Egyptian op-ed upset at a rabbi "summoning demons" while he was dining

Ahmed Al-Darini writes about an unsettling experience he had in the major Al Masry al-Youm Egyptian newspaper:

A Jewish rabbi began circling around where I sat at the dining table, chanting his hymns, swaying his body forward and backward, appearing to be immersed in something spiritual. As if he were fortifying the place or summoning the celestial angels whom Jews believe possess extraordinary power to do anything.

Naturally, I felt uncomfortable while eating my meal in a Chinese hotel restaurant in the historic city of Samarkand, while a Jewish rabbi wandered around the dining hall spreading his recitations, calling upon angels or summoning demons, or even pretending or imagining that he was doing so.

Perhaps my sensitivity to the situation stemmed from the difference and what it stirs in the human psyche of suspicion toward "the Other," and perhaps my disgust arose from the Jewish Zionist crimes in Gaza, and perhaps because eating requires some peace and tranquility—not having to eat cheese and bread while your eyes follow someone circling around you making suspicious gestures, whether to the angels of hell or to the waiter.

Later, I learned that there was a celebratory event for an Israeli company to be held in the hotel's vast garden in a few days, with the rabbi blessing it or securing it preemptively.

The last thing I expected to encounter in Samarkand—deeply rooted in Islamic history—was a Jewish rabbi circling around me with his murmurings and incantations!

Maybe we should all send Al Adrini some nonsense Hebrew and tell him it is a Kabbalistic incantation that was designed just for him. He'll clearly believe it.

(Because I couldn't resist, I looked up what Israeli company this might have been. It seems a travel agency called Asia Travel Israel has helped create a non-stop weekly flight between Tel Aviv and Samarkand last May and it held celebrations, so this seems likely.)

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