Yes.
It's a picture of me rappelling down Machtesh Rimon in southern Israel.
I'm here with the Ramaz 8th grade for their class trip. It's been
an amazing whirlwind week as we go from north to south and then Shabbat in
Jerusalem.
Being in Israel is an incredible reinforcement of being part of a diverse Jewish people. One encounters Jews with origins all over the world. Also, one sees identifiable Jews in all sorts of roles, positions, and jobs not found in the diaspora. When was the last time you met a sanitation worker with tzitzit?
This makes Israel one giant "Jewish living laboratory." Consider the following:
The bathroom in the vicinity of the attractions in Mitzpe Ramon requires paying a 2 shekel entrance fee. For a long time (this is my 10th consecutive Ramaz Israel trip), an attendant manned the front door and also kept the restroom clean. It was actually a "family business" operated by a fascinating Black Hebrew couple whose children are IDF veterans and professionals. This year, the attendant was gone. Instead, there was a sign that said, "Please pay 2 shekel to use the restroom inside the store and receive the code to enter."
Now, I bet you see where this is going.
The code remains the same all day. All it takes is one person paying 2 shekel, and the code is now public knowledge for all. In addition, since there is no attendant, someone could wait right outside the door and wait for another person to exit and just go right in. I saw both of these scenarios play out while I tried to figure out the new arrangement. (In one case, as one person exited, his friend asked, "Shilamta - Did you pay?" and received the response,
"Betach she'lo - Of course not!"
Personally, I paid the 2 shekel to get the code that I already had heard everyone exchange outside. But I wondered what other people thought of this. So, being that I was on a trip with students and teachers in a public place full of Israelis, I asked around. Responses ranged from "Of course, one should pay" to "They don't care" to "They used to charge to pay people to keep the place clean; now it's a mess and it's not fair to have to pay."
I found myself thinking that this a class on Jewish ethics in the making. And it involves all sorts of Jewish characters in a Jewish state!
In a strange way (I'm talking about a bathroom here!), the episode made me think about how amazing it is to have a Jewish country. Forget the coalition politics and security challenges, Israel is an amazing, inspiring, miraculous exercise in applied Jewish living.
Even the bathrooms in Israel tell a story and can connect us to a diverse set of Jewish characters and a question of Jewish ethics.
Being in Israel is an incredible reinforcement of being part of a diverse Jewish people. One encounters Jews with origins all over the world. Also, one sees identifiable Jews in all sorts of roles, positions, and jobs not found in the diaspora. When was the last time you met a sanitation worker with tzitzit?
This makes Israel one giant "Jewish living laboratory." Consider the following:
The bathroom in the vicinity of the attractions in Mitzpe Ramon requires paying a 2 shekel entrance fee. For a long time (this is my 10th consecutive Ramaz Israel trip), an attendant manned the front door and also kept the restroom clean. It was actually a "family business" operated by a fascinating Black Hebrew couple whose children are IDF veterans and professionals. This year, the attendant was gone. Instead, there was a sign that said, "Please pay 2 shekel to use the restroom inside the store and receive the code to enter."
Now, I bet you see where this is going.
The code remains the same all day. All it takes is one person paying 2 shekel, and the code is now public knowledge for all. In addition, since there is no attendant, someone could wait right outside the door and wait for another person to exit and just go right in. I saw both of these scenarios play out while I tried to figure out the new arrangement. (In one case, as one person exited, his friend asked, "Shilamta - Did you pay?" and received the response,
"Betach she'lo - Of course not!"
Personally, I paid the 2 shekel to get the code that I already had heard everyone exchange outside. But I wondered what other people thought of this. So, being that I was on a trip with students and teachers in a public place full of Israelis, I asked around. Responses ranged from "Of course, one should pay" to "They don't care" to "They used to charge to pay people to keep the place clean; now it's a mess and it's not fair to have to pay."
I found myself thinking that this a class on Jewish ethics in the making. And it involves all sorts of Jewish characters in a Jewish state!
In a strange way (I'm talking about a bathroom here!), the episode made me think about how amazing it is to have a Jewish country. Forget the coalition politics and security challenges, Israel is an amazing, inspiring, miraculous exercise in applied Jewish living.
Even the bathrooms in Israel tell a story and can connect us to a diverse set of Jewish characters and a question of Jewish ethics.
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