Rabbi's Column
February 2005

Attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College felt very much like being in a Jewish identity "reactor."

Like sub-atomic particles, we students, along with our instructors and advisors, were in constant motion, perpetually bumping up against each other as we "reacted," were active, activated our Jewish energy potential.

We came from a wide range of backgrounds. Among those who had grown up Jewish were folks who grew up with a classical Reform approach, those who had no Jewish upbringing, and women, as well as a few men, who came from Orthodox or traditional homes. Every course, every communal davenning* experience, every hevruta* studying time could be an opportunity to learn about "the other."

It was a rich, heady and invigorating learning environment, because it was one in which our identities were not static, and our stances could never be taken for granted. If it was tempting, on some issues, to divide the student body or the faculty along left-right lines, another issue or encounter would come along to disrupt those categories.

Most of my own catalytic identity- and theology- consolidating experiences came about through interactions with those most different from me. Among those was a program called "Seminarians Interacting," sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ). The program involved students at Protestant, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox seminaries, most of whom were studying towards ordination.

We visited each others schools, stayed in each others homes, attended classes as well as an intensive four-day retreat, designed by current and former participants in the program. In each visit or retreat, we engaged in small-group dialogues, always encountering deep questions about where we stood, how we identified ourselves as people of faith. Issues of belief, praxis, purpose and meaning weren't just touched on - they were embraced and grappled with, like a room full of Jacobs wrestling with that powerful and mysterious presence, emerging transformed, yet more fully who we were.

Before and since, interfaith and interdenominational work has been central to my work, and my life. For me, being a person of faith, and a clergy person, means being able to work with those who walk different religious paths. Indeed, I feel "called" to do so!

The work of the Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network, which is coming to fruition this spring, represents a piece of that calling for me. Along with pastors and lay people from a range of Protestant Churches in Baltimore City and County, we are launching a housing program that provides a home in our congregations, a week at a time, for families that are homeless - a constituency that is barely served by the existing shelter options, and that represent a growing number of those affected by homelessness in America.

Each week up to fourteen guests are housed by a host congregation, paired with a buddy community to provide hospitality, including companionship and evening and morning meals. I'll be telling you more about our commitment to the project in the near future (since we can't "host" any guests in our space, we will serve as a "buddy" congregation to our neighbor, Roland Park Presbyterian Church).

What I have gained from working with this wonderful network of people of faith has contributed immensely to my understanding of my own faith, purpose, and calling, even as we learn about the very different ways we understand those terms. Hardly a week goes by, it seems, when there is not an issue - locally, nationally, or globally - where I am called upon to frame a theological or spiritual response, and to listen to those formulated by other Jewish, Christian or Muslim clergy. All of my conversations, study, network building, and, yes, prayer in those settings has strengthened my Jewish self, and my understanding of tikkun olam.*

We've been fortunate at Beit Tikvah to have had several opportunities to study with, learn from, and get to know our neighbors, beginning with our wonderful host congregation, First Christian Church! Our Roland Park summer events, the annual Thanksgiving potlucks, and programs offered to us through the Institute for Christian and Jewish studies all have enriched and galvanized those who have participated.

I hope that you will join with me, and our Christian neighbors, when we are called upon to make good on our prayers to perfect the world through the Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network. And know that, as you do so, you will surely learn as much about yourself as you will about those you meet.

Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton

*davenning - a "Yinglish" word, from the Yiddish daven, to pray
*hevruta - Aramaic; study partner, from the same Hebrew root as haver (friend)
*tikkun olam - Hebrew; repair of the world, from the Kabbalistic view of creation