Yom Kippur, Eid al-Adha: Common Faith, Common Fate

As a rabbi and an imam who have been working together for nearly a decade to nurture ties of communication and cooperation between Muslims and Jews worldwide, we find it moving that two of the most important holidays in our respective faiths, Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha, will overlap this year on the same day, September 23, 2015. The holidays also overlapped at the same time last year, but normally these two holidays only coincide every 33 years. Such an infrequent concurrence of the two holidays is perhaps appropriate, for while there are many striking similarities in our two faith traditions that Jews and Muslims need to learn more about, Eid-al-Adha and Yom Kippur could not be more different from each other.


Eid al-Adha means "The Feast of the Sacrifice" and commemorates the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) -- the Patriarch of Muslims, Jews and Christians alike -- to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, as an act of submission to God's command, before God intervenes through his angel Jibra'il and informs him that his sacrifice has already been accepted. (Jews, believe it was Ishmael's half-brother Isaac whom Abraham was prepared to sacrifice).

More...