Sacred steps

Today I walked six miles with a man who plans to walk 3,000 miles. I heard his story for the first time from Rabbi Michael Siegel, senior rabbi at Anshe Emet in Chicago. He described a pastor whose community was so affected by gun violence that shots were fired during a funeral at his church from the motel across the street. Pastor Corey Brooks took to the roof of the motel in November 2011, and stayed there through the Chicago winter until February, when he raised enough money to buy the property. He will walk across America to raise awareness and money to build a community center on the site to turn a place of violence into a place of peace.


So why did the chief kehilla officer of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism walk with him?


Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walked arm in arm with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma during the civil rights movement. Heschel is quoted as saying, "“I pray with my feet. For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”


Almost 50 years later, another minister is walking to wake people up about a scourge of violence, with tee shirts that say, "Praying with my feet."  This time, a community can walk with him.


United Synagogue supports what Pastor Brooks is doing. With the name, "Operation Tent of Sarah and Abraham," we're envisioning Conservative kehillot, (sacred communities), opening up their doors for him to stop, going out to meet him as he passes by, or walking with him to raise the funds to build his place of peace. Rabbi Siegel sat with him during the winter on the roof, studied the bible with him, and views this as a way to re-energize the relationship between blacks and Jews.


Pastor Brooks is a huge man with a soft voice. He began his walk across America at Times Square, and his first stop was at United Synagogue. Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of United Synagogue, Rabbi Siegel, United Synagogue staff, and about 50 others accompanied Pastor Brooks on his first day of travel. He expects to cross the George Washington Bridge today, and be in Newark, NJ, tomorrow. Philadelphia after that, then Pittsburgh, then the midwest, to California. There are a lot of miles in between.


So I walked with him to Harlem. I took a cab back.