The first Ramadan iftar for Mordy Miller, my Jewish-Israeli friend
Every iftar is special, but this is precious—our intimate personal Jewish-Muslim Ramadan 𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘢𝘳 gathering.
My dear friends Eniko and Mordy joined our family in today’s breaking of the Ramadan fast. This was Mordy Miller’s first-ever Ramadan iftar. Mordyis is an Israeli scholar/Ph.D. candidate in Jewish Studies residing with his family in Singapore. He is a member of the Jewish Community in Singapore and the founder of Shalom Point for Hebrew language and Israel Studies.
We shared the blessed moment with dates, water and lentil-rice soup. This is a tradition followed by many Muslims around the world. Today, we included 𝘻𝘢𝘮 𝘻𝘢𝘮, the holy water from Mecca.
I was also happy that both of them enjoyed 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘣𝘶 𝘬𝘢𝘯𝘫𝘪 (lentil-rice soup in Tamil) with 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘶 𝘷𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘪 (almost like the vegetarian 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘭), a popular combination for breaking fast in Tamil Muslim households of South Indian origin. We went all vegetarian to tick the kosher-halal requirements. This was not necessary, but it was comfortable and convenient.
The most meaningful part of the evening was Eniko and Mordy meeting my family, conversing, and learning about each other. I liked how some parts of the chats were organically directed to identifying the commonalities and differences in religious practices. These kinds of exchanges happen naturally when there is a genuine interest in getting to know each other. Between Judaism and Islam, there are more similarities than differences. Some may be adamant about accepting this, but such ignorance resides among strangers.
Mordy Miller closed the iftar with 'Birkat haOreach', a Jewish prayer recited as the guest's blessing, which is part of Birkat hamazon (blessing God for the food).
The Muslims, too, have such a supplication:
اللّهُـمَّ بارِكْ لَهُمْ فيما رَزَقْـتَهُم، وَاغْفِـرْ لَهُـمْ وَارْحَمْهُمْ
𝘖 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘩, 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.
(Reference: Muslim 3/1615)
I am ending this day with gratitude to Allah, God, for yet another opportunity to meet, share, listen and know more about each other over good food and setting. We realise and appreciate this is a privileged situation, so we will treasure it from where we are.
I am missing some friends who I wish were here too. Thanks, Mordy and Eniko, for the presents. Thank you to my Elaine Robinson and friends at Sir Manasseh Meyer International School for the surprise gift.
