Water, water everywhere.....

For those that know about it or otherwise interested, the meeting in Tampa went very well. I am sorry that I could not have called all of you – I have been having recurrent problems with the microphone on my laptop, and I did not have a phone to call from. That, and I was actually very busy with the work from the meeting. I think that this project will be a challenging and interesting one.

Tampa, much like Orlando, blows me away for the sheer amount of water that is there and in the area. Water, water everywhere, but here, plenty to drink. Lakes all over the place. The “shower head” quite literally had 2 heads – I was pretty much under a waterfall for my shower. A bit of a contrast to the water pressure in our Israeli apartment. You need to watch the drip coming out of the shower head, move to the right or left, and make sure the drop lands in the right place…….maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not too far away. Dear family – please don’t let this make you shy away from staying at our place. It is very doable, we can work on the water pressure, we even have a little “motor” that we have not used, to make the water pressure stronger.

People (myself included) like to compare and contrast the very different cultures of Israel and the US. I was just starting to get used to how things work in Israel when I came back for my little jaunt to Tampa. The whole “thank you” thing for one – while I previously was totally used to it from living in the US, I found it palpably weird that when somebody gave me something, or took my trash – they would day “thank you”, sometimes even profusely. Contrast this with my shopping in “duty free” (of course, said with an Israeli accent) and my saying “toda” to the salesman when I even did not buy anything. They kinda look at me like I am insane for saying thanks. Admittedly, I have nothing to “thank” them for – they are just doing their job, getting paid, and according to the rules, at least as I am starting to see them, one does not thank somebody in Israel for doing something that they are “supposed” to be doing in the first place. “Toda” seems to be reserved for an act above and beyond the normal expected work duty.

Same for “tips” in Israel. May come as a shock to those from the US, but in general, not tipping people is entirely socially acceptable. Not in all circumstances, but many more than I was used to. Delivery of groceries? Dry cleaning? Taxis? Totally fine to not tip – at least I hope I am correct and that I do not have a slew of delivery people plotting a big heist to get the tips that there were supposed to have received……

It surely is a different feeling than flying El Al. You might even say, as crazy as it may sound, a bit more “American”. For instance, the Israeli guy that went to the reception desk for our flight that was belly-aching about his seat – this may “play” in Israel where you have to be a squeaky wheel to get greased. Nah – at the Delta desk, at least in Atlanta, he looked totally out of line and was not exactly forwarding Israel’s (I guess that means “my” now…) interests for International sympathy. A fairly distasteful display he put on.

The food looked great – that is, the non-kosher stuff. The Weiss’s meal that they had for us “dossim” (observant Jews, most particularly a somewhat derogatory word for with a galut(s) or haredi slant, as I understand the word to be used) was, to borrow a great Yiddish word, totally and completely “schvach”. It actually literally did taste like cardboard – amazing! And the insert in the meal was so kind as to remind me to wait 6 hours between the chicken meal and eating dairy products………..thank you Weiss’s………..I would have forgotten, had you not reminded me(!)……….

The flight was much cleaner on Delta – much, much less “dossim” on this flight – we did not even come close to a minyan for shacharit, but that was okay with me. Had a great davening by myself. Coming over to the US on El Al to NYC was probably 80% dossi – on my flight from ATL, only a handful. Neither good nor bad, but simply an observation.

I had a very sweet chat with an Israeli ex-pat who happened to be with me in the area where I was davening. By his own statements, he was not “religious”, but he “knew how to daven”, as is I think fairly typical for many Sephardim. He was kind enough to remind me to say “mashiv haruach” in the shmoneh esrei – his reminder was much sweeter somehow that Weiss’s little card that was trying to “chazer hilchos kashrus” with me…..a bit preachy for my own taste. We learned a great phrase in ulpan, based on the shoresh of kaf-pay-hey (I think that is it…) – it is “k’fiah datit”, a.k.a. “religious coercion”. While I would not raise Weiss’s little reminder to nearly that level, it is a healthy reminder of how much of Judaism, or at least as it is practiced (sadly), can come off as pushy, coercive and negative.

As probably with many Israeli-expats (“yordim”), he was not too proud of where he was living (California). He murmured some reasons as to why he was not living in Israel…….I felt horrible for the situation. I felt like I was a bit of a cheat – I get to go back home, to Israel, when his circumstances are keeping him from doing so. I found myself returning to this idea over the course of my davening. In fact, I was moved to tears. It is hard to put my finger on it, but it was a mixture of happiness for myself, combined with a much larger dose of sadness for his circumstance, as well as others like him.

Sadly, I met, yet another Jew that knew nothing about Judaism and became a so-called “messianic Jew”. Very sad……he was coming to the Holy Land on a Xtian mission. He certainly was a nice enough guy. Could very well have been me if I had not “woken” up to the basic facts of Judaism. Who knows what path I may have taken. “Baruch……sheh lo asani goy”……..v’lo natan li goyishe kup – my own little addition(!).