shalom vs. salaam

After a couple of days off, the second hurdle of summer school has begun: Biblical Hebrew.

My dad always blamed his boys for never taking the initiatives to learn Arabic while growing up. Never mind the fact that he never actually spoke it around us. The only Arabic I ever heard were the cuss words when he got upset, and the unique sounds of Um Kalthum, the hero of Arabic music, drifting out Dad's office tape recorder (which to me sounded a great deal like a cat being spun around by it's tail). Besides, when I was nine years old, did I care about a language that sounded mostly like spitting and throat clearing? No....

On different occasions growing up, some cousin or uncle or co-worker of my Dad would politely pull me aside and ask if I was Muslim. I could never tell if their response to my "no" was more of a question or a command. I think it was a little of both: "Well, don't you know that your father is Muslim, and so you must be, too?" I politely responded that it didn't really matter to my dad, which looking back probably made him look a little less fatherly in their eyes (I am thanful he didn't really care what they thought).

When I got to Asbury some of those same uncles and cousins wanted to know if, when I was done studying Christianity, would I be moving on to study Islam. Again, I said no, to which I would always be met with, "Well... you need to learn Arabic."

As if all of this isn't both amusing and conflicted enough, my Dad asked me what class I was currently taking.
"Hebrew."
"Huh?"
"Hebrew."
"Why?"
"Because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew."
"Well... they've translated it into English. Study Arabic."

I can't wait to tell them Jenn and I are thinking of going to Israel in January. Last time I planned to go I was met with the same number of "whats" and told, "We don't go to Israel."

I have been engaged both on and off line in several debates and dialogues about what is happening right now between Israel and Palestine, and so I think it a tad ironic that while I have tried to be a voice for innocent civilians on the Palestinian side, I have had to spend most of my time studying Hebrew.

I hope to work through some of my thoughts and prayers regarding this mess in Gaza. There is always more to the story than we think. But until then, pray for me as a I try to get a grasp of this complex and rewarding language, and please, please, please... a thousand times please... pray for peace in the Middle East.