Another reason to fly El Al

Courtesy of Muqata
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Understatement of the Year

The storm over the past day has caused massive flooding in the South (for some pictures, click here). The best picture however has to be the one below, where the bus sign reads, "Not in Service" ... Ha ha, well duuuuh!

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An Umbrella

Last night, a major thunderstorm hit Israel (for picture, see below). It poured the whole night, truly a wonderful blessing for a country in such desperate need of water. When I woke up to go to minyan at 6, it was still pouring. Even after a one and a half hour long shacharit (Hebrew for morning service), the rain continued. On the way back from shul, my friend and I passed our road's bus stop. There, a soldier stood under the small canopy unable to stay dry. As Shmuel passed him, he asked, "Where's your jacket?" "There weren't any on base," the soldier replied. Shmuel said, "Here, take my umbrella." The soldier refused, "It's ok, I'll be on a bus soon." "And when you walk to your base?," Shmuel persisted, "just take it." The soldier held his ground and in the end Shmuel continued on with me and his umbrella. He may not have succeeded in helping the soldier, but the desire to help and do a mitzvah was there. I guess sometimes it's the thought, or desire, that counts.

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Here's some footage (1 2) of Israel's Search and Rescue teams helping to find survivors after the devastation in Haiti. The most touching story so far has been the birth of the first Haitian in an Israeli hospital, Israel. For more, see here.

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A bloody Zionist rain cloud, courtesy of Yaakov Lozowick's blog:


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An Inanimate River

As Hashem prepares Moshe and Aaron to unleash the first of the ten plague on Egypt, he commands the brothers, "Say to Aaron, 'Take your staff an stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt," (Exodus 7:19). Rashi explains the reason Aaron was chosen to strike the River, and not Moshe, was that the same River had protected the infant Moshe when his mother placed him upon it (Exodus 2:3). It would have been wrong of him to be the one to inflict a plague on it.

This should teach us a very important lesson: if the Torah considers it wrong to show ingratitude to an inanimate river, surely one must be zealous never to slight a human being ...
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