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Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is Practically Here
This weekend, Pat and I walked barefoot through the Bull Temple and allowed a priest in front of the bull to rub red-powder bindis on our foreheads.
How did this Hindu ritual prepare us for Rosh Hashanah? Until just now, writing here, I hadn't considered a connection. Partaking of any religious ritual, as we did for a few minutes yesterday, seemed better than continuing with no religious community, as we had done for the past two months.
The priest had a plate that held money, which was reminiscent of plate-passing I've witnessed when attending church services with Christian friends. I had US$1 in my pocket and put it on the plate. I was saving the dollar to give to someone poor, which had been my instructions by the person who gave it to me prior to our departure from the States.
The dollar contributor was a past student-intern at our synagogue, who had since become a rabbi. I want to believe that the Temple was not a rich enterprise and that I fulfilled my assignment acceptably.
It's neat how the dollar was in the wallet of a New York City-based rabbi and made its way to the collection-plate of a Hindu priest in Bangalore.
Temples on Land and in My Imagination
The only other major temple near Bangalore is the ISKON Temple. Hare Krishnas, who run it, do proselytize, which is not typical of most Hindus, according to my nephew Zach.
I just looked at the web tour of the ISKON Temple (see link above) and it looks as grand as I imagine the ancient Temple in Jerusalem looked in its day. A number of worshippers need temples, mosques, synagogues and churches. Apparently.
Until planning our upcoming trip to Kochi, Pat and I have been mostly religiously structureless while in India. Yesterday's tour of the Bull Temple and the temple in tribute to Ganesh down the hill from it, and the Muslim wedding we happened on last month, were as close as we've been to spending spiritual time together in community.
Where is God?
My friend Zdravko asked me for my concept of God several months ago and I told him that it aligned with Martin Buber's I-Thou idea, that in our best encounters with other human beings, we see the Divine in each other and are paying full attention to each other, are fully present.
I want to hang onto this concept, particularly while we're not somewhere, where it's simple to pray with other Jews in community. Most of all, this six-month experience of living far from my birthplace is stretching me to try to have I-Thou experiences with people who are not necessarily natively familiar to me.
What Will the New Year Bring?
Every Jewish New Year, I have a parallel sense of hope and dread, as every single year in my experience, fantastically wonderful things happen and sad things happen --both beyond the imagination, always. This past year, at Rosh Hashanah, I never would have guessed I would have the opportunity to live and work in India. And I would not have expected one of Pat's relatives to suffer from congestive heart failure; the relative is recovering, thank God.
What will 5768 bring?
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