Sulha 2005
Wow. I'm still flying.
This past Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was a festival called the Sulha Peace Project. The gathering took place not far from Tel Aviv at a huge park and, over the course of three days and nights, thousands of people attended and were involved in some way or another.
I had first heard about Sulha months ago and was immediately intrigued by the concept. People came from all over: Israel, the Palestinian territories, Europe, America, Australia, South Africa, Jordan, Egypt, Senegal, and more for three days of listening, understanding, singing, dancing, eating, praying and befriending. According to the website "Sulha is an indigenous, Middle Eastern way of reconciliation. Our goal is to rebuild trust among neighbors, Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians, heart to heart, as a contribution to Peace in the Holyland."
The word sulha is Arabic for reconciliation, from the same root as the Hebrew word slicha. The mornings and afternoons were spent in listening circles and workshops on the theme of forgiveness between people and nations, according to the three Abrahamic faiths and from the perspective of grieving families, of soldiers, of clergy, of all those involved and those from elsewhere. All the small groups and workshops were interspersed with lay translators, mostly translating between Hebrew and Arabic, although in a few instances there were also English translations.
The park was broken up into different areas very beautifully. Some areas included the Tent of Hagar and Sarah, the Tent of Adam and Eve, the Ten of the Children of the Prophets, the Children's camp, the Food Tent, the Camping Area, and the Main Stage. For three days, everywhere you walked along the grounds people milled about, walking, sitting, eating, sleeping, and talking in Hebrew, Arabic, English, or some combination thereof.
If the days were amazing, there aren't even words for how incredible the evenings were. After dinner (always running at least two or three hours behind schedule) everyone gathered on blankets on a hill leading down to the main stage. The speakers were incredible, coming from all over the world, speaking many different languages, and bringing together all the ideas of peace and reconciliation that we'd spent the days discussing. The musical acts were phenomenal. Some groups and musicians I'd heard of, some I'd never heard of, some famous, some impromptu Sulha participants, some youth participation. There are three specific moments I'd like to remember forever.
On the second evening, around midnight, two musicians got onstage alone and started playing some traditional music. Next a group of teenagers wearing their regular jeans and t-shirts emerged from the side, below the stage, dancing traditional Arab line folk dances with intricate footwork. The continued their performance for another twenty or thirty minutes, to the enthusiastic clapping and cheering of the audience. On the third morning, as I was participating in "Laughing Yoga" I saw the teens gathered together again. This time they were teaching some of the basic moves to other youth participants of Sulha. On the third night, the dancers performed again. This time, wearing beautiful traditional costumes, it was announced that they would be participating in the International Folk Dance Competition in Turkey next month. The gave their performance again, this time all the more enhanced by the beautiful costumes. As they finished, they called for all their new friends to join them and dozens of teenagers began dancing together, soon joined by hundreds of adults of who couldn't sit still while watching the show.
Following that act, a Bedouin music group got on stage. They sang half in Arabic, half in Hebrew, and it was incredible. The instrumentation was phenomenal, the lyrics were beautiful, and I was sure to track down their name (Rababa Tor) so that I can get a CD of their music one day. They ended their performance by singing a song known by American Jews involved in any camp or youth movement, "Kol haOlam Kulo." Starting in Hebrew they led all the crowds singing "The whole is a very narrow bridge, but the most important thing is not to fear at all," a famous phrase form the teachings of Reb Nachman of Bratzlav. And then they switched to Arabic! Their act ended with hundreds of people singing in Hebrew and Arabic about the importance of not fearing as we go into the future.
The last group was some Hebrew/reggae combination. It was three am. I was tired. So was my friend. We set up our blanket and sheet and fell asleep as they began playing. We were still in the very front row of this huge crowd, mind you. We were just asleep. By three thirty they had finished and the crowd was crying out for an encore. Unlike in the States, encores are not standard at concerts here. In fact, of all the different musical groups who performed throughout Sulha, not a one had given an encore. But these guys did. I was still mostly asleep as they tuned up but something made me open my eyes as they called for all the crowd to come to the open area in front of the stage for the last song. As I was sitting up, they began. I immediately woke up my friend and within a few seconds we had tossed or "bed" into a pile and were standing with our arms around everyone else singing. The words were simple. It was basically a famous biblical passage repeated over and over again. "The most important commandment is to love your neighbor as your self." Again and again we sang. The band started slowly and eventually worked the crowd up into some crazy, fast, ecstatic frenzy while singing again about loving each other. Finally they slowed down again and we all returned to huge circles of swaying while singing about loving each other. It was an experience I'll never forget.
By four am we had fallen asleep again.
Four hours later I was on a bus back to Jerusalem.
And I'm still flying.
PS - I was trying to decide on a name for a blog with all these emails on it. I mentioned to a friend that I wanted something "Hebrew-ish but not too hard to remember." "That's perfect!" he replied and thus was born http://hebrewish.blogspot.com. Enjoy!
This past Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was a festival called the Sulha Peace Project. The gathering took place not far from Tel Aviv at a huge park and, over the course of three days and nights, thousands of people attended and were involved in some way or another.
I had first heard about Sulha months ago and was immediately intrigued by the concept. People came from all over: Israel, the Palestinian territories, Europe, America, Australia, South Africa, Jordan, Egypt, Senegal, and more for three days of listening, understanding, singing, dancing, eating, praying and befriending. According to the website "Sulha is an indigenous, Middle Eastern way of reconciliation. Our goal is to rebuild trust among neighbors, Arabs and Jews, Israelis and Palestinians, heart to heart, as a contribution to Peace in the Holyland."
The word sulha is Arabic for reconciliation, from the same root as the Hebrew word slicha. The mornings and afternoons were spent in listening circles and workshops on the theme of forgiveness between people and nations, according to the three Abrahamic faiths and from the perspective of grieving families, of soldiers, of clergy, of all those involved and those from elsewhere. All the small groups and workshops were interspersed with lay translators, mostly translating between Hebrew and Arabic, although in a few instances there were also English translations.
The park was broken up into different areas very beautifully. Some areas included the Tent of Hagar and Sarah, the Tent of Adam and Eve, the Ten of the Children of the Prophets, the Children's camp, the Food Tent, the Camping Area, and the Main Stage. For three days, everywhere you walked along the grounds people milled about, walking, sitting, eating, sleeping, and talking in Hebrew, Arabic, English, or some combination thereof.
If the days were amazing, there aren't even words for how incredible the evenings were. After dinner (always running at least two or three hours behind schedule) everyone gathered on blankets on a hill leading down to the main stage. The speakers were incredible, coming from all over the world, speaking many different languages, and bringing together all the ideas of peace and reconciliation that we'd spent the days discussing. The musical acts were phenomenal. Some groups and musicians I'd heard of, some I'd never heard of, some famous, some impromptu Sulha participants, some youth participation. There are three specific moments I'd like to remember forever.
On the second evening, around midnight, two musicians got onstage alone and started playing some traditional music. Next a group of teenagers wearing their regular jeans and t-shirts emerged from the side, below the stage, dancing traditional Arab line folk dances with intricate footwork. The continued their performance for another twenty or thirty minutes, to the enthusiastic clapping and cheering of the audience. On the third morning, as I was participating in "Laughing Yoga" I saw the teens gathered together again. This time they were teaching some of the basic moves to other youth participants of Sulha. On the third night, the dancers performed again. This time, wearing beautiful traditional costumes, it was announced that they would be participating in the International Folk Dance Competition in Turkey next month. The gave their performance again, this time all the more enhanced by the beautiful costumes. As they finished, they called for all their new friends to join them and dozens of teenagers began dancing together, soon joined by hundreds of adults of who couldn't sit still while watching the show.
Following that act, a Bedouin music group got on stage. They sang half in Arabic, half in Hebrew, and it was incredible. The instrumentation was phenomenal, the lyrics were beautiful, and I was sure to track down their name (Rababa Tor) so that I can get a CD of their music one day. They ended their performance by singing a song known by American Jews involved in any camp or youth movement, "Kol haOlam Kulo." Starting in Hebrew they led all the crowds singing "The whole is a very narrow bridge, but the most important thing is not to fear at all," a famous phrase form the teachings of Reb Nachman of Bratzlav. And then they switched to Arabic! Their act ended with hundreds of people singing in Hebrew and Arabic about the importance of not fearing as we go into the future.
The last group was some Hebrew/reggae combination. It was three am. I was tired. So was my friend. We set up our blanket and sheet and fell asleep as they began playing. We were still in the very front row of this huge crowd, mind you. We were just asleep. By three thirty they had finished and the crowd was crying out for an encore. Unlike in the States, encores are not standard at concerts here. In fact, of all the different musical groups who performed throughout Sulha, not a one had given an encore. But these guys did. I was still mostly asleep as they tuned up but something made me open my eyes as they called for all the crowd to come to the open area in front of the stage for the last song. As I was sitting up, they began. I immediately woke up my friend and within a few seconds we had tossed or "bed" into a pile and were standing with our arms around everyone else singing. The words were simple. It was basically a famous biblical passage repeated over and over again. "The most important commandment is to love your neighbor as your self." Again and again we sang. The band started slowly and eventually worked the crowd up into some crazy, fast, ecstatic frenzy while singing again about loving each other. Finally they slowed down again and we all returned to huge circles of swaying while singing about loving each other. It was an experience I'll never forget.
By four am we had fallen asleep again.
Four hours later I was on a bus back to Jerusalem.
And I'm still flying.
PS - I was trying to decide on a name for a blog with all these emails on it. I mentioned to a friend that I wanted something "Hebrew-ish but not too hard to remember." "That's perfect!" he replied and thus was born http://hebrewish.blogspot.com. Enjoy!
posted by sarah @ 2:42 AM
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