly with conflicting parties for little or no pay, can achieve much more to bring peace in the world and promote reconciliation worldwide, than sitting at round tables in beautiful hotels and expensive conference centers.

This is the season of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot when Jews move out of their fancy quarters and comfortable beds and live for about a week in a simple hut made of simple sticks and shrubs and leaves. It behooves all of us who seek peace in the world at this time of International Peace Day to come down from time to time from our high sofas and sit on humble ground for the sake of peace and reconciliation.

I myself plan this Peace Day 21st September 2013 to have a reception at my place, to sit on humble ground with some of my friends to talk about the method of peace and reconciliation based on action.
 

Sharing the wisdom of marriage - a COMMON event sharing also the experience of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles

Not too sure how this picture can be made.
Please go to this site for more readability.

As readers of this blog will know, we are in the middle of what are known as the High Holy Days within the Jewish tradition.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur have passed and now we move into Sukkot known as the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles which serves to remind people of their time in the desert after leaving Egypt thousands of years ago.  (Scroll back a little and you will find posts about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur)

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh - who is Secretary of the Ballarat Interfaith Network - will be one of the speakers at this event next Saturday.  Please come along and support her and say hello.

YOM KIPPUR - the Day of Atonement

As I write this, my Jewish friends in Melbourne and Brisbane are having a meal before the fast of Yom Kippur begins. 

Last week there was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which marks the entry to what is commonly known as the High Holy days.  This ten day period is known as the Days of Awe. This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur.

Fasting on Shabbat (the Sabbath - Saturday) is not usual.  In the Jewish calendar there are six fasts. If any one of them (apart fromYom Kippur) falls out on Shabbat, Shabbat takes precedence and there is no fasting on that day. The fast is usually pushed off until Sunday (or in one instance -- the Fast of Esther -- it is observed on the Thursday beforehand, because the day after Shabbat, Sunday, will be Purim).

The one exception to this rule is Yom Kippur, when we fast even if it is Shabbat, as it is a biblical fast, and the Torah calls it "Shabbat Shabbaton" - the Shabbat of Shabbats (in English, the Sabbath of Sabbaths) implying that it takes precedence over Shabbat.

 "Tsom Kal" (have an easy fast) 

or, if you prefer,

 "Tsom Mo'iil" (have a  benefitting fast)

See also 

Jewish Greetings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Rosh_Hashanah_and_Yom_Kippur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur

....and after all this,

next week there is Sukkot.

I will be celebrating this at East Melbourne Synagogue.

Picture from here