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Taste of Shabbat, Calcutta Style: Never a Dal Moment.........posted Dec 11, 2009

By Felicia R. Black

For those who go to Shabbat services only rarely, the synagogue can seem like a foreign place. But even regular attendees felt that way when they came to Shabbat services during Tikvat Israel’s annual Scholar’s Weekend Dec. 4-5.

Congregants were transported back in time to the 1800s to the thriving Jewish community of Calcutta, India, more than 7,000 miles away, through the haunting Sephardic melodies of their spiritual tour guide, Rahel Musleah. An author, singer and storyteller, Musleah was the guest speaker for the weekend.

Born in Calcutta to a Jewish family that traces its roots to 17th century Baghdad, Musleah delights in sharing her Indian religious and cultural heritage with her fellow Jews and has written books on the Sephardic Rosh Hashanah and Pesach customs she grew up with.

Her colorful presentations over the course of the weekend fascinated attendees.

“I had never heard of a seder on Rosh Hashanah, the different fruits and vegetables you eat and the order they are eaten in,” remarked Susan Apter, co-chair of the Adult Education Committee that sponsored the event. “I am looking forward to reading her book Apples and Pomegranates.”

Congregants knew they were in for a very different kind of Shabbat celebration the moment they walked into the synagogue Friday night and were greeted by the pungent smells of Indian cuisine wafting from the kitchen. The stage for their journey to India was further set with Indian artifacts, such as ornate kippot and a hat decorated with a Jewish star pattern, gracing the Shabbat dinner tables in the social hall. The blessing over bread normally said over challah was recited over Indian naan, the round flat leavened bread that is a staple of Indian cuisine.

Friday night’s dinner, prepared by Tikvat Israel member Roz Kram and her cadre of volunteers, for nearly 130 congregants included lentils, cauliflower cooked in a delicate sauce with coconut milk, and basmati rice topped with raisins and cashews. Hints of cinnamon, cumin, and coriander enlivened these dishes, which were served with chicken and meatballs.

After birkat hamazon, Musleah began her talk and Shabbat slide show titled “Jewish Calcutta Through Music and Memory,” with pictures of her family and the two synagogues that were the centers of Jewish life in the 1800s in Calcutta. In its heyday, the city once numbered 5,000 Jews who lived peacefully with neighbors. After India gained independence from the British and Israel became a state, many Jews emigrated to Israel or to other English-speaking countries.

TI member Lynne Benzion commented afterward she found it interesting that “they never got chased out, as happened in so many other countries. People left of their own volition, with no anger or hatred, because they were passionate Zionists or saw economic opportunity elsewhere.”

Today, Musleah said, only about 35 elderly Jews remain.

In relating her family’s history, Musleah said her father, Rabbi Ezekiel Musleah, served as rabbi for 12 years at Maghen David Synagogue in Calcutta. She said she never had a bat mitzvah but, along with her two sisters, she learned Hebrew grammar, Sephardic Torah tropes and other Sephardic prayer melodies, and Chumash with Rashi from her father. In 1964, when she was only 6 years old, her family moved to Philadelphia, where her father served for many years as the rabbi of the Sephardic Mikveh Israel Congregation, the oldest synagogue in Philadelphia. She now lives in Great Neck, N.Y.

Although Musleah moved at a young age, she said she remains strongly attached to her Indian Jewish roots and wants to transmit her Baghdadi-Indian legacy to her children. For their b’nai mitzvah, she taught her two daughters, Shira and Shoshana, the Torah tropes she learned as a child from her father and has returned to Calcutta twice to explore her Jewish roots. The first time was 13 years ago at the age of 39 when she traveled there with her parents. They stayed at the house in which she grew up, still lacking in modern amenities such as a shower or bath. Her great-aunt Ramah lived in the house at the time.

Musleah attended services at the synagogue her father had served. Breaking with Orthodox tradition, she sat in the men’s section with her father. Although she said she longed for an aliyah, that desire was not to be fulfilled. She could bend tradition only so far.

In addition to sharing her family history and the Jewish cultural heritage of Calcutta, Bombay and several other Indian cities, Musleah taught congregants the Sephardic melodies to several well-known Hebrew songs such as “Tsur Mishelo” and “El Eliyahu” (known as “Eliyahu Hanavi” in Ashkenazic tradition). The melodies sounded Arabic and different from the Ashkenazic melodies congregants were familiar with.

“It was fascinating to realize that such different tunes, prayers and customs from those I’m used to are part of Judaism,” remarked TI member Debby Berlyne.

The journey to Jewish India continued at Saturday morning’s Shabbat services, where Musleah chanted Torah and haftarah portions in the Sephardic style. She and other congregants read from the Musleah family Torah, which she had brought to use in the service. It dates back to 1888. The Torah scroll is encased in a light blue wooden cover, adorned with silver.

Congregant Ben Loving said, “The Torah scroll Ms. Musleah brought was absolutely fantastic, and it seemed to radiate history. Coupled with the Sephardic melodies we sang, TI definitely felt closer to India than Rockville!”

For TI member Judy Katz, the blue Torah case symbolized what is different between Ashkenazic and Sephardic practices as well as what is similar.

“The case is so different, the Torah blessings are slightly different, but inside the Torah is exactly the same,” she said.

In keeping with Sephardic tradition, the case was opened while the Torah was being held at the start of the Torah service. The person carrying the Torah faced the congregation so the parchment could be seen. Then the Torah was paraded around the sanctuary, with congregants touching the case directly with their fingers rather than with a tallit or siddur, as in Ashkenazic tradition.

Upon return to the bima (which Sephardim call a teba), the upright Torah case was again opened and the Torah read from the case, as the reader stood with his or her back to the congregation, rather than facing the congregation, as in Ashkenazic tradition. Instead of saying “yasher koach” (“You should have strength!”) to someone who had received an honor, congregants were instructed to say, “chazak u’varuch,” which means, “May you be strong and blessed!”

At the Saturday evening portion of the weekend event, congregants attended ma’ariv and havdalah, followed by melave malka (the meal held after Shabbat to figuratively escort the Sabbath Queen on her way). Melave malka consisted of a vegetarian Indian repast that included curried lentils, spinach, rice, yogurt sauce with cucumber, and spicy fried potatoes, all of which were again seasoned with traditional Indian spices.

Dinner was followed by Musleah’s slide presentation on additional details of her family history and her second trip to Calcutta with her sister 3 years ago, in which Musleah again visited her great-aunt Ramah. This time, however, Musleah and her sister stayed in a four-star hotel, and because her synagogue is now a national monument, she sang from the teba (bima), something she could not have done when the synagogue was actually being used. Unfortunately, her great-aunt died 2 months after this visit.

“I had a tear in my eye at the end hearing that her great-aunt had died--the last link,” Apter remarked, but she also said she was glad that Musleah has been able to keep her Baghdadi-Calcutta traditions alive and transmit them to her daughters.

As on Friday night, congregants were taught Sephardic melodies to many Hebrew songs.

“I really enjoyed Rahel’s use of music and images to tell her personal story and that of her community,” Berlyne said.

Although Musleah said she is now a member of an egalitarian Conservative synagogue, she wants Jews to know that there are other ways of being Jewish and observing holidays and traditions than the Ashkenazic way.

Congregant and artist Shirley Waxman commented, “Jews have lived in the four corners of the earth; it is so exciting to learn about different people, our differences and commonalities. … I have been to India three times; it is a fascinating, exotic country, where the Jews have had a remarkable long history without persecution.”