Shana Tovah and the Mahatma

Rosh Hashanah or the Jewish New Year, is celebrated by the religious community across the globe. The festival encompasses multiple aspects, such as prayer services in synagogues and the blowing of an antique musical horn referred to as a “shofar” that is carved out of a ram’s horn. One of the integral facets of Rosh Hashanah is the delightful range of sweet dishes that the Jewish people consume during the course of the festival, which began this year on the evening of Sunday 29 September and ends on Tuesday 1 October.For the duration of Rosh Hashanah, Jews often greet each other with Hebrew expressions like “Shana Tova” or “Shana Tova U’Metukah” connoting “A good year” or “A good and sweet year.

Prior to Rosh Hashanah, people greet each other with “Ketivah v’chatima tovah”(כתיבהוחתימהטובה) that is, “A good inscription and sealing (in the Book of Life).” On the day before Rosh Hashanah, while returning from the synagogue service, it is customary to greet each other with “Leshana tovah tikatev v’tichatem” (לשנהטובהתכתבותחתם). While addressing a woman, this is amended toLeshana tovah tikatevee v’tichatemee” (לשנהטובהתכתביותחתמי). This connotes, “May you be written and sealed for a good year.” From midday on Rosh Hashanah, when it is believed that destinieshaveby nowbeen carved, up until Yom Kippur, (Day of Atonement) when it is believed fortune for the impending year are to be secured, Jews greet each other with “Gemar chatimah tovah” (גמרחתימהטובה), “A good final sealing.” On the other hand, in Yiddish, the typical greeting is “A gut gebentsht yohr,” “A good and blessed year” (אגוטגעבענטשטיאהר). In addition as-convention foretells that destiny is not confirmed till Hoshanah Rabba,(The seventh day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, it is considered the final day of the divine “judgment” in which the fate of the New Year is determined)the habitual gesture is “A gutten kvittl” (אגוט’ןקוויטל), “A good inscription.”

On September 1, 1939 as the Nazis trooped into Poland, Mahatma Gandhi, penned a letter….

“You have my good wishes for your new year”, “How I wish the New Year may mean an era of peace for your afflicted people.” The letter addressed to A.E. Shohet, the head of the Bombay Zionist Association, has been recently uncovered in the archives of the National Library of Israel. Shohet was a member of the Baghdadi Jewish community in Bombay and was an enthusiastic Zionist, leading both the Bombay Zionist Association and Keren Hayesod, the Bombay city office’s Zionist organization. In addition, he was the editor of “The Jewish Advocate”, the official publication of the Bombay Zionist Association and the Jewish National Fund, also the platform for a conspicuous difference of opinion with Gandhi.

Gandhi, a formidable force in Indian politics is believed to have not articulated much on the subject of Zionism or the unending oppression of German Jews. His essay in November 26, 1938, entitled, “The Jews” espoused“nonviolent resistance as a solution” to Nazi persecution as well as the contestations between Zionist Jews and Arab Palestinians. Shohet’srejoinder to Gandhi’s counsel in “The Jewish Advocate”, was that what was effective for the “Harijans in India” may not be so for European Jewsasthe latter did not possess a“homeland” and had pursued nonviolence for a prolonged period of time with meagre accomplishment. Despite the Rosh Hashanah wishes, the trajectory that Gandhi and the Indian National Congress took, was disapproval of Indian participation in World War II, discontinuation of support for the “British Raj when its Viceroy declared war on Germany without consultation.”Nonetheless, Shohet identified Gandhi as an influential figure and pursued to sway the Mahatmawith the aid of Hermann Kallenbach, a Jewish Zionist architect who Gandhi is said to have alluded to as his “soulmate.”

Kallenbach in turn facilitated an interview with Gandhi for Shohet at the Wardha ashram in March 1939. The endeavour, though sincere, was in vain as Shohet remained convinced that Gandhi viewed Zionism from the Palestinian standpoint. Gandhi continued to persist with his posture of passive resistance for European Jews.He did refer to the Holocaust as “the greatest crime of our time”,nevertheless maintained, as per Louis Fischer’s biography of the Mahatma that “Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife,” inferring that in succumbing to but persisting with pacifism, the Jews “would have aroused the world and the people of Germany.”In 1939 and 1940, Gandhi wrote two letters to Adolf Hitler …. “Dear friend, “We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland,” and in a subsequent letter… “nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents. But your own writings and pronouncements and those of your friends and admirers leave no room for doubt that many of your acts are monstrous and unbecoming of human dignity.”Gandhi compared Nazism with British Imperialism and referred to the “humiliation of Czechoslovakia, the rape of Poland and the swallowing of Denmark”,though not overtlyalluding to the Jews. Gandhi, as an alternative, insisted on a cessation of encounters, observing, that on the occasion of Christmas Eve, it was time for peace…“During this season… the hearts of the peoples of Europe yearn for peace.”

Priya Singh

Associate Director

Asia in Global Affairs

29 September 2019

References

Barr, Sabrina. Rosh Hashanah 2019: The Symbolic Foods that are eaten during the Jewish New Year,” Independent, September 28, 2019.

Grisar,P.J.  “In a Recently Unearthed Letter, Gandhi says Shana Tovah to an Indian Zionist,” Forward, September 25, 2019.

Posner, Menachem.“What Is Shanah Tovah? Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Greetings,” accessed September 29. 2019.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/174683/jewish/New-Year-Greetings-Explained.htm