Women’s Unity Prayer
Nearly 150 attended the AR’s Unity Prayer on Zoom, led by Rabbi Dahlia Shakham, Zeynab Khatib, Rabanit Surale Rose, Siham Halabi, Doris Thiab, Hanan Shahan, and Sheikha Laila Manasra.
“Compassion comes from the same root, rahma, rachamim… as the word for womb. One of the names of the divine in Aramaic is the Rahmana, which literally translates to ‘our womb’, or ‘our compassion’, ‘the Merciful’, ‘the Compassionate,’ said Rabbi Dahlia Shaham, in her opening words.
“According to Jewish tradition, redemption will enter the Holy of Holies through the Gate of Compassion, that Gate of Wombs, maybe through this recognition of humanity’s oneness,” she continued, before chanting a prayer of compassion in Aramaic:
“Compassionate One, who responds to the poor, please answer our prayers,
Compassionate One, who responds to the broken hearted, please answer our prayer.”
“We need to heal all of the world, to change all of the world, to love one another, to connect one another, and to know one another,” prayed Zainab Khatib, Rabbi Dahlia’s co-moderator.
Rabbanit Surale Rosen spoke to the painful and confusing events permeating the Holy Land at this time that have caused many to even seem to give up that they may ever see peace in their lifetime, and share that for herself at times, and also life as a mother, she cannot even find the words to pray.
She called upon the example of Hagar in the Torah as, “a figure, a female figure who couldn’t find the words to pray. We find two instances in the Torah where Hagar doesn’t pray, she doesn’t turn her eyes and heart to the heavens and prays, rather she suffers a lot and she’s trying to escape a certain fate, and when God sees that Hagar is not praying, he’s turning to her, he sends her a Messenger.”
She said that Hagar’s life had a similarity to the story of the Jewish people, when they were in Egypt, they had given up that they’d ever be redeemed from slavery, and they were so far given up that they, “couldn’t use actual words for prayer, they were using their tears, they were using their pain,” and it’s at this point that she said, that, “God turns to Moses and tells him “I have heard not their prayers, I have heard their pain and I’ve heard their crying.’” So even in the difficult moments, Surale shared, God is listening to the cry of the heart of the people who suffer.
“Why are we meeting today? We’re meeting today to build bridges for peace and reconciliation, for friendship,” said Doris Thiab from Zababdeh. She has a Bible study group for 30 women from different churches and also different faiths, where, she says, “We are learning and we are studying what the Bible says about faith and loving each other, and we are not just studying it, we are acting to build relationships and friendships with each other.”
Hanan Shahan from Rafidia, outside Nablus in Palestine, shared how they have been having AR Palestine meetings for two years, which has developed great connections within the Palestinians.
“I pray to God to send us peace, to send us love, to create good meetings face to face to meet together in Israel and Palestine, and to create a good future for all our children,” Hanan prayed.
Siham Halabi was so happy to see everyone gathered, especially the Palestinian women she hasn’t met, and invited them to create meetings to come together and meet face to face. She said, “It reminds me of 20 years ago when we began to work in the Abrahamic Reunion, the big fear we had, will the people come to be together or not, will we have meetings successful or not, but I can tell you now after 20 years of meetings, today we have 1000 women working on this field to bring all the people together.”
“In the past I didn’t speak with Muslim women, or other women, but today I am going to knock on the doors to talk to the people and to bring them together, and I would like to thank Abrahamic Reunion and the people of AR to bring us to be one family.”
Siham’s prayer:
God, heal all the sickness, give us health and happiness;
God, make the weight of all this pain so light and soft and throw from us all these diseases;
God, we need your protection and please answer all of our prayers;
God, we are blessed by your grace,
O God, amen amen amen.
Sheikha Laila Manasra’s Prayer:
O Allah, God of everything, bring mercy and serenity upon all us and teach us all that we should know to protect the earth and everything on it. Guide us on the right path to walk the straight way for a great future for us and our children,
O Allah, guide us to be from these people… don’t make us from people they say and do nothing,
God guide us to be a connection bridge, and make us the healing for hearts and bodies, make us like the loving water for the thirsty hearts, to water them with connection, knowledge, peace, and love.
AR Co-founder David Less was moved to share, at the end of the meeting, that, “When I heard Siham’s words about 20 years of struggle and fear and now we have this vast network, it really moved me, and I must say that in all the 20 years it’s this meeting that brought the most tears to my heart and to my eyes, I know that the future will be pure and will be as god wishes it, and I know because the proof of it was today’s meeting… today all the women were sharing about giving birth and their families but today something is being born , the next level of depth for the Abrahamic reunion, and I am deeply grateful and honored to be part of it, and I thank all of you deeply.”
Written by Chris Miller
Event organization by Ghassan Manasra, Abed Manasra, and Mohamad Jamous.
