About 40 years ago, I had a dream in which I was told, “You will create Bhakti Judaism.” I woke up and asked, “What’s Bhakti?” I had never heard the word, but when I looked it up and found that it was about the Path of Devotion, I said, “Yes” and felt guided and blessed to receive and shape a Jewish Path of Love.
When I had the opportunity to travel to northern India on a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Bhakti, in the shadow of the Himalayas, I felt called. The calling was to deepen my love and more fully claim my devotional self; to live openly as a God-lover.
There, amidst the sacred cows and golden monkeys, the jostling crowds of barefoot pilgrims, the trashed-lined streets, I heard the invitation of the Himalayas… calling me to my heights; calling me to rise above petty thoughts, old grudges, comparisons, restlessness, worries. Those snow-capped heights awaken my compassion and send me to the widest perspective.
Everywhere I went, I witnessed the worship of the Divine Feminine. That devotion sparked in me the love of Shechina in the form of Shabbat, who embraces me each week to nourish and enliven and rebirth me and show me the holiness that was hidden in plain sight all along.
On the first day of our pilgrimage, Andrew Harvey, who was leading us, said, “Every veil is a window, if there is enough love.” That one sentence guided me through the whole journey. The veils were the forms of religious life, that might feel strange or exotic or enigmatic.
There I was, a Jew plopped down into the midst of Hindu worship, brimming with Gods and Goddesses, bringing the fire of Aarti ritual to the holy waters of the Ganges, immersing in those waters to clear away my past, offering pujas in the fragrance of flowers and the clanging of bells.
All forms, all metaphors are veils, which might obscure the essence or imprison the truth in rigid constructs. Yet when I bring enough love, every veil becomes a window. That window opens out to the infinite and connects me with the Oneness. That veil also opens a window into my own Tradition, sending me deeper into the mysteries of Shabbat or illuminating the secrets of a Psalm.
Throughout my journey I chanted verses from the Psalms, sometimes out loud, and sometimes under my breath. I wanted not just to receive the blessing of this holy place, but to also to bring blessing. In the end, my pilgrimage sent me to a place where the receiving and the giving of blessing become One.
I return home knowing that the holy mountain is within me.
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