Hinduism
הינדואיזם
It goes without saying that this chapter makes no pretension to encompass even partially the religions of the East with their many branches. The intent is to focus on the principled position of Judaism regarding them. In general, the encounter between Jews and adherents of the Eastern religions was limited, and therefore the Sages of Israel did not deal with them much. Accordingly, we will look briefly at the Eastern religions according to the Jewish conception, which on the one hand looks favorably upon humanity, tries to learn from every culture all the good that can be learned from it, and seeks to benefit every person according to his way; and on the other hand utterly rejects the idolatrous conception and fights the evil that grows from it. We will begin with the Hindu religion, which is the most ancient of the Eastern religions, and today more than a billion people are connected to it. From Hinduism grew the Buddhist religion with its various streams, whose believers number more than half a billion people (below halakhot 6-7), as well as smaller religions such as Sikhism and Jainism (below halakha 8).
The Hindu religion first appeared about three thousand five hundred years ago in northwest India, and from there it spread throughout India. The Indian subcontinent is characterized by the abundance of life flowing in it: much water, abundant crops, luxuriant and varied vegetation, breathtaking landscapes of mountains, valleys, forests, rivers, and deserts, in which countless kinds of animals live. For generations, visitors to India returned awestruck by the encounter with the abundance and richness of its land, landscapes, and people, and described with admiration the array of colors, tastes, and smells that accompany the lives of people in India. Human society in India is also multifaceted: side by side live the exceedingly rich, who built magnificent palaces, and the destitute poor who live in the street; sages and men of spirit alongside the ignorant and coarse; criminals alongside people of kindness; those with sensitivity and compassion for every living thing alongside exploiters who are indifferent to the suffering of others. What is interesting is that in India these contrasts and contradictions exist side by side in a kind of acceptance and in a complex and multifaceted conception.
Within this varied and fertile abundance grew the Hindu religion, which has an elaborate system of idols unlike any other in the world. Light and shadow, good and evil, spirit and matter, are intermingled in it and give tremendous inspiration to the creation of many religious streams and rites, countless idols and rich stories, accompanied by artistic creation in sculpture, painting, poetry, and dance. Thus the Hindu religion, with its many idols, its rites, and its wonderfully imaginative myths, reflects the rich and abundant variety in the nature of the world and in the soul of man and society, and gives the good and evil in them various interpretations from which countless insights can be reached. Although it contains various types of rites for many gods, there were almost no fanatical religious wars in India, since the guiding principle of Hinduism is that there is room for all the gods and every combination among them, and every group may choose for itself the rites that suit it; and even within each group a person may emphasize the idols and rites close to his heart, or be indifferent to all of them.