Dear Mr. Zaghi:

I was deeply impressed by the passionate idealism and realism that motivates your work on behalf of peace and love in our trembling and uncertain world. Every faith that 1 know of bases itself upon a celebrated verse in the Jewish Bible. In Leviticus 19:18 we read, "Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." We love ourselves. We know what it means to be afraid and to be terrorized. We love ourselves and know what it means to go without food and water. Because we know ourselves, we know the"other." Each "other" like ourselves, is created in the image of God and each must be protected from poverty and destruction.

Mr. Zaghi, the Hebrew word for love is "ahavah." According to the mystical tradition, the numerical equivalent of each letter of "ahavah" is thirteen. Thirteen times two is twenty-six, which is the name of God ("YHWH"). With two individuals who love each other, and when two peoples love each other, when two faiths love each other, there we find its goodness of God in this world. If the world is to be saved from dissolution, then love is indeed the solution. Many blessings on your sacred work.

Cordially,
Harold M. Schulweis
Rabbi

Valley Beth Shalom,
Encino, California E-mail: HSCHULWEIS@VSS.ORG

Rabbi Schulweis's thoughts on Love is the Solution

When I was a young child, my grandfather taught me a lesson whose message is as urgent today as it was intriguing to me yesterday. My grandfather told me that in the Bible, God is said to have created the first human being, Adam, "out of the dust of the earth," the commentators wondered from where was that dust taken?" The answer, "from east and west and south and north." No one place, no one territory, is holier than another. And they asked, "What color was the dust that shaped Adam?" The answer, "The color was yellow and red and white and black."

It was a simple lesson, but it remained with me throughout my life. We are one, and the image of Godliness is breathed into every one of us. "The earth is the Lord's," and we are called upon to reach out to one who seems to be a stranger but must be recognized as a brother or sister, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. This is the resident echo that is embedded in the sacred cause of Love is the Solution and in its founder, Nasser Zaghi. I am much moved by the passion of his dreams and the nobility of his mission. Who can deny him our support, our best wishes and our prayers?