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28

April 8 2010

What It's Like

"This Berkeley program is very spe-
cial," says Rabbi Reuven Firestone
of Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion in Los Angeles,
which two years ago partnered with
the University of Southern California
and the Omar Ibn Al-Khattab
Foundation to form the Center for
Muslim-Jewish Engagement.
In January 2009, Firestone co-
taught the text study section of a
pilot program in joint text study
and interfaith relationship-building
run by the center and NewGround:
A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for
Change. The joint text study was
conducted similarly to the new
Graduate Theological Union course,
although it was not part of a gradu-
ate level program.
The center is looking for funding to
replicate the course for other institu-
tions. Neither Firestone nor organiz-
ers of the Berkeley course know of
similar initiatives elsewhere.
Instructors in both courses say
that bringing together adherents of
both faiths in text-centered dialogue
defuses some of the tensions that typi-
cally crop up in interfaith groups by
focusing attention in a third direction:
the page of a book.
"The experience of reading a
Torah story we know as it appears
in the Koran, seeing where it over-
laps and differs, is very moving,"
Firestone says. "It elicits questions.
Your dialogue partner becomes the
representative of a deeply fascinat-
ing religious tradition" rather than
someone you're trying to persuade
of the rightness of your cause.

Day One
At the Berkeley course's first meet-
ing Feb. 2, Professor Naomi Seidman,
director of the Center for Jewish
Studies at GTU, shows the class a
page from Genesis, demonstrating
how one line of Torah might be sur-
rounded by pages of commentary.
"The Torah is always read through
the lens of rabbinic literature she
explains.
Flipping to Exodus, she reads the
Hebrew, Ayin tachat ayin" and con-
tinues in English, "an eye for an eye,
that's the "proof text" that the God of
Israel is a vengeful god." In fact, she
points out, Judaism never understood
that dictum literally, but follows the
Talmudic interpretation that such
crimes demand appropriate mon-
etary compensation — an interpreta-
tion that is at the root of contempo-

rary tort law.
Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer in
Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies at
the University of California, Berkeley,
and Seidman's co-teacher for the
night, provided similar insight into
the Koran, believed by Muslims to be
the word of Allah as revealed to his
prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad had four main func-
tions, Bazian begins — prophet,
head of state, judge and military
commander. One cannot understand
a passage from the Koran without
determining in which function
Muhammad proclaimed it. If he was
speaking as a prophet, the ruling has
universal applicability, whereas if
he was speaking as a judge, it might
apply only to the case before him.
Misapplying such rulings can lead
to grave wrongs, Bazian suggests,
such as nation-states that don't pro-
tect the rights of all citizens.

Bond Discovery
Munir Jiwa, founding director of the
GTU's Center for Islamic Studies, says
that when Jews and Muslims explore
their sacred texts, they discover deep
bonds of intellect and faith — for
example, shared assumptions about
the primacy of religious law that is
absent from Christianity. This can
bring them closer as two minorities
in a Christian-dominated culture.
When Bazian discussed an Islamic
ruling on ablutions after touch-
ing one's genitalia during the first
evening's class, the Jewish students
"didn"t think it was weird:' Jiwa
points out, because Judaism, too,
regulates bodily functions via reli-
gious rituals.
"This, course allows us to struggle
with our texts in a scholarly way, as
well as faith practitioners:' he says
"People walked out that first night
amazed by the commitment to learn-
ing they saw in each faith."
Hatice Yildiz, a doctoral student
at GTU who wears a hijab, or head
covering, proclaiming her a religious
Muslim, says she didn't know the
Talmud was the basic source for
Jewish law. She says she's taking the
course "because I have a lot to learn
about Judaism."
Her friend and fellow doctoral stu-
dent Uzma Husaini agrees.
"Because of all the tensions
between Muslims and Jews due to
politics, it's important for us to build
bridges," Husaini says. "In order to do
that, we have to learn what are our
similarities and differences?'