Last week, my family and I were invited to spend 24 hours at a Muslim community’s winter retreat in San Diego. Over the past two years, we have been building friendships around our common desire for spirituality, learning from each other, and our common roots in our ancestor Abraham.
Pacifica Institute is a mostly Turkish Muslim community inspired by the Imam Fethullah Gulen who created the Hizmet (service) movement. Besides traditional training in Islam (Gulen had memorized the entire Qur’an by the age of 12 years), he was deeply influenced by Sufism – the mystical approach to Islam – made most popular by the poet Rumi. What was remarkable and courageous about Gulen was that his mystical and humanistic approach to Islam extended his concern and focus beyond the religious practice to being of service to society at large – through education focused on creating deeply moral and openhearted Muslims and extending to interfaith relationships. This approach is in stark contrast to the highly politicized Islam that contains anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist rhetoric and thinking.
As a result, he and all members of the Hizmet movement have been persecuted in Turkey by the authoritarian secular government who feels threatened by their growing influence. Many members of Pacifica have fled from Turkey to avoid being incarcerated.
A few hours after our arrival at the retreat, I was invited to speak for 10-15 minutes before the group of 400 participants to speak about my experience at the retreat so far, and my understanding and perception of the Hizmet movement as a Jew and rabbi from the outside looking in. An hour earlier I had just participated in a study session with about 8-10 English speakers (most of the larger learning sessions were in Turkish) about Salat (daily prayer) and Fethullah Gulen’s commentary.
In the reading and discussion, we covered the topic of wudu, or ablutions – the ritual washing that a Muslim does before each of the five daily prayers (hands, arms, feet, and face). The ablutions are a process of purification – of preparing the mind and heart for prayer – of making the necessary transitions from the business of life to the encounter with the presence of God. I couldn’t help thinking about the immersion in the mikveh of the High Priest in the Temple in Jerusalem thousands of years ago that was required before he performed the daily sacrifices, and then our subsequent ritual of netilat yadayim – the ritual washing of hands before prayer and meals. Like many of the early rabbis and then the teachings of our mystics throughout our tradition, the focus was on kavannah – the intention, the consciousness behind the ritual. What needs to go on in one’s heart and mind in order for the ritual technology of the washing to be a vehicle for purification of the mind and heart.
And then in the next paragraph, Gulen writes something remarkable. He writes that when something challenging or tragic befalls a person, one must seek a perception and acceptance that the difficult events are part of a larger context of soul growth and coming close to God. Instead of being reactive or defeated, one should seek to meet the challenge with all of one’s feelings and faith. Gulen writes that bringing this kind of consciousness to the situation is a “purification” just like the ablutions. This kind of religious thought brings the prayers and rituals beyond the mat, mosque, or Temple, and into daily life – into our interactions with other people and into the communities we create.
When I was asked to share some impressions with the larger group at the retreat, it was this teaching that I believed embodied the Hizmet movement – an approach to religious life that extends into all of life. It’s an approach that recognizes that being God’s emissaries in the world is a full time job and requires love, inclusivity, care and thoughtfulness in every dimension of life. I related this approach to our own Jewish tradition’s focus on Tikkun Olam – repair of the world – that all of our ritual religious observances are not just about coming together as a Jewish community to keep tradition alive for its own sake. But it is about forming us to be the kind of people that brings ethics and holiness into the world to make it better.
After the talk, I was approached by numerous people, grateful for my presence in their space and appreciative of having their approach be seen and understood. That evening, a number of us stayed up late learning from each other about a wide range of topics – the immigrant experience, keeping religious life and values alive in a secular culture, the function of ritual, the parallels in our respective traditions, and more. Experiences like this reinforce my belief and commitment that our world desperately needs genuine interfaith and interpolitical dialogue and that it is necessary that we continue to reach beyond our convenience and comfort zones to be a part of these exchanges.