Ben Gurion's Worm Hole

I have discovered that there is a worm hole that extends from Israel to any airport where there is a flight to Tel-Aviv. Its an incredible piece of physics. Its well known that the measure of a good vacation is how not Israel the place is and how gut wrenching it is to leave. What is amazing is that Israel does not begin when the plane touches down at Ben-Gurion airport but as soon as you arrive at the check in counter to your flight to Israel. Its as if there is a virtual Israel that travels the world and appears (like Brigadoon) three hours before departure anywhere where there is a direct inbound flight.

After a week in Portugal and a day in Spain, we arrived at Madrid airport with pulse rates well below the norm. As soon as I saw the ELAL counter protecting my place in the line became paramount, maybe someone would cut me off. I even found myself worrying about whether someone would steal my vegetarian meal. Basically I was back in Israel. I waited patiently on the jetway and could not help listening to the heated argument between a Habadnic and the know all "learned" secular chap over whether the Gemara encourages investing in gold or in dollars (but certainly not in hard work). And what is it with Israelis and newspapers. Things came close to blows when it was discovered that someone had taken two copies of yediot and there were none left. People ould not wait to read the bad news from home. I don't know what came over me, I grabbed a Haaretz (in Hebrew) and would not let go, I hid it in the overhead bin and did not even read it - its not only a worm hole, it also gets you into the correct frame of mind.