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Published: June 17th 2008
What more can I seek for?! Shavuot fell on my first two days in India. It is the festival where Jews celebrate receiving the Torah. The day progressed just as that--a day to receive teachings; but this time from different sources than anticipated. This is India after all.
It all started when I was looking to pray at the Chabad House, for Shavuot, and all of a sudden, I hear a guy speaking Hebrew to me. This is not the most unheard of thing in the world--Delhi is filled with Hebrew signs. Israelis are abound (they call this area of Delhi "Little Israel"). But when I looked up, there was a Hindu guy standing right in front of me. Not only was he speaking Hebrew though, his Hebrew was better than mine! He took me to the Chabad House, which was closed for whatever reason, and I ended up spending the day with this guy. We only spoke in Hebrew the entire day. "Anachnu Mishpacha, ata v'ani", "We're family, you and me" were among the many 'smooth' lines that he fed me throughout the day.
He took me to his cousin's tuktuk, a small open-sided, taxi-like vehicle. They took me to the Tourist office. I was offered an outrageously priced (for India) taxi tour of Rajasthan. When I declined, the guy who was helping me pushed his papers aside and started to chat. He was a delightful Muslim man with a great smile and demeanor. He was wondering why Jews wear those 'things on their arms.' I explained to him that t'fillin contain pieces of scripture within them and that in the Torah, it says that we are to keep signs of G-d on our arm and between our eyes. We chatted halal and Kosher foods. He goes to his majid to pray 5 times a day! The one thing that really stood out for me was when he said was: "Religions need to focus on their commonalities. The differences are not so important," and "Killing people for religion is not right." In a world where the media equates Islam with terrorism, it was great to hear this from a Muslim, in India. It's not only North Americans that can be progressive. He told me that he raises his daughter with these same values.
Afterwards, the driver said: "I would like to take you to my Sikh Temple. You pay me or not, I would like to take you as my service." So off we went to the beautiful Sikh Temple, open 24/7. We sat on the floor, looking at the gold decorations on the walls, the orator in front, and the multitude of peoples that were coming in and out. He said that it was always this busy, ay time of day. This is not surprising, since Delhi seems to outpace New York as the city that never sleeps.
He began to tell me a bit about Sikhism. It's a young religion: created in the 15th century, it is actually the 5th largest religion in the world. My Sikh friend told me that Guru Nanak started to spread his message of equality when he was 30 years old, traveling 33, 000 miles by foot throughout his lifetime (I've learned that Indians don't always get their numbers right, but it is true that Nanak walked thousands of miles). This is what I found the most interesting of all: on his travels, he collected thousands of written teachings from the lower caste people of Northern India. It was these teachings that now comprise the Sikh's holiest scripture.
After sitting in the sanctuary, we went outside and walked past a volunteer kitchen that feeds 15,000 people daily! High and low caste come to eat together, serving as a bridge between people, and feeding those in need. In the middle of eating, a few hundred people who had been waiting to eat came barrelling at us, sitting on the fly-infested floors in order to eat the donated food.
This was my first day in India! It was confirmed for me that learning Torah is a broad and universal obligation for and from everyone. When we choose to only learn from certain teachers, whether religious or secular, New Age or Old Age 😊, learning comes at an epic cost when we think we can only learn from the narrowest of places and people. Diversity is the richest and truest source of learning.
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Azima
non-member comment
Great to hear your stories
So glad you are sharing your travels with us David! I appreciated reading your story.... All the best, Azima