Only in Israel
For the last year, Israeli society has been waging an internal war that seemed to bring out the worst in us. But that isn’t the real face of our people! Read a delightful variety of true stories that could only happen in Eretz Yisrael. Who is like Your people, Hashem?
There is a special charm to living in Israel (apart from the total Kedushah that one feels), where one sees sights that are unique to this country. I’m talking about the yiddishe sights and sounds that warm the heart and lift the spirit, things that make one proud to be part of Hashem’s chosen people.
ONLY IN ISRAEL can you board an inner or inter-city national bus and be treated to either a shiur or chassidic music (depending on the driver’s preference) over the bus loudspeakers.
If it’s a shiur (Torah lesson) I usually lose the thread of it within the first few minutes (because I’m “only” a woman!) but it’s still heartwarming to “hear” it as opposed to some of the other things you usually hear on a bus. The steady pace of the maggid shiur’s (lecturer’s) voice is actually very conducive to falling asleep (so that I can sometimes catch a really good nap in between cities).
ONLY IN ISRAEL will you find parents who put children on the mehadrin inter-city bus and ask the other passengers to keep an eye on them until they reach their destination. You can be sure that nothing arouses the maternal instinct of a yiddishe mama as such a request does, so that those children have never been so well “looked after” or molly-coddled by so many “aunties” as they are on that bus.
And I shall never forget the young lady who, in the middle of the journey asked one of the children for their home phone number and proceeded to phone their mother from her own mobile phone and reassure her that all was well and that her children were being well-looked after.
And ONLY IN ISRAEL can it happen that when I asked a young mother how she dared undertake (in this case) a trip from Ashdod to Bene Brak by herself with a baby, a toddler, a double-buggy and all the paraphernalia necessary for such a trip couldn’t even understand why I was asking such a question because, as she said “everybody helps me get on and off”.
ONLY IN ISRAEL will you find a bus driver who, when he saw that I couldn’t find my bus card (with seven prepaid-tickets on it) said to me “Take a seat, Savta (Grandma), so that you don’t fall whilst you’re looking for your card; take your time and don’t get upset, I’m sure you’ll find it” (He must have passengers who get agitated if they don’t find their bus cards).
Or ONLY IN ISRAEL will you experience what happens to my daughter-in-law. She works in a kindergarten and travels every morning by bus to her work-place. If she’s running slightly late and hasn’t got to the bus stop in time the bus driver, who knows her by now will WAIT for her – and you’re talking about the morning rush hour!
And what about the bus driver (as you can see a lot of chessed gets done on these mehadrin buses) who, when a passenger informed him that in the rush to catch the bus she had forgotten a package in the shop across the road, patiently waited while she ran across the road to collect her package. And how did we, the passengers, feel about having to wait? The consensus amongst us was that the driver had acted correctly and deserved only praise for his actions.
ONLY IN ISRAEL is it common to find someone on the bus who has the Sefer Tehillim ha’me’chulak (the whole of Sefer Tehillim which has been divided into a few sections, with each section printed in a little booklet of its own), and who hands them out to her fellow passengers so that within twenty minutes the whole Sefer Tehillim has been completely recited.
ONLY IN ISRAEL does it happen that when I’m standing on the bus because there are no seats available am I offered a seat with the comment “Have a seat Savta, you look tired”, (so that instead of feeling old, I feel cared-for).
And so far ONLY IN ISRAEL have I seen a bus driver, who waited patiently at the bus stop until an elderly passenger had boarded his bus and then told him to sit down before he paid his fare. The bus driver then went up to the passenger, took his money and issued him with a ticket before returning to his seat and resuming the journey.
ONLY IN ISRAEL have I seen that sometimes when the bus is running late or is very full the driver will open the back door to allow the women to enter directly without paying first at the front; he trusts that they will eventually pay for their journey. And it has happened to me occasionally that I have actually been unable to get to the front to pay the driver for a trip. When this happens the next time I travel I ask the driver to deduct two journeys from my bus card; (and it seems that the bus drivers are quite used to this because they seem to take it quite for granted).
And ONLY IN my home here in ISRAEL have I had a non-religious Israeli repairman (bare-headed and wearing shorts and sandals) who asked for a drink, and when I gave it to him proceeded to cover his head with his arm and make a brachah (blessing) on the drink. Not only that but when he had finished his job he requested a brachah from the Rov for hatzlachah (success).
And ONLY IN ISRAEL will you see merchandise being delivered to a shop during the evening and lying outside unguarded all night with absolutely nothing missing in the morning. The first time I saw that I was absolutely incredulous but now I don’t even think about it twice. It was only because I was outside my “natural habitat” that I “noticed” it again.
And we won’t even mention the daily chassidim of helping anyone and everyone who can’t cross the road alone – from small children who are not allowed to cross the road by themselves all the way up to an older person who finds it difficult to walk unaided; and what about carrying shopping bags that are too heavy for their owners – the incidents are way too many to be counted.
Even I’ve got into the spirit of things. When I saw someone in a supermarket who didn’t have enough money to pay for her purchases I gave her the amount she was lacking. When she asked me where I lived so that she could come round to repay me I told her to donate the money to tzeddakah.
What a marvelous nation! Only in Israel…
2/16/2009
Only in Atlanta I looked out our front window while I had a zillion kid and moms over playing and noticed what looked like a backpack on the ground. It was a little after the time the kids walk to school, so I thought maybe some kids were messing around and tossed a buddy’s backpack on the ground or maybe it had flown off the roof of the car instead of making it to the backseat with the third grader.
I went outside to check it out and found it was a messenger style bag with only a few things in it nestled in a pile of broken windshield glass. Clearly someone’s car had been broken into and this bag stolen, emptied, then dumped on the ground. I looked for some identification and found some from a company in California, called the number, left a weird message about the bag, and got a call back in minutes from just a few miles away. Turns out someone was visiting my neighbor down the street all the way from California, had indeed made the mistake of leaving her bag in the car, which had been stolen and dumped. Her friend came and picked up the bag. A few weeks later we got a nice thank you card from her.
That pretty much sums up our neighborhood. Someone will smash your window and steal your stuff, but someone else will pick up the promptly pick up the bag and return what is left to you. Only in Atlanta. : )
2/16/2009
I looked out our front window while I had a zillion kid and moms over playing and noticed what looked like a backpack on the ground. It was a little after the time the kids walk to school, so I thought maybe some kids were messing around and tossed a buddy’s backpack on the ground or maybe it had flown off the roof of the car instead of making it to the backseat with the third grader.
I went outside to check it out and found it was a messenger style bag with only a few things in it nestled in a pile of broken windshield glass. Clearly someone’s car had been broken into and this bag stolen, emptied, then dumped on the ground. I looked for some identification and found some from a company in California, called the number, left a weird message about the bag, and got a call back in minutes from just a few miles away. Turns out someone was visiting my neighbor down the street all the way from California, had indeed made the mistake of leaving her bag in the car, which had been stolen and dumped. Her friend came and picked up the bag. A few weeks later we got a nice thank you card from her.
That pretty much sums up our neighborhood. Someone will smash your window and steal your stuff, but someone else will pick up the promptly pick up the bag and return what is left to you. Only in Atlanta. : )