Escape to Happy Valley

I really didn’t want to spend Shabbat in Hong Kong. But where should I go? I went for a walk to clear my head. Amongst the sea of Asian faces in the street before, one stood out. The white shirt, beard and baseball cap were a giveaway. “Sholem aleichem” I called out. “Aleichem sholem!” came back the countersign.

Yonatan, in Hong Kong on business, had been rushing off to his hotel, but on meeting another Jew he took the time to get acquainted. “Where you from? Medaber Ivrit? You live in Israel? So do I ! Come, let’s meet the Rabbi at Chabbad!” He took me round to Kowloon’s Beit Chabbad where I met the Rabbi and his wife, who offered me food and a warm welcome.

Yonatan was planning to cross the border and spend Shabbat in the Chinese city of Shenzen, and was happy for me to join him. And that is how, next day, we boarded the train headed for the Chinese border. It was a short trip and not nearly long enough to cover all the topics we wanted to discuss.

“So you write a blog. Kol Hakavod, good on you.. What’s it about?” I introduced him to Penelope, who had been fairly subdued up to that point. “Ich kenisht farshtanen” I don’t understand, he said, lapsing into Yiddish. “This is your travel partner?” Penelope made a face at his comment, sick of people insinuating that she is a mere play thing.

“Ok, so you write on Jewish topics at least?” I explained what I thought was the basic principle behind writing a blog and Yonatan seemed, if not impressed, interested. “You should learn more Do you learn?” (referring to religious texts). “To write something like this you really need to know Tanya. Do you study Tanya?” Yonatan had difficulty accepting that as a Litvak, my religiously academic orientation was not in the Lubavitch Tanya literature. “You should speak to my wife. She is an expert in the issues of Jewish women”.

P winced once again. She has quite liberal views and gets frustrated by the conservative attitudes expressed by some purported do-gooders. This is especially true for those who want to encourage traditional religious attitudes towards women. I gave her a sharp look as a warning. She knows how I feel about it; a conservative approach is fine as long as it doesn’t impose values on others. Of course, that is exactly what conservative approaches tend to do, but that does not mean we should poo-poo such beliefs out of hand. And we should be especially aware that such beliefs are usually held in genuine good faith and with good intentions. Penelope gazed out the window, trying instead to distract herself by focussing on the landscape of Hong Kong’s New Territories, through which the train was passing.

I found it fascinating that in Yonatan’s desire to provide me with helpful material, he was effectively, and possibly not subconsciously, trying to determine a particular agenda for my stories. I told him so. “Not at all. But you have to know what you are talking about!” he countered. I am not so sure. Blogs are intended to be an individual’s impression of the world and not another means for ‘toeing the party line’.

Our discussion became quite in-depth and was indeed stimulating, but the train reached the last station. Penelope was pleased. All this religious talk was boring her to tears. Everyone disembarked. We were at Lo Wu, the Hong Kong border with China. It certainly did not look like an international border. In fact the only thing remarkable abut the experience was that the ticket collectors stamped our passports as we walked through. Chick Chak, as we say in Hebrew, no fuss.

Yonatan changed cellphones and called the acting Rabbi of Shenzen. “Shalom Aleichem, I have a dear Jewish boy here who will be joining us for Shabbos. Where does he need to get to?”

Yonatan took a taxi to a business meeting and I took another to a hotel in a place called Happy Valley, a fairyland suburb where everyone is happy all the time, and happy times are the order of the day. How apt a place to spend Shabbat with Chabbad.

Stay tuned...