News Highlights Rabbi Or Rose featured in Jewish-Muslim Election Day Dialogue

On the occasion of election day, Interfaith America published a Jewish-Muslim dialogue on the subject of praying for discernment, featuring Interfaith America’s Director of Campus Partnerships, Homayra Ziad, and Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership Director Rabbi Or Rose:

Dear Homayra,

In a recent conversation, we discussed the anxiety we are each feeling as election day draws closer. That led us into a discussion of the role of prayer in this fractious and uncertain time. When I asked you if you were praying for anything specific, you responded with one word, “discernment.” Can you explain what you meant?

Dear Or,

When I say that I am praying for discernment, I mean the ability to cut through the noise. Let me share a memory that arose as I was thinking about your question: I was nineteen when I went to Morocco with my family. Outside the mosque of al Qarawiyyin in Fes, a man began to follow us. Our guide told us that this man was a majzub(gripped, absorbed). He tried to turn the man away several times, gently, but each time he came back, muttering to himself. Suddenly, he stabbed his finger in the air, pointed directly at my father’s sunglasses, and laughed. Then he took a small piece of wood out of his trousers and placed it mockingly over his eyes, like a pair of shades. I could tell my father was troubled. He asked the guide if he could give the man some money; perhaps he would go away. Upon receiving the money, the majzub disappeared. A minute later he was back with a handful of cakes — he walked straight up to me, placed the cakes in my hands, smiled — and was gone.

The historical mystical figure of the majzub holds a deep fascination for me. The conscience of a community in one human being.