musings from the plane

Sitting at the "secured" gate in Newark, I couldn't help but think about the crazy dichotomy that is Israel.  On the one hand, it is the Jewish homeland - a sacred, spiritual, holy, and "safe" place for Jews around the world.  Yet on the other hand, it is a modern country at the forefront of technology, a place for international business, and certainly a tourist destination.  So, you can imagine the different people traveling to this most interesting place.

Often when I travel, I wonder about other people and why they are going where they are going.  So, too, with Israel.  Are there others like me, going on a mission to show their support and solidarity? Are some just headed home from a visit to the states returning to visit family who live in Israel? And what of those who aren't Jewish and/or Israeli? What brings them to Israel?

On my flight one could hear many different languages and there was at least one priest on our flight.  Two men who boarded in front of me had Mexican passports and luggage tags with addresses in south Texas.  I wonder, what brings them to Israel?  There were the two guys I sat near on the plane, one from Houston and the other a small town in Louisiana just outside of Beaumont. (Yes, we talked a bit.)  They were coming to Israel to work on one of the new oil rigs just off the coast.  I learned quite a bit about life on an oil rig; it is not completely like it was portrayed in the movie Armageddon - yes, I did ask specifically about the movie.  One of the men was nervous about his trip to Israel but very clear that he was not scared.  He told me he felt even better once he learned how far he would be from Gaza.  He asked about my trip and why I was coming to Israel and we talked about whether or not I am scared to travel south.

I didn't get to ask, but I wonder what they thought of the minyan davening mincha before we boarded the plane or the individual men in tefillin and tallitot praying in the aisles this morning?

So much of Israel is the old and the new, the religious and the not so religious, the modern and the "traditional" - somehow it all comes together here to create this wonderful, special place.  I look forward to seeing familiar places and to exploring new places.