Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue
The incongruity of the sky-blue synagogue set against the filthy Mumbai sky screams of the innocence of another time when dark skinned Jews in saris and long kurtas streamed through the great blue doors to worship their one God who dwelt among them in this land of many gods. Those Jews are long gone now, returned to the Bible Land they left eons ago. So on a Friday night when we two peek inside, the gabbai greets us with a brilliant smile. He’s found a tenth! A minyan. We must stay, he pleads, and pulls my husband after him, dismissing me with a brief nod to where the women sit above and out of sight. Thus banished I peek down at the unlikely congregation. Strangers, silent, ill at ease, until a single voice rings out in a familiar chant and one by one, all ten join in the fugue that swells with rising exaltation. Heads down, feet stomping, arms linked they whirl around the tribal fire kindled by their passion. Flames rise up, engulf me, and I yield. These are my people. This too is home.
First published in The Jewish Daily Forward,Dec. 26, 2008 (and dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg) |