Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and PhotosShana Tova!
The line at the post office grows longer and longer. Hurrying to get everything done before the holidays begin, people in the queue are getting rather angry from waiting. They all want to send their belated Rosh-Hashana greetings to their loved ones.
As always in such cases, there’s the nasty person who will not wait quietly for his turn. He begins with groaning and making resentful eye contact with the clerks; then he expresses his dissatisfaction with the service to the people around him; finally, to the dismay of all others, the angry man steps toward the frailest-looking clerk and begins shouting at her. A definite no-win situation, he returns to his place in the queue after other clerks intervene, and grumpily waits 5 more minutes until he gets a legitimate access to the counter. After paying and finishing his business there, he turns around and calls jovially: Shana Tova!
This isn’t the modern Mr. Scrooge. The streets of Israel on Rosh Hashana really don’t fill with apples and honey as it is with ornaments and red-white socks on December 25th in some other places. But you can somehow feel it in the air. Maybe it’s just that it’s a day off work, maybe it’s because people know that they’re going to get gifts and buy some for their family and friends, or maybe we all really do believe that a new, better year is coming.
People of all stripes, even the most skeptics, perhaps after some hesitation or with a tinge of embarrassment, will greet each other Happy New Year (although will not really know what’s the story with this inscription in the Book of Life). There’s definitely something in the air. Shana Tova.
(Photo courtesy of: mouse.co.il)
virginia said,
September 27, 2006 @ 3:38 am
Now with clean new vessels, careful, careful as to how they are refilled. Shana Tova! What goes in, is what comes out.