Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Winter has Started

Today the heavens opened. After a month of nothing, it came all at once. Visibility was zero, and if not for someone pulling me back to the sidewalk, I would have been hit by a car. But he pulled me back, and I'm fine. By the time I got on the bus, my jeans had soaked through. I of course only wore a sweater and no coat, so I was pretty well soaked from top to bottom. As I sat there shivering on the bus, I tried to think about how Lake Kinneret is in desperate need of this storm. Its water level current stands as minus 212.2 meters below sea level, only 80 centimeters above the lower red line at which a drought is officially declared, one of the largest deficiencies in years.
(I didn't know the actual number by heart, but I knew we were in need of rain)
This didn't make me any warmer, but at least it passed the time til I got home and took a hot shower and had hot soup MyWife made for me. Hopefully this storm (which isn't supposed to end for a few days) will fill up the water reservoirs and the Kinneret.
Another bus story:
I was on a Mehadrin bus going from Bnei Brak to Jerusalem earlier this week. Mehadrin busses are busses with seperate seating (women sit in the back), the radio is kept off, and I'm sure there's other rules but I dont know them. I sat down near the front, put on my headphones, and took out my Haaretz newspaper. I noticed people looking at me, and figured they weren't too pleased with my choice of reading material. A few minutes into the ride, a man behind me tapped me on the shoulder. After the incident of a few weeks ago, I was sure he was looking to pick a fight for me having brought a non religious newspaper on the bus. My body tensed up, and I turned around and stared at the guy who tapped me.
"We're having a class in gemara on the bus, and we're wondering if you'd like to join". He tells me. Half out of an interest to learn, and half out of embarrasment for having been so quick to judge him, I told him I was interested, and he gave me a gemara. After receiving permission from the driver, he hung up a speaker connecting to a microphone, and began the class. In addition to what he talked about, I learned the valuable lesson of not to judge a whole group of people just because a few of them are fanatics.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home