Swirling Thoughts #43 – some things Israeli’s love

The smell of Hawaii.
The perceived smell of Hawaii, anyway. There is Hawaii-scented shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, dish soap. And, of course, Hawaii-scented body wash and hand cream. I’ve never been to Hawaii but now I think I know what it must smell like there.

Bob Marley
I don’t have Casey Kasem Countdown data for Israel but if I had to put it together by artist it would include Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Scorpions, Blondie, Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams, U2 and maybe Madonna would make the cut. But make no mistake. Bob Marley would be in the #1 spot. Any week and every week.

BBQ
Bob often posits the following question: Will there be korbanot (animal sacrifices) when the Beit Hamikdash is (Be’H) rebuilt? It’s not an unusual question – the times, the people and the culture are very different than they were in 70 AD. When he posed the question at lunch last Shabbat our guest turned it around. Do you like BBQ he asked? It will be like a great big BBQ. And Israeli’s do love their BBQ – recall the yetziah (exit) from Sachne with 3 generations of family members carrying out disassembled BBQ’s from a day-long tiyul (trip). We have a neighbor that seems to BBQ daily. Looking at it that way, it became easy to imagine the return of korbanot.

Fallen national heroes.
Last Sunday when my kids were home early from school because of the municipal strike, we (me, the kids and their tutor) were overwhelmed by the sound of F-16 fighter jets flying over head. Understand that where we live there is no commercial air traffic. I’ve heard there are direct flights from Tel Aviv to Jordan but I can assure you, the flight path is NOT over where we live. We hear F-16’s on a regular basis but before Sunday I never really gave it much thought. Later that Sunday, Assaf Ramon, legendary pilot, son of fallen Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, died in his F-16 in a training exercise over the southern hills of Hebron. From the sky you could say this is part of my neighborhood. 30 minutes by car, probably a fraction of that by F-16. He is being mourned throughout Israel like his father before him - as a legend, a hero, a brother and a son. Who knows – maybe one of the jets we heard earlier that afternoon was being piloted by Ramon. Maybe. Probably. In fact, most likely.