JERUSALEM
FOCUS - THE HOLY PLACES
Some forty five people came on 5 July 2001, to participate in this study
session, first to be held in the new Konrad Adenauer Conference Center.
The first speaker was Rabbi Yitzhak Bardea, Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan and
member of the Chief Rabbinate Council. Rabbi Bardea started with defining
"holiness" as something that a religious command is related to. Places,
people, times, objects can be holy but only God is immanently holy - all
other's holiness is given to them by God, like the light of the moon is
a
reflection of the sun's light. In regard with holy places - the Mishna
counts ten levels of holy places and in this hierarchy Jerusalem is more
holy than the rest of the land of Israel and in it stood the Temple, which
is holier. Jerusalem is the center and focus of the Jewish spiritual life
even in exile and to its direction all Jews pray all over the
world. Jerusalem had the quality of a unification factor for the whole
of
Jewish nation as it was not divide between the tribes but was kept
belonging to all of them. In the current reality it is very
unfortunate
that Jerusalem, which name in Hebrew means City of Peace, seem to be a
source of war. Religious leaders are agonizing twice: first for every life
lost, as all three religions believe that every person is created in the
image of God; and second for the fact that religion is perceived
to be
the cause of war, when all religions believe in the sanctity of human
life. Instead, religious leaders should have been incorporated
in the
peace process: in the same way that other professional committees were
formed, there should have been a committee of religious leaders discussing
the religious sites. Such a committee might come up with better solutions
that will be more acceptable. Rabbi Bardea finished his presentation
quoting from the optimistic verses in Isaiah, emphasizing that although
reality now looks bad - the future is promised for be good.
Bishop Aristarchos, Bishop of Constantina in the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate, presented the Christian Orthodox approach. The attraction
of
Jerusalem is the fact that despite all human weaknesses and sins - many
divine events happened in Jerusalem. The founder of Christianity ate there
his last supper, established the new covenant with God, was crucified and
resurrected. From Jerusalem were the apostles sent to deliver the message,
in it was the Church founded and the first Christian community formed and
in it gathered the first apostolic council, headed by the first Bishop
of
the Church, Jacob brother of Jesus, in the year 49. All the divine events
marked Jerusalem in the Christian conscience as the cradle and capital
of
Christianity. Later, Christians built churches in the places of these
events in order to allow believers to experience the divine historical
events. Due to these places the church of Jerusalem was raised to a degree
of Patriarchate and special religious orders were founded top take care
of
them. The pilgrim visiting the holy place becomes part of the event. For
the Orthodox this is the motivation for pilgrimage: a source for
strengthening and shaping for the faith. Despite human behavior, that some
times made wonders and some times committed crimes in the holy places,
the sure thing is the message of love of God to all humans and the fact
that
the holy places belong to God and are meaningful to all believers of many
faiths.
The concluding speaker was Dr. Ali Qleibo, Professor in Al Quds University
and Fellow in Hartman Institute. Dr. Qleibo presented another way to look
at the issue: not from a theological perspective but from an
anthropological-historical one. There are cultures in which different
religions can be accommodated together. For example: a Japanese can be
at the same time Shinto, Buddhist and Christian - compartmenting different
aspects of his life to each of them. But in the Mediterranean, between
the Semitic puritanism and the Greek logic, this is impossible and every
culture demands exclusively. So Christianity had to be clearly separated
from Judaism and Islam from both of them.
Islam was created when Judaism
and Christianity already were very much present and can not be understood
without them. The Koran comments on the Bible and the Gospel. It is true
that Mohamed came to Jerusalem and went through it to meet God and that
for the first thirty years Jerusalem was the direction of Muslim
prayer. But this means that Islam adopted the sanctity of Jerusalem that
already existed in Judaism and Christianity. However, Islam created the
difference between it and the other two religions by also choosing a
different holy place. But while the distinction from Christianity was
clear, the seperation from the Jewish site was less clear as at that time
Jews were prohibitted from living in Jerusalem and tehrefore hardly
present there.
Superficially people say that Jerusalem is mentioned only
once in the Koran but all revelations are connected with it. Dr. Qleibo
closed his presentation by saying that the conflict over the holy places
is a symptom of the exclusivity and the challenge is to realize that the
existence of the other faith is not a threat to mine.
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Interfaith
Beit-Midrash in Tel Aviv
Between Jewish and Sufi Spirituality
Some thirty three people came to the first meeting of the Interfaith
Beit-Midrash in Tel Aviv on Thursday 3/05/01. Sheikh Abd Alsalam Manasra,
Head of Kadariya Sufi Order in Israel, started his presentation by
explaining what Sufism is, based on the teachings of the founder of the
order Sheikh Abd Alkader Jilani. It is not a new religion, it is based
on
the traditional idea of loving God. Only the love to God makes possible
the love to his creatures. God has to be the focus of the human life,
rather than human rules. In front of God all people are equal and
everybody has the responsibility to create peace.
Some points of the Sheikh's presentation generated a lively
discussion. Participants emphasized that the idea of love to each other
isn't real in these difficult times. The Sheikh stressed that every human
being has to ask his heart and then to act in this world.
The evening concluded with a joint Sufi Zikr.
(reported by Judith Haar)
Teacher of Chastity
More than forty people came to the study evening with Prof. Paul Fenton
of
the Sorbone University, on Thursday 17 May. Prof. Fenton presented texts
of the book "MORE HA'PRISHUT" (Teacher of Chastity) by Rabbi David Maimoni
- a descendent of Maimonides and a leader in the Jewish-Sufi movement in
medieval Egypt. He elaborated the distinction between two ways to approach
God: through enthusiasm and passion of the heart and through structured
and reasoned effort; and the tension between the two approaches. The
presentation and the texts gave rise to a most lively discussion.
The next meeting will take place on Thursday, 14 June 2001, in Midreshet
Iyun, 88 Bugrashov Street, Tel Aviv. It will be led by Sheikh Hamed Halil
Kiwan, the Imam of Majd ElKrum and member of the Rifai and Kadaria Sufi
orders.
Concluding
Session
Some thirty people participated on Thursday 14.6.01, in the concluding
session of the Interfaith Beit-Midrash in Tel Aviv, under the title
"Between Jewish and Sufi Mysticism" with Sheik Hamed Halil Kiwan of the
Rifai and Kadiri Sufi orders and Imam of Majd El Krum. Sheik
Kiwan
started with explaining that the meaning of the word "Sufi" is chosen,
demonstrating it from the word used by the Koran to describe the act of
God choosing Moses. The Sheik stressed that the Sufi way includes all the
regular commitments and more - both in quantity: more prayers, more
studies etc. and in quality: helping all human beings and beyond, learning
by heart etc. It is easy to enter the Sufi way but very difficult to
follow it consistently.
In the intense discussion that followed the Sheik's presentation many
basic Islamic concepts, as well as misconceptions, were discussed and the
Sheik generally emphasized, and supported with quotations from the Koran
and the Hadith, that the Prophet generally negated all violence, except
for extreme cases. The evening was closed
with a Jewish-Sufi Zikr song EIN
KE'ELOKEINU - LA ILLAHA ILLA LLA.
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Beit Midrash in Jerusalem
(Prepared and orginised by Judit
Haar)
Human Sacredness in the Christian perspective
The first meeting of the Interfaith Beit-Midrash took place on Monday
23/4. About 45 people came, to hear the introduction to the
subject: "Human Sacredness in the Christian perspective."
Fr. Dr. David Neuhaus presented biblical texts from the Old and New
Testament and their Christian interpretation. Jesus, the Messiah restores
the original state of man - this was the thesis which pervaded the whole
evening. The Human Sacredness depends on the personal relationship of man
to God. God is looking for man to sanctify him. As a result of Adam's sin
man has left God and the biblical texts show a way to escape from sin
through Jesus, the Messiah.
After the presentation of Father Dr. David Neuhaus the participants
discussed in small groups their questions about the topic. The good
atmosphere proved the success of this first Interfaith Beit-Midrash
evening.
Sanctity
of Life in Islam
The second meeting of the Interfaith Beit Midrash took place on
30/04/01. It started with some greeting words in Arabic by Sheikh Khalid
Abu Ras, the leader of the evening. He wished the thirty-five participants
real dialogue in this difficult political situation and invited them
participants to think and discuss about the subject "Sanctity of Life in
Islam". The evening focused on the rules for the case of murder and their
interpretations. The human being is a creature of God and to murder a
human is the biggest sin. This concept is manifested in the verse, in
which the Koran distinguishes between the terms of "Believer" and
"Muslim". The rules murder are valid in general for any victim who is a
"Believer", not only for the "Muslims". The participants read together
texts from the Islamic tradition and took advantage of the presence of
Sheikh Khalid Abu Ras to ask him many questions.
Sanctity
of the human being
On Monday the 7 May the participants of the Interfaith Beit Midrash
assembled again, this time for the purpose of learning the Buddhist
perspective of the topic: "Sanctity of the human being". The lecturer Boas
Amichay referred to the previous meetings and stressed that in Buddhism
the term of "Sanctity" does not exist, as in Buddhism the focus is not
on
the relationship between man and god, like in the Abrahamic religions.
The
Buddhist tradition describes the special value to be born as a human
being. Boas Amichay initiated a very vivid discussion, in which
participants expressed their knowledge and their questions about this
religion.
In the small groups they studied together texts referring to the
conditions and the special value of the human being and discussed
them. The reference showed that the creature - born as a human being -
has
the best conditions to reach the cognition and so to fill the goal of
Buddhist doctrine.
Sanctity of the Human being - 2
On Monday 14 May the fourth meeting of the Jerusalem Interfaith Beit
Midrash took place in Beit Hillel, Hebrew University. This evening was
focused on the Jewish perspective of the topic "Sanctity of the Human
being". Rabbi Dov Maimon read together with the participants the sources
to find the meaning of the Human being "Adam" and "Sanctity" in the Jewish
tradition. Then he presented his interpretation, which was followed by
a
very vibrant discussion. "Adam" was built from dust, the lowest material,
and simultaneously the texts are talking about the Human being as
something special. This tension pervade the texts. The Human being is
different from God and this gap has to be bridged. The different religions
have found different solutions for this. In Judaism the way to reach God
is by following of Tora. Sanctity is understood as a collective
dimension. The whole Jewish Nation is chosen for Sanctity. The term
"Sanctity" implies uniqueness and demands special behavior: everyone has
to sanctify his life. This task holds good for every Human being, because
"Adam" is qualified as something special. Mankind has a common project:
To
transform this world according to the divine will. With this summation
the
evening was ended after a long, interesting, philosophical discussion.
Devotion to G-d - Death or Life
ON Monday evening, 4th of June, some fourty people for met the concluding
session of the Jerusalem Interfaith Beit-Midrash at Beit Hillel, on the
Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
This last gathering was organized as a panel-discussion with the three
lecturers of the abrahamic religions, who each had guided us in a session
on his own religion in the last weeks. Fr. David Neuhaus, Sheikh KhalId
Abu Ras and Jochai Rosenberg (who came to replace Rabbi Dov Maimon who
could not come). Each of them gave a 20 min presentation on the subject
"Devotion to God - Life or Death" and afterwards questions from the
audience.
As we learned from Fr. David, the Christian martyr stands as a witness
for
the intimate and everlasting relation between God and the believer, which
can't be disrupted even by the threat of death. This fearless devotion
to
God in the early days of Christianity was transformed in our century to
a
devotion towards the fellow man: devotion to God means in nowadays'
Christianity to devote or sanctify your life for the sake of others. The
christian martyr of the modern age would give his life to save someone
else, as for example Maximilian Kolbe did in the Nazi concentration camp
Auschwitz.
Sheikh Khalid Abu Ras referred to these words that also the original
meaning of "Shahid" is "witness". The prophet Muhammad for example is
called a "Shahid", a witness, for all the prophets who came before
him. In some contexts also the islamic nation is considered a Shahid,
since they give testimony of the ultimate faith in the world. Still there
are two more specific understandings of Shahids: the 'Shahid of the world'
and the 'Shahid of the coming world'. The first group are Muslims who fell
on the battlefield, and according to Islamic law are buried there without
being washed and without prayers. But, he emphasized, that according to
the Quran and the Islamic tradition, a Muslim should only engage in fight
when there is absolutely no other choice. He stated clearly that in our
days that there are other options than violence and terrorism to engage
in, if you want to "fight" on the behalf of the Arab nation, like for
example television and internet.
The concept of the "Shahid of the coming world" is similar to the concept
of martyrdom: He is a Muslim who dies for his belief under torture and
therefore is a witness of his religion.
As also Jochai Rosenberg, who gave a short interpretation of Jewish texts,
we learned from this discussion, that devotion to God is definitely about
sanctifying life by LIVING in close relation to God and his will and not
choosing death!
(Reported by Judith Haar, the last one by and Nizan Deborah Stein)
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Worshipping idols, Breaking
idols
Abrahamic-Buddhist weekend seminar
On Friday and Saturday, the 11th and 12th of May 2001, a special
Abrahamic-Buddhist weekend seminar "Worshipping idols, Breaking
idols" took place, in a very intensive and candid atmosphere, at the
ecumenical institute of Tantur. It was organized by the Israel Interfaith
Association in cooperation with Tovana association which teaches the
Vipasana meditation in Israel.
Tantur is situated at a very striking location: the border between
Jerusalem and Bethlehem, nearby the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and
Beit Jalla, the place of many shootings and warlike battles in the last
months.
The seminar started on Friday afternoon with a Jewish-Muslim panel:
The Muslim presenter Sheik Khalid Abu Ras emphasized that in the
Islam
there is no compromise about idols: Mohammed destroyed them at once, as
Abraham did. According to the Koran the human-being has to be in a very
close relationship to God. Everything that stands between God and the
human-being is an idol. This includes not only icons and statues, but also
emotions and feelings in ourselves, like pride, vanity, avarice and
others. The other three presenters agreed to this last point.
The Jewish lecturer Rabbi Yehushua Engelman referred to
Maimonides: according to his opinion, every description of the abstract
God becomes a way of idolatry. He emphasized that the awareness of this
fact is very important. According to the first commandment, God is an
expression of freedom (the reference of the Exodus!), every
slave-mentality is antithetical to God, it is a most dangerous idolatry.
At the Buddhist-Christian panel on Saturday morning the Christian lecturer
Fr. Donald Moore introduced Ignatius from Loyola and his question: "What
helps me to get the goal to whom I was created and what hinders my freedom
to achieve this goal" - so what becomes an idol for me? Fr. Moore named
the danger, that everything can become an idol: the faith in the Trinity,
the divine son of God, Jesus, and also the Tora. But nobody knows God and
so we need human images of God , the revelation of Jesus Christ is one
of
them.
The Buddhist presenter and co-organizer of the seminar Dr. Stephen Fulder
told that in the first 500 years after the death of the Buddha there were
no pictures or statues of him, only foot-steps and an umbrella symbolized
him. Today pictures and statues are not a central question of idolatry
in
Buddhism. The worshipping of every object (pictures, Gurus, noble man like
Jesus) - all this can become a way of idolatry. The human being has to
awake and to discover, that our life, the visible world, is not
everything. There is another invisible world behind them. One way to get
in touch with it is the way of meditation.
After the panels there were intensive discussion in small
groups. Questions of this discussions were for example:
- Can every way of love (to a person, a society, an conviction) become
idolatry?
- Does the breaking of idols kills every passion in the human life?
- Why should idolatry be so terrible, like murder and sexual offence
(according to the bible)?
- What could be good about idols?
For most of the participants, the most impressive event of this seminar
was the session which took place on Friday evening after dinner. It
started with a Christian evening prayer - led by Fr. Moore; continued by
singing of Jewish Zmirot (the special Shabbat songs) led by Rabbi
Engelman; moved to a very powerful Sufi Zikr (a Muslim special kind of
meditation) guided by Sheik Khalid Abu Ras. The evening was concluded by
a
short Buddhist meditation, led by Dr. Stephen Fulder. (There was a longer
voluntary Buddhist meditation on Saturday morning).
The experience of common spiritual life with members of other religious
traditions, the intensive theological discussion on a high level, the
atmosphere of tolerance and open mind - all these are reasons of the
feeling of many participants in the end of this two days, that
arrangements like this seminar raise a little more hope in this very
hopeless situation in Israel and the Middle East.
(Report by David Schnell)
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SUFI POETRY AND
MUSIC FOR PEACE, 22-24 March 2001
More than 150 people, Muslims Christians and Jews, men and women,
participated in a special three day weekend seminar in the famous village,
organized together by the Israel Interfaith Association and Beth Midrash
Iyyun. Following the success of last year's seminar, this year the
gathering was named "Sufi Poetry and Music for Peace" and indeed provided
to the participants the opportunity to experience both Sufi and Jewish
spiritual traditional exercises and to hear presentations from
international religious music specialists.
According to participants, the miracle happened and all the different
participants - including the Rabbis and the Sheichs - gave the hands one
to the other to sing mystical Chassidic tunes in Arabic translation and
to
dance together the traditional ritual "Dikhr" celebration. According to
Sheikha Shams (Dr. Jody Prinzivalli of the Shadhuliyya Order) who made
the
trip from New Jersey to participate to the event : "through collective
songs, common rituals and profound mutual respect, a theology of pluralism
with a deep calling for religious peace and coexistence is emerging slowly
from the Holy land". Most of the participants were surprised to hear about
the Sufi-type meditation methods that are used in today Chasidic and
Kabalistic communities.
Another success - and not the least - of this inter-religious event was
to
bring in a same place conservative, reform, orthodox and charidi
(ultra-orthodox) participants to share the Sabbath celebration. Songs in
Yiddish, in Hebrew and in Arabic, from Andalusia to the Carpaths and from
Capadoccia to the Galilee, were song at capella for the sake of the common
loving Creator. One of the participants noted in the final panel, that
paradoxically, this kind of Jewish-Sufi meetings may not only tie the
hearts of Palestinians and Israelis but also lead, as a by-product, to
a
spiritual renewal inside Judaism.
The program of this intensive seminar included various high quality
activities. It started Thursday evening with a magisterial concert by the
East-West Ensemble, combining acoustic harmonies from Eastern and Western
classical traditions in a religious atmosphere. This was followed by a
Dhikr [Remembrance of the Lord] celebration led by Sheikh Abd al-Salam
Manasra (Head of the Qadariyya Order in Israel).
On Friday morning, Prof. Paul Fenton (Sorbonne University), who is the
world leading specialist of the Jewish-Muslim encounters in the medieval
ages and a religious cantor himself, made a focused presentation on the
Sufi influences on Jewish liturgical music. While the Moslem participants
made their way to Ramlah Mosque for Friday morning prayer, Rabbi Roberto
Arbib (Beth Midrash Iyyun) presented the Shiviti, which is a traditional
Jewish spiritual ritual and Rabbi Menahem Frumann (Rabbi of the Knesset
and of the Teqoa settlement) gave a talk about Music and Poetry in
Kabbalah and Hassidism. This was followed by the more academic
presentation of Prof. Edwin Sarusi (Bar-Ilan University) about the
relations between Jews and Sufi Moslems in the Ottoman Empire music. After
lunch, Sheikha Shams (Dr. Jody Prinzivalli of the Shadhuliyya
Order) started the Sufi teaching counterpart with a presentation on Music
and the Higher Universes in Sufism. Another special guest of the program
was Sheikh Abd al-Razaq Ali (Head of the Tijaniyya Order in
Switzerland); he presented an introduction to the Tijaniyya Order and led
a Dhikr according to his tradition. It was then time for Jewish and Moslem
prayers: Kabbalat Shabbat (Jewish evening prayer) and Maghrab (Moslem
Evening Prayer). After the festive Shabbat dinner, the Naqshbandiyya order
was in honor with his leader in the region, Sheikh Abd al-Aziz al-Bukhari
who spoke of Music and Poetry in the Naqshbandiyya Sufi Order. Afterwards,
following the tradition in which Chassidic Jews are used to join their
Rebbe for spiritual teachings and songs during the specially holy moment
of the Friday night dinner, Rabbi Dov Maimon invited the participants to
be part of a Chassidic-Sufi "Tish". Accompanied for the songs with
Professor Paul Fenton, they lead revised versions of traditional
"niggunim" (chassidic tunes) - alternatively in Hebrew and in Arabic -
that were repeated as incantations by all. The last part of the evening
was led by Sheikha Shams who brought the communion feelings to paroxysm,
using personal charisma and Sufi meditation techniques.
After Saturday ritual Jewish prayer (orthodox style) and Breakfast, Sheikh
Abd al-Razaq Ali gave a talk on Moses Mystery according to Sura
Taha. Sheikh Abd al-Salam Manasra talk of Music as an Instrument of Sufi
Spirituality, Dr. Avraham Elqayam (Bar-Ilan University) taught about Sufi
Poetry influence on Hebrew Medieval Poetry and the poet and author Benny
Shvili tried to assess the Sufi poetry influence on contemporary Israeli
poetry. After Lunch and a Tour of Newe-Shalom-Wahat-El-Salam, Sheikh Abd
al-Razaq Ali spoke of Allah's holy names in the Quran and in Kabbalah.
It
was then time to end this intensive experience of living spirituality
and
shared study seminar. Lecturers and audience addressed in an open
discussion the general project behind the seminar specific topic: the
place of Sufi spirituality as a bridge of love and peace between Arabs
and
Jews. With typical after-Shabbath Jewish songs and Sufi Dikhr, it was
indeed time for everyone to separate and to travel back to the regular
not
yet redeemed world.
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The Genesis
and the position of woman
The Israel Interfaith Association co-organized a study evening about
"The Genesis and the position of woman" in the Jewish-Arab Center in
Jaffa on 24 Jan. 2001, with the participation of some 40 women who
came in spite of the strong rain.
The reform rabbi Mira Raz, Tel Aviv, started the evening with the
note, that today would be the first day of the Jewish month of Shvat.
In this month the Jews think over the dynamics and renewal of the
nature. Human beings have this power inside them and they should be
encouraged for renewal and change in their own life. After that she
introduced verses from the Genesis, which tell about the equality of
woman and man in the garden Eden. Woman and man should to be one
unity. Independence and equality of woman leads the world in the
paradisiacal direction. In creation the human being was divided into
male and female and in the course of world-history all divided should
be connected by emotions and thoughts to one unity. If god is one,
the human being has to be one unity in a spiritual way. This is a
very important aspect in the current political conflict in the
Middle East.
Reverend Barbara Meyer described the Christian aspects of the theme:
Typical of the Christian tradition is the meaning of Eve as a symbol
of sin. Just the period of Enlightenment brought the realization
that the culture started by women. So from this time the suppression
of women was seen as a sin. Barbara Meyer stressed to the fact, that
god created the human being, man and woman alike, in his image.
The Muslim speaker, Ms. Widad Masalha, emphasized, that she was
speaking as a lay-person. She referred to the different traditions
in Islam about the position of women: The story of the creation of
woman from a rib of the man (when Adam got bored in the garden of
Eden) stands beside the tradition in the Koran, that god created
the "humankind", several couples of man and woman in equality.
The Koran describes both sexes in the feminine term "Nafs", that
means soul. Every human being can lead his or her genealogy back
to Adam and Eve and so he or she has a share in this first human
couple. After that Widad Masalha pointed out some "mistakes" in
the understanding of Islam:
- Men wrote the history of research in favor of their own
- The fact that many statements are borderline cases was not considered.
For
example: A minimal heir of woman is indeed fixed in the Koran, but this
is the
lowest limit, not the rule.
(The study evening was supported by the United Religions Initiative)
(The report was written by Judit Haar)
After the speeches of the lecturers a member of the audience recited an
own
poem: "Prayer to the mother of the world". The interessted audiance reacted
with many questions.
The conclusion was a common meditadion about the peace among one another.
This
was very impressive, because very different woman assembled at this evening:
students of a rabbinical school, old citizens of Jaffo, women from Jerusalem,
Jews, Christians and Muslims.
The request of the lecture was noticeable all the time: The demand for
equality
of man and woman includes the demand for equality of all human being. So
at the
end Mira Raz refered to the Midrasch BereschitRaba: The frst created human
being was not a Jew, but "human beeing", who symbolizes every individual
person, man and woman, Israeli and Palestinian.
report: Judith Haar
english translation: David Schnell
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