Israel has called my mother for years. It has been her dream to walk the old city streets of Jerusalem and wade into the dead sea. I am certain she has imagined, if not the sights themselves, then the way they will make her feel. My mother is Jewish, and that is some of the call of Israel, but more so she is drawn to the beauty, as am I. When I say beauty, I don’t mean “easy to look at,” or “fine,” I mean the same depth of meaning and capacity that I find in the books of the Bible or the Complete Works of Aristotle. This is the sort of beauty that does not dull with age, but is built of age, of layer of meaning, piled on layer of meaning. I mean the same kind of beauty that I experienced in Turkey when I visited a Church that had been a Mosque that had been a Synagogue. The beauty grew from the treatment of the interior facade. The remnants of the last holy purpose were not covered over, but left as a testament to the depth of meaning that flooded that hall.
It is this kind of beauty that is salvific, saving. If we grow accustomed to seeing beauty in depth and complexity, in irony and the layers of meaning that develop over time, we have the capacity to see beyond sectarian, cultural, and religious divisions. I am moved beyond words to see my dear friends at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society worshiping in the same building as my dear friends at the Beth Chaverim Reform congregation. The two groups share a warehouse space in Ashburn. A wall divides their meeting rooms, but it was born of respect for the singular beauty of their two styles of worship.
I will travel in Israel from May 27th through June 6th. As I go I will seek beauty, and I hope to share it with you. I’ll be posting to my Anya Sammler-Michael face-book page, and our UUSterling face-book page. As Elaine Scarry, philosopher, says, “Beauty brings copies of itself into being. It makes us draw it, take photographs of it, or describe it to other people. ... When the eye sees something beautiful, the hand wants to draw it.” Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share the beauty I find. I sense we will add to the layers of meaning, as we experience, comment on, and share again, what we find together.
Peace,
Rev. Anya
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