The Chinese Non-Jews Said to Me: 'Hey, You Forgot to Wash Your Hands!'

"Sometimes you need to go all the way to distant China to discover faith," says Or Hellersberg. If you meet him on the street, he will look like a typical yeshiva student, but when he unfolds his fascinating and miraculous story, it's hard not to be moved by the Divine Providence that is evident along the way.

Or was born and raised in the community of Zurit near Carmiel, and his childhood was like that of any regular Israeli secular child, which means school-high school-army. "I had no connection with religion," he says, "absolutely nothing. I lived life like any average secular child, served in the army for three years in the Hebron area and after I was discharged, I felt lost. I worked in various jobs and eventually got a coveted job as a government employee. It was organized work and I earned well, but I felt it wasn't for me.

"I quit," Or continues, "and decided to travel around the world. My sister was living in China at the time, and I decided to visit her and start my trip there. I ended up spending two and a half years in China and surrounding countries, traveling to different areas and being very excited. Since China is a developing country, it allows you to taste anything you want. Want to be a teacher? Go ahead. Want to be a bus driver, salesman, or model? You can do that too with a quick procedure. I also enjoyed the Chinese mentality, because they were nice and welcoming. Since they are short and I am tall by chance, I always felt good about myself, it was nice. At some point, I also learned the language, simply because I couldn't manage otherwise (they don't speak English), and within a month I already started talking."

What did you do all the days you were in China?

"I would wander and travel; it's one of the world's developing countries and there's a lot to see there. Sometimes I would take a train and travel. The trains there run along very long routes, and you find yourself sitting for hours with 100 Chinese people on a train, and they're all staring at you because they've never seen anyone from Israel. You show them a book in Hebrew and they pass it from hand to hand with trembling and awe. When you tell them you're Jewish, they look at you from head to toe with immense appreciation, because for some reason all Chinese believe that all Jews are wise and wealthy. The truth is, at first, it made me feel special and my country unique, but then the question began to bother me – what is really unique about us, the Jews? What do I have that those Chinese don't? I didn't know how to answer that."

The Non-Jews Claimed They Were Jewish

Since Or stayed in China for a long time as a tourist rather than as a citizen, he was required to leave occasionally, to ensure he did not stay more than three months consecutively. "On one occasion I traveled to Hong Kong," he says. "A friend suggested visiting a Jewish community called 'Shuva Israel', which offers travelers accommodation and meals, in exchange for attending two Torah lessons a day. The lecturer there is Rabbi Moshe Berverman, who comes specifically from Israel for this purpose.

"I came to Hong Kong for a week and stayed for three weeks," he recalls, "I really enjoyed hearing the lectures and being in the company of Israelis. But I didn't feel it should obligate me in any way. After that, I returned to China and arrived in the city of Kaifeng, where to my great surprise, a few dozen people approached me and informed me they are Jews."

Jews???

"Exactly like that. They claimed their ancestors were Jewish, and they themselves also continue to adhere to some of the traditions. They don't eat pork, they pray every Friday night, perform *kiddush*, then have a meal, and they have many customs similar to the Jewish people. When I asked them when their ancestors arrived in the city, they said it was 1000 years ago when there was a thriving Jewish community in Kaifeng, with Jews who succeeded in trade and business. The emperor at the time loved them very much and even gave them Chinese names similar to 'Levi', 'Cohen', and so on."

After a few more questions, Or quickly understood that the people opposite him were complete non-Jews, who over the years established generations of non-Jewish families, whose only claim is that a thousand years ago they had a Jewish grandfather. Nevertheless, the excited members of the community were so happy with his arrival and asked him to become their Hebrew teacher.

"That's what I did for the following two months," he says, "I sat in front of dozens of Chinese and taught them the Hebrew language."

Meanwhile, he also got to know their community in more depth. "You could say that day by day I was more and more chilled," he notes, "first of all because they called themselves 'Jews' but their homes were full of idolatry and impurity. On the other hand, I saw they still had a few remnants of the true Judaism that existed with them generations ago. I remember they once invited me to a Friday night meal. Before we sat down, they all went to wash their hands and I did too. Then I wanted to chat, but they silenced me. They later explained: 'Don't you know that you're not supposed to talk after washing hands?'"

(Photo: shutterstock)

Upon hearing that statement, his feelings were terrible. "I thought to myself how is it possible that I, the Jew who came from Israel, don't know the laws of washing hands? It was an immense shame. I said to myself – 'if today I don't know the laws of washing hands, then my descendants in a few hundred years will look worse than those in the community in China, they will be completely devoid of any knowledge and identity. Is that what I want?'"

Shortly thereafter he left the 'community'. "I continued to wander throughout China," he says, "and at some point, I returned to Hong Kong and met a nice yeshiva student who had become religious. He said to me: 'Leave everything and come learn with me a page of Gemara'. And indeed, we sat and studied the daily page and then, for the first time, I felt a big 'wow'. It was extremely powerful learning. What mainly moved me was seeing how unlike all the people I had met throughout my life, who only try to 'gulp' the world and fulfill their personal interests, there are Amoraim and Tannaim in the Gemara who come to the world solely to seek the truth. That's the only thing that interests them."

Or notes that for him, it was a 'big shock', because until then he had no idea what learning Torah means. "I didn't know Haredim at all, and the only places I met them were in incitements on TV. By the way, it's absurd to me because in the school where I studied they were very open and pluralistic and introduced us to leftists and bizarre people of all kinds, but they never thought to introduce us to religious people."

He stayed in Hong Kong and continued learning with the yeshiva student from Israel. This time from the book 'A Letter from Eliyahu' on the essence of life and one's role in the world. "When I learned these things, I felt how they solved many doubts that existed within me until today. Because ever since I can remember, I felt an empty feeling, as if I'm just wasting time here. I always asked myself what am I supposed to do, and then, for the first time, I began to understand."

So Who Am I Anyway?

Around that time, Rosh Hashanah was approaching, and one of the Israeli friends Or met at 'Shuva Israel' offered him to join him for a Rosh Hashanah party in the city of Chengdu, where there are many young Israelis. "I arrived there and participated in the party held in honor of Rosh Hashanah. I saw how the Israelis and other foreigners live lives of debauchery. Suddenly I realized I'm sitting with people at the very bottom of human society, constantly talking nonsense and dirty jokes, at an absolute low point. I said to myself: 'Two weeks ago I sat and learned Gemara, I felt I was living the truth with the Amoraim and Tannaim, what connection do I have to all the things happening here? What am I even doing here?' At that moment I rented a room in a hotel and decided to be alone. I thought to myself about my direction in life and felt in the deepest place in my heart that I was seeking a change and needed it.

"Afterward I returned to Hong Kong, and I decided to stay in the community for some time. Already on the first Shabbat, I sat at the Shabbat dinner with another Israeli Jew, they spoke words of Torah there and the atmosphere was uplifting. When the meal ended, we both decided to try to keep Shabbat. Excited by the decision, we headed back to the apartment where we were housed, only to discover it was locked with an electronic code. I remember us standing outside the apartment door, debating and thinking about what we should do. We knew we couldn't press the code, but how could we enter? We stood there debating for two whole hours until a non-Jew from the area came and opened the door for us. From that day to this day, I keep Shabbat."

From there, the progress was fast. The community quickly discovered that Or is a Cohen and then asked him to come every morning for prayers, for the Cohen's blessing. "If you already come to pray, then you start putting on tefillin," he says, "and thus, little by little, I acquired more and more laws. I was already in a completely different place."

Back Home

The day after Tisha B'Av, Or returned to Israel. "I felt I had nothing more to do in China; I knew I wanted to be a Jew."

And how did your parents react?

"My family was in shock. For them, it was a crisis. This is not how they expected to get back their son who left for a trip. At first, they tried to take me to someone who 'brings people back to secular life', but when I heard his bizarre claims, it only reinforced how right my direction is and it was clear to me I wasn't going to give up.

"The next stage was studying at the university in Jerusalem, where I studied economics and geography, but deep inside I knew that the main reason I was in Jerusalem was that I was looking for a place where I could study and advance in Torah, something I couldn't do in China and Hong Kong.

"From Heaven, I was helped, and before I started studying at the university, I met a yeshiva student from Carmiel who recommended the 'Building Zion' yeshiva in Jerusalem for those who return to faith. And so, I started visiting the yeshiva once a week, and then began coming on Shabbat too. The head of the yeshiva gave lessons in Ethics of Our Fathers on Thursday nights, lessons that left me in awe of how great and beautiful the Torah is.

"It was funny, just as I was a stranger in China, but really loved the place, so it was initially at the yeshiva - I would come from the outside into a Haredi neighborhood, and I looked different from everyone, but I really enjoyed it, so I didn't mind, though I still didn't know what my direction was. I used the summer vacation of my first year at the university to stay at the yeshiva's boarding school. And so, for the entire summer, I lived like a yeshiva student. It was somewhat similar to the army in a positive way, the camaraderie, the common goal, guys from all over the country, from various ages and populations, secular, traditional, religious, who left their lives behind to start from scratch a Torah study journey, of searching for our place in the world, as a Jew, as a human. I remember it was very powerful."

Or Hellersberg, after returning to faith

The vacation ended, and Or notes that he began to hesitate. Originally, he had to return to university for the second year, but it wasn't clear to him how he would be able, after the amazing experience he had, to return to living in the dorms. "I consulted about this with the yeshiva's head Rabbi Amichai Horwitz, and the rabbi advised me to stay in the yeshiva's dormitory and continue my studies at university. It was one of the happiest moments of my life; thus, at the age of 28, I entered the yeshiva as a regular student."

At this point, things turned around, from being a university student who occasionally comes to yeshiva, Or became a yeshiva student who occasionally goes to university. "It was really night and day, from a university where the atmosphere is to get a degree and get it over with, to a yeshiva where all the students set out on a new path and study with real passion, desire, and joy. All my Torah, my Judaism, how to build my home, where to aspire to in life, the happiness I have in life, my match and wedding, really everything I have, I received from the yeshiva. The experiences at the yeshiva entered very deeply into my heart. I felt how every day of mine in the yeshiva is a huge experience. And I am grateful for it every day, every moment. By the way, I documented all this on the yeshiva's website because I felt I had to express it in writing and words."

It sounds utopian; weren't there also difficulties?

"The year I returned to Israel was tough. When I was in China, it was seemingly just me and Hashem. What I did seemed right in His eyes, and I felt I was doing straight and correct. In Israel suddenly there were many people around me, and there was also family and friends. It was actually here that I felt a sense of loneliness, as if I was doing things against all the world. But I think that the light of Torah that I discovered in China, is what constantly gave me strength, and in the yeshiva, where everyone together lives the reality of the Torah, the difficulties diminish, and the light of the Torah increases more and more. I felt that it really revived me."

What message can you convey to guys who are looking for themselves?

"I can say one thing – unfortunately most of the secular public in Israel grows up without concepts and without knowing Torah, through no fault of their own. But that doesn't mean they should give up on the great thing called 'Judaism'. Don't say to yourselves: 'I was born in a kibbutz or a secular settlement, and that's how I should continue'. On the contrary. Say: 'Did I waste twenty or thirty years of my life? Now is the time to make it right'."