Mourning and Spiritual Healing

The last two days - Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron) and Yom HaAtzmaut I spent with 100+ Jews and Arabs and Germans at a healing conference giving voice to the happiness and the pain of what brought about the state of Israel, plus disaster for the Palestinian community... providing a container and a compassionate ear for all.

This is the fourth year that I have participated. Yesterday morning, we had a multi-faith prayer service: Jewish, Moslem (Sufi), Christian lead by religious leaders, a Sufi Zikr with me playing the drum in the center of the circle followed by me leading a closing prayer - highlighting the Divine feminine - allowing the fundamental sound to flow through our own body instruments... chanting AUM-N - AMEN - five times in honor of the Divine Mother. We focused upon the essence of the sound rather than the "sounding of it"

The change in energy was palpable.... lighter, less angst, more softness, more silence. This year, the two day conference was held at Nes Amim, a Kibbutz in the north populated by German and Dutch Christians who come to work and volunteer towards the healing of Jewish-Christian relations... it is part of their own healing from the wounds of the Holocaust.

And of course, the wounds of the Holocaust gave way to the formation of this state... which caused the Palestinians their own displacement. Victims, on the way to healing, often become unwitting vicitimizers.

What an opportunity having the three populations together - meeting pain and forging a new road to a better future. I left so inspired and uplifted. In past years perhaps 20-30 people participated. There were three times the number of pariticpants and three times the number of Arabs who participated.

To learn more, visit: http://www.middleway.org and hamakom.org.il the two organizing groups who do such a fabulous job of organizing and leading. It is special that the organizing spirit behind the event are three women: Michal TalYa, Ibtisam Mahamid and Shiri Tal.

I recorded our evening prayer dance and song and will send it as soon as I get it into the computer.