Dateline Israel – It is Hamsin season in Israel. Also known as Sharav, these are hot and dry desert winds sweeping across Israel. They kind of remind me of the hot desert winds where I used to live in California. And like the California Mojave desert, Joshua trees are also native to Israel, the only two places in the world where they naturally dot the landscape. I much prefer Hamsin season to the hot humid weather of Israeli summers. I can take the heat, but the wetness is unbearable. However, most of my friends who are not used to arid weather do not agree with me. This weekend, the Hamsin is bringing in 97 degree temperatures according to the weather forecast. To think, just the other day it was drizzling and chilly.
As I walked through town today, it was a picturesque scene, with brightly colored blooming trees, plants and flowers lining the sidewalks. The sky was a vivid sea of endless blue, gradually becoming deeper toward the East, in the direction of Jerusalem and the Kotel (also known as Western Wall or Wailing Wall). It is a bizarre phenomenon, but the closer one is to the Wall, the more perfect the blue sky. Unfortunately, no artist can capture the color with a palette of oil paints. It is unique, no other way to describe it. Perhaps that is because it is said that G-d sits atop the Wall. The human eye can appreciate it, but a camera never seems to do it justice. According to the Babylonian Talmud, “Ten measures of beauty were created in this world; nine were taken by Jerusalem and one by the rest of the world. Jerusalem is a beauty unparalleled.”
This week I took a double-decker train to Tel Aviv, another beautiful city located by the azure and turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Now that I am a senior, I get my train fare for half price. The half hour train ride cost me approximately two dollars, or 7 1/2 shekels which is the currency for Israel. Announcements and notices of upcoming stops are in both Hebrew and English. The seats are of a comfortable velure material with a table situated between four people. And, the trains run on time, about every 20 minutes to once an hour, depending upon the destination and time of day. Azrielli Towers are three high-rise glass buildings, one in the shape of a triangle, one round like a circle, and one a rectangle, connected at their bases by a large modern shopping mall. I am always fascinated by the life-size bronze statues of men and women, sitting on a bench, another leaning up against a wall reading a newspaper, and various other life-like bronze sculptures strategically located throughout the mall.
Since mobile phones are taboo for drivers on Israeli roads, unless they anchored in place with a fixed headset, it is not unusual to see drivers in Israel pulling off the road and parking on the sidewalk to talk. And on occasion, some drivers who are in a hurry or anxious to proceed do so by speaking on their cell phones while driving on the sidewalk. And of course, there are those like me who prefer to walk down the middle of the street than on a sidewalk. Anything goes here. There are two places in the world where I refuse to drive, New York and Israel. But, I was amazed when I read a recent statistic that it is safer to drive in Israel than in the US. However, only 13 percent of American driving fatalities are pedestrians while 33 percent of Israeli driving fatalities are pedestrians. Is it because drivers drive on the sidewalks and pedestrians walk on the roads?
L'hitraot. Shachar
