Saturday, most of our group decided to be Philly tourists and where is the first place a tourist would go? The Rocky steps! All of us had a nice little victory dance after we raced up the step in memory of Rocky. Then it was down to some more serious sites. We walked to City Hall and visited a cathedral. Our next stop was the Liberty Museum and the historic sites. The liberty museum was very powerful, meaningful, and emotional. There were dedications to people who died for liberty and those who were killed as a result of injustice. The walls were filled with inspirational people who overcame great obstacles to become who they needed to be in order to stop injustice. One exhibit was about religion and freedom the expression. It commemorated how our country was created largely because of the need for freedom of religion. Another exhibit discussed world leaders who fought injustice and made a great difference in the world and, not so surprisingly, most of them were religious and used that religion to help them achieve their goals of peace and justice. Those who caused pain and suffering were also recognized and what was even more moving is that many of them had been crossed off because they were in power in the past but there was a whole list of those who are in power today and who are doing harm now. This reminds us to keep fighting the good fight because the battle is not over. We took comfort from seeing how the “good guys” outnumbered the “bad guys” significantly but shook our fist at God when we saw how close the numbers were and realized how close the battles come some times. But that gives us hope because, as Lynn quoted earlier in the week, “We are the ones we have been waiting for” so we need to keep working for justice if we ever hope to win the good versus evil struggle.
One very moving exhibit was about violence against children and it was terrible and terrific at the same time. Half a million children die every year worldwide because of violence. It’s scary to think about because we bring these innocent beings into our world and then they are mutilated and abused. It’s difficult to see hope for the future if we are currently doing so much damage to those who will inherit it. Understanding is key when it comes to knowing a conflict and how to approach it but understanding why children have to die is very hard to wrap you head around. Gun violence was specifically mentioned and there was a very disturbing image of a six year old boy’s X-ray showing the bullet lodged in his rib cage. And once again, we shook our fists at God. And then we pray and turn our prayer into action. Kim, Hannah, and Talia decided to have an authentic Shabbat experience and truly experience the day of rest. Our goal was to catch up on all the sleep that we didn’t get during the week, but knowing us we spent the day talking.
Later in the day we talked to an Orthodox Rabbi who taught us about Justice and charity. We talked about Maimonides’ principle that part of justice, or Tzedakah in Hebrew, is restoring a sense of self worth and dignity to a person. We then applied that lesson to the work we did at New Jerusalem Now and it was a great way to bring the week together. We then drilled the Rabbi on tough questions like accepting gays and lesbians into the community and even marrying them. He handled all our questions very well and we really appreciated his honesty. After Shabbat, we decided to walk around Manayunk for a little while. We found out that the Flyers lost game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals and were devastated, so we consoled ourselves with some Chloe’s ice cream. While we were eating, Krishna taught us about Hinduism. It was fascinating and we learned a lot from her. When we got back to Talia’s house we all tried to stay up for our last night together, but most of us couldn’t make it much past 3 AM.
Good night or Good morning,
Talia and Elizabeth
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