Shabbos Shoes and Jewish Rues in Cochin
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ESENT I PR AR D N A I R A Questmesor ah Shabbos Shoes and Jewish Rues IN COCHIN TEXT AND PHOTOS BY Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Ari Greenspan The shul on Jew Town Road How many Jewish was locked and the one on communities managed to flourish for well Market Road was hidden over 1,000 years, and then, after centuries of behind a tropical fish store, prosperity, picked up H en masse and moved to but that didn’t deter us from Eretz Yisrael — and not because of intolerance, discrimination, or external political pressure, but out of a sense of religious fervor? One such discovering remnants of the kehillah is the Jewish community of Cochin, India. rich heritage of the Jews of In the years following Indian independence from Britain in 1947 and the establishment of the Cochin in faraway India. Jewish state in 1948, most of the Cochini Jews immigrated to Israel; but as we were planning our Today their descendants have upcoming trip to India, we wanted to search out what remains of their original community on the tropical Malabar Coast. And so we made contact become Israeli, but we wanted with several Cochini Jews living in Israel, who told us we were in luck with our timing: It seems a firsthand view of this ancient the Cochini Jews in Israel get together once a decade to celebrate their communal aliyah, and kehillah on the Malabar Coast their 60th anniversary celebration, scheduled to MISHPACHA 59 Shabbos Shoes and Jewish Rues in Cochin F 1. 3. 1. CARRIED AWAY The suspended matzah F was used to mark the eiruv in the Jewish towns, but while the Jews left half a take place in Moshav Taoz, about 15 minutes from where we live, century ago, the matzah is still hanging on was to happen a few weeks hence. We of course attended, and it was a joyous — and quite an 2. LOOKING FOR SIGNS This is where the amazing — celebration of the successful integration of their Jews lived, worked, and prayed in the community. From old to young, spanning all segments of the Ernakulam neighborhood. Would there be Israeli population, they gathered from all corners of the country, anyone to give us a tour? with music, skits, and lots of camaraderie. And that’s where we got our first glimpse of the community’s interesting, if not 3. FIRST SHACHARIS Babu has been unusual, customs. For example, there were unique Cochini guarding the old Kadavumbagam kippot, or “topis” as they call them — of many different colors on Synagogue since the Jews left in 1972. display. The kehillah once had a tradition of wearing a different There was no minyan this morning, but we colored topi for each holiday: festive white on Rosh Hashanah, had a mezuman plain white on Yom Kippur, shades of green on Succos, shades of red on Simchas Torah, blue on Pesach, and yellow/orange for Shavuos. there and see the places for ourselves. Fish Tank Barricade We next head- But our contacts in Israel told us that the ed to Market Road, on which Kadavum- Shoe-In The reunion was fun, and gave us an incentive to con- few remaining Jews in Cochin, all busy bagam Synagogue was supposedly located. tinue our research. And so our next stop was Moshav Nevatim, individuals, are not keen on hosting every We didn’t see any signs for a shul, but we located in the Negev just east of Be’er Sheva. (Nevatim is prob- tourist that comes to visit. With a lot of did soon see a “Na Na Nachman” sticker ably best known for the large air force base located nearby.) The arm-twisting we finally succeeded in stuck on the outside of a tropical fish and moshav’s shul is a replica of one in Cochin, including the original establishing contact with an older local plant store. As luck would have it, the own- style bimah. The moshav also houses the Cochin Jewish Heritage 2. Jewish man who agreed to help us out. er, Elias Josephai, was closing the store, Center, which we were shown around by Miri, the center’s very F The best-laid plans do not always come which is in front of the old shul. We asked knowledgeable director. to fruition, though, and upon arriving in in Hebrew if we could see the shul and he She briefed us on many of the unique customs of the community. Cochin our contact said he was “too busy” was more than happy to take us back in and Their most significant holiday is Simchas Torah, for which they and we were left to fend for ourselves. show us around. build a special platform known as a manara. Their weddings are Armed only with the names of the streets In order to get to the shul, one first has three-week-long affairs and a boy under the age of bar mitzvah (Jew Town Road and Market Road) that to pass through his store full of fish tanks, reads the kesubah. And among their most unusual customs housed the two shuls that are still standing potted plants, and supplies for both. We are their special Shabbos shoes. These shoes, called paduka or in Ernakulam, where we were staying, then crossed a small open area and entered methiyadi in the local Malayalam language, consist of nothing we headed out at 7 p.m. to explore — and into a rundown, dusty, but still clearly more than a sole plus a peg that goes between the big toe and the the siyata d’Shmaya that comes with magnificent shul. second toe, and that is all that keeps it in place. These shoes are our halachic adventuring didn’t fail us No one knows for sure exactly when India’s oldest and most quintessential footwear, which the Jews this time either. Although it was well Jews first settled in Ernakulam or when then adopted for a holy purpose. They would wear the paduka into evening, it was still hot outside, and the first shul was built here, but it was at on Shabbos in order to prevent taking large steps and running, the town was hopping. The first shul we least 500 years ago. The present structure a questionable practice in Shabbos observance. We were looking reached was the Tekkumbagam, located on dates to the late 16th or early 17th century. forward to our trip to Cochin and had hopes of buying some of Jew Town Road not far from Market Road. Its front is set back from the busy Market these unique Shabbos shoes for ourselves. (While in India we It looked like an absolute churvah, and was Road and the shul likely once had a large didn’t succeed in finding them, but one of the contacts we made gated shut. The phone numbers posted on courtyard prior to the construction of the while there found a pair after we returned and sent them to us.) the clearly old sign were useless. The next building now housing Josephai’s store. The The Cochini Jews trace their roots at the least back to the 12th day we did manage to get hold of the phone front of the shul had a room that was used century — and some believe the original community goes all number for the only member of the Jewish as a social hall, and the rooms above once the way back to the time of Shlomo Hamelech. For at least the community who could open the shul, and housed a Jewish school. All this rapidly last several generations, the Cochini Jewish community has he was more than willing to grant us access. changed when the community moved to been in two cities (Cochin and Ernakulam) and three suburbs However, his business schedule and our Israel en masse. (Parur, Chendamangalam, and Mala). Our plan was to travel visiting schedule were out of sync, and Sometime in the early 1970s the shul there was never an overlapping window held its last minyan and the Torahs too in which we could see the shul together. made aliyah to Nevatim — but in a sad Hopefully on our next trip. irony, those scrolls that came all the way 60 MISHPACHA MISHPACHA 61 Shabbos Shoes and Jewish Rues in Cochin F5. F4. had once been all Jewish. As we walked, he place in Parur, reconstructions have been was reliving the past and suddenly smiled installed, as part of a restoration project of as he relayed how the Jews would help the shul building that began five years ago. from India were stolen in Eretz Yisrael by Bedouin. This was followed by a each other in business. The synagogue, located on Jew Street, damaging storm in Ernakulam and then a robbery of many of the remaining He explained that when a non-Jew was built in 1615 CE, but local tradition Jewish items. Thus, in 1979, Josephai, one of the last remaining Jews in the would walk into a Jewish shop and start says it was built on top of a previous town, took responsibility for the building and in 1985 set up his business in a to negotiate a price, another Jew would synagogue from the year 1165 CE. There place that enabled him to keep an eye on it. come in acting as a customer and start is a fascinating Hebrew inscription on the Babu, as Josephai is nicknamed, invited us back to his house, where we negotiating too, thus hiking up the price. wall of the shul, date unknown but clearly joined him and his wife, a Bene Israel from Mumbai.