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6.25.2008

JetBlue Cargo Cults


Coming back from the Brit Tzedek V'Shalom conference yesterday, I made a stop at the airport chapel at Dulles International to daven mincha.
I've always found those things intriguing because it's a space for everyone of any faith to pray; in fact it's a beautiful symbol of interfaith acceptance. It's true that not everyone would pray in an interfaith chapel (most notably, ultra-orthodox Jews because you can't daven in a place of avodah zara, and they consider Christianity idolatry), but for the majority of people who would want a space for prayer at an airport, they are placed into a room where all faiths interact, whether they want to or not.
I had prayed in an airport chapel before, but this time I truly had a soulgasm of religious pluralism. I never pray mincha, but I decided to do it that day, so I followed the qiblah arrow in order to find East (I always jitter with interfath excitement when I do that) and I prayed with unbelievable kavana (which happens next to never outside of kabbalat shabbat). When I finished and turned around, there were three other people in the room: a muslim TSA employee doing salah, a Catholic woman kneeling, and a man meditating. It was truly a beautiful sight.
It makes me wonder, what is unique about an airport that such a space can exist? I mean really, an airport? When I think interfaith activity and multiculturalism, certainly that is not the first thing that comes to my head. But it makes sense - everyone has to fly somewhere, sometime. You always see people of all different backgrounds in airports wearing a hijab, or a kippah, or a sari, or a Buddhist robe, so everyone needs to pray too, isn't that why the interfaith chapel exists?
I wouldn't want my davening experience to always be in an interfaith setting because I usually love the exclusivity of my own community synagogue (although there is probably some significance to the fact that I had amazing kavana at that chapel, which is so rare. But then again, maybe it was superficial kavana because I subconsciously wanted to give religious Judaism a good name by giving my audience a show of religious devotion), but it's a great opportunity to experience that, especially in such a random location.

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