A Reflection by Reverend Sally Thacher

My summer was filled with rich blessings. In June I spent a stimulating week at Yale Divinity School studying with two of my favorite Bible professors. July brought our son's marriage to a young woman whom we have loved for several years. It was a joyous family celebration in the rolling hills of Oregon's Willamette Valley.

A week later, I set off on the most amazing trip of my life. You've heard countless jokes about the Rabbi, the priest and the Protestant minister who.....Well, we were seventeen rabbis, priests, and ministers who traveled to Israel under the auspices of the Boston area Jewish Community Relations Council. The study tour was intended to provide greater interfaith understanding, especially in the context of that fascinating, exciting and perplexing land that is the birthplace of our respective religions.

Both my heart and my head are so full of what I saw, learned and experienced that I hardly know where to begin to share some of it with you.

We traveled the length and breadth of Israel, visiting biblical and historic sites and listening to an impressive roster of speakers about the many successes and accomplishments of Israel as well as the issues that face the country today. We read scripture, prayed together and shared theological reflections each day. In the course of our shared travels, study and conversations, we developed strong bonds as brothers and sisters in our common vocation and increased our understanding of our sister faiths.

In addition to visiting biblical and historic sites, we stayed at a Kibbutz in the north. We toured disputed border areas both in the north and in the south near Gaza where "incidents" took place within days of our visits. In the Golan Heights, we visited the border with Syria in a place aptly named "The Valley of Tears" where the destruction was almost total, UN peacekeeping forces continue to patrol, and a rusted tank from earlier battles stands guard over the empty landscape.

We developed a better understanding of the dangers Israelis face in certain areas, especially the disputed areas, and of the vulnerability they feel as a tiny nation the size of New Jersey with a population of 7 million, surrounded by hundreds of millions of often hostile peoples.

I also learned that this underlying existential fear grows not only out of physical and external threats, but from divisive internal issues as well. This diffuse anxiety seems to lead to a fear of criticism. A number of times I heard the claim that criticism or questioning of some of Israel's policies amounted to anti-Semitism and de-legitimization of Israel as a nation. Although that is undoubtedly true in somes cases, it seemed difficult for some Israelies to accept the fact that criticism can also come from friends and allies who deeply desire that Israel continue to thrive and to do so in a secure environment of just peace.

After this trip, I will never read the Bible the same way again. What a powerful experience to see and walk the land where Jesus preached and healed and taught about the Kingdom of God, and where the prophets railed against the sins of a society which repeatedly failed to obey God. It was a breathtaking experience to walk next to the Jordan River across which Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, to dip into the water where Jesus was baptized (even if it wasn't the exact spot), to see what it might have looked like in his day. To sit beside a church on the slopes overlooking the Sea of Galilee somewhere near where Jesus fed the 5,000 and preached the Sermon on the Mount, and listen to a colleague recite as if he were preaching to us, was a precious gift.

Entering Jerusalem was perhaps the most emotional moment of the trip for me. At the end of the rigorous and scorching hot days, our bus paused at the top of one of the hills overlooking Jerusalem where we disembarked for a traditional Jewish blessing recited on entering Jerusalem the first time on each visit to Israel. Interestingly, part of the ritual is to say a blessing over bread and wine as they are shared- a poignant reminder of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples on the outskirts of Jerusalem on the eve of that fateful weekend.

Spread below us in the golden glow of the late afternoon was the city for which Jesus wept before entering -- and still has cause to weep-- the city which was the setting for the agonizing climax of his ministry. It felt as if our trip through Galilee and along the Jordan valley also was culminating in this city which is so important to three faiths, a city which has seen so much betrayal and bloodshed over the centuries and even today finds itself at the center of international disputes.

It was heartbreakingly beautiful - the famous golden limestone wall surrounding the Old City with the stunning gold of the Islamic Dome of the Rock at its heart, atop the Temple Mount. We sang a haunting Hebrew song called "Jerusalem of Gold" whose refrain brought me to tears each time we repeated it: "Jerusalem of gold, of copper, of light, Am I not a violin for all your songs."

No trip to Israel would be complete without a visit to Bethlehem or to Yad Vashem, the Jewish National Memorial to the Holocaust. My heart is full with gratitude for the grace of this unforgettable experience.