metro

Sharing Traditions

Jews and Muslims impart reasons why each religion observes fasts.

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Barbara Lewis

Contributing Writer

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t's not unusual for Detroiters of differ-
ent faiths to break bread together. On
the evening of July 5, a group of local
Jews and Muslims — with a few Christians
thrown in for good measure — went a step
further and broke a fast together at the
Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue.
Jews were ending the Fast of the 17th of
Tammuz. For the Muslims, it was the 18th
day of Ramadan, a month of daily fasting.
Before sharing a potluck meal, par-
ticipants listened as Rabbi Dorit Edut of
Huntington Woods, founder of the Detroit
Interfaith Outreach Network, and Imam
Achmat Salie of Rochester Hills discussed
fasting in Judaism and Islam.
Then they participated in or observed
Maariv, the last of three Jewish daily ser-
vices, and the Muslim evening prayer, one
of five daily prayers.
Few non-Orthodox Jews are even aware
that their religion has many fast days in
addition to the best known, Yom Kippur,
and Tisha b'Av, the Ninth of Av, Edut said.
Several are related to the destruction
of the Temple by the Babylonians in 586
B.C.E.
The Fast of the 10th of Tevet, which
usually occurs in January, marks the start
of the Babylonian siege against Jerusalem,
and the 17th of Tammuz recalls the day
the Babylonians breached the walls of
Jerusalem before the destruction of the
First Temple.
Three weeks later — on July 26 this
year — comes Tisha b'Av, the day both the
first and second temples were destroyed.
The Ninth of Av was also the day the Jews
were expelled from Spain in 1492 — so
overall it is a calamitous anniversary for
the Jewish people.
There's also the Fast of Gedaliah on the
3rd of Tishrei, after Rosh Hashanah, which
marks the assassination of the Babylonian-
appointed Jewish governor of Judea by
supporters of the supplanted Jewish mon-
archy. Gedaliah's murder ended Jewish rule
in the region and ushered in a period of
anarchy.
This year, the 17th of Tammuz took
place a day later than its calendar date,
which fell on Saturday. Fasting on the
Sabbath is forbidden except on Yom
Kippur, so when a fast day falls on
Shabbat, it is observed the following day.
The same will happen with Tisha b'Av,
which will be observed Sunday, July 26.
Except for Yom Kippur and Tisha b'Av,

20 July 23 • 2015

Safwan Ahmad, 12, sings the Muslim call to prayer at a joint meeting of Jews and
Muslims at the Downtown Synagogue.

Jeremy Salinger, Fran Hayes and Amanda Jaczkowski

which start the evening before and require
25 hours of abstinence from food and
drink, the Jewish fasts are all "minor"
fasts, observed from sunrise to sunset.
Other Jewish fasts include the Fast
of Esther before Purim and the Fast of
Firstborn Males before Passover.
The reasons for communal fasts include
atonement and commemorating com-
munal loss, Edut said. Jews sometimes
fast at other times as a way to prepare to

commune with God, to commemorate a
personal loss or to seek Divine help.

Muslim Traditions
Ramadan, which lasts 29 or 30 days, can
be any time of year because the Muslim
religious calendar uses lunar months,
which move about 11 days each year on
the secular calendar. When Ramadan falls
in the summer, as it does this year, the
sunrise-to-sunset daily fast, when follow-

ers do not eat or drink, can be 15 hours
long.
Salie, who teaches religion at University
of Detroit Mercy and Oakland University,
said Ramadan is a period for intense com-
munion with God and also of solidarity
with the poor. Muslims focus on the teach-
ings of the Koran; in some mosques, the
entire Koran is read over the course of the
month.
Ramadan can be experienced as the
pruning of an orchard, as people rid them-
selves of harmful emotions to allow for
spiritual growth, or to filling up one's spiri-
tual fuel tank for the long journey until the
following Ramadan, or as spring cleaning
for the soul, Salie said.
Although Ramadan is the best-known
Muslim fast, some Muslims also fast for
three days around the new moon, on
Mondays and on Thursdays.
After Maariv in the synagogue's sanctu-
ary, participants broke the fast with dates
in the Muslim tradition. Then the Muslims
said their evening prayer in the hall adja-
cent to the sanctuary. Safwan Ahmad,
12, of Canton sang the traditional call to
prayer.
Amanda Jaczkowski, 23, of Clinton
Township, a convert to Islam, said she
learned about the program on a Facebook
page for young adult Muslims in Detroit.
"This is the kind of stuff I like to be
involved in, learning about different reli-
gions and the similarities in religions:' said
Jaczkowski, adding that she had no idea
there were so many Jewish fast days.
Rev. Fran Hayes, pastor of the Littlefield
Presbyterian Church in Dearborn, said
she heard about the program from Edut,
whom she met earlier in the week at an
interfaith iftar, the festive meal marking
the end of the daily Ramadan fast. Hayes
said she enjoyed learning about fast tradi-
tions from a rabbi and an imam.
Jeremy Salinger of Southfield, a mem-
ber of Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak
Park, said he was fascinated by the similar
spiritual values that run through Judaism
and Islam. Even the words for some of
them are similar, he said, like the Hebrew
tzedakah and the Arabic zadaka (charity)
and the Hebrew rachamim and the Arabic
rahmah (Divine mercy).
Lindsay Acker of New York, for-
merly of Huntington Woods, and
Razi Jafri of Detroit, members of the
Michigan Muslim-Jewish Forum, planned
the event, which was sponsored by the
Downtown Synagogue and the Michigan
Muslim Coordinating Council.

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