Our Story
DharmaTorah was not born in an office. It was born on the glaciers of the Himalayas, in the libraries of Dharamsala, and in twenty-five years of serving seekers at the crossroads of India.
In the 1990s, a young Israeli trekker named Dror Shaul wandered these same mountains — Everest Base Camp, the high passes, the glaciers. He nearly died of altitude sickness. He was saved, twice in one day, by what he could only later call the hand of God. He settled in Dharamsala and threw himself into years of intensive study of Tibetan philosophy and meditation, translating texts, filling journals, planning to become a teacher of Eastern wisdom himself.
And then, on a dusty shelf above the books of the Tibetan library, he found two small booklets in Hebrew — about the inner wisdom of his own people. He went to burn them. He read them instead, and wept for the first time in years. A German student told him: "You are Jewish, you know Hebrew — why are you here in the second league? The deepest wisdom is Kabbalah. Go home and study it." A Jewish translator of the Tibetan classes begged him every Friday: "Wish me Gut Shabbos… a Jew is a Jew."
Thirty days alone at the feet of the Himalayas — one man, one meditation — ended with one conclusion: there is a Creator, and He wants something from me. That seeker went home, studied Torah and Kabbalah for years, married, and returned to Dharamsala in the year 2000 — this time as Rabbi Dror Shaul, with his wife Michal and their baby son, to open the Chabad House of Dharamsala. The full story is told in our book, Himalayan High.
For twenty-five years the Chabad House has served thousands of travelers in the Himalayas: Shabbat meals for hundreds, a library, a mikveh, classes in the inner dimension of the Torah — a home. As one traveler wrote: "Within an ocean of confusion stands a lighthouse — the Chabad House in Dharamsala."
And through all those years, our Indian neighbors watched, hosted, helped — and asked questions. Beautiful questions. About one God, about Israel, about the Torah, about why the Jewish people never disappeared. Again and again we heard from Indian friends a sentence that would melt anyone's heart: "We know the key to redemption is with the people of Israel. Teach us."
We are emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who taught that no corner of the world is too far for the light of Torah — and who launched a global call for the Jewish people to teach all of humanity the Seven Universal Laws, as the Torah's own preparation for the promised era of world peace. DharmaTorah.org is our answer to both: the seekers of India asking to learn, and the Rebbe's call to teach.
This website is stage one. Our vision, with God's help, is a full spiritual study center in India: a physical home for learning the universal covenant — classes, a library, guided Jewish meditation in the mountains, retreats for students from all over India and the world — and the premiere of our Tanach AR experience: an immersive, augmented-reality journey through the Hebrew Bible, now in production.
If that vision moves you — become a partner.
Walk in with us
The weekly class is free and open to anyone, anywhere. And if you would rather ask one question before anything else, that is just as welcome.