(David Roberts, 1855)
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The other night, at the commencement of the Jewish sabbath, my wife and I shared the “Shabbat elevator” here in our hotel with an Israeli couple.
The “Shabbat elevator” is set to stop at every floor, so that the riders don’t need to push any buttons. Thus, since our room is on an upper floor (with, by the way, a spectacular view over the Sea of Galilee toward the hills of Bashan and Gilead), we had a lot of time with the man and his wife.
They were very friendly, but spoke no English, only Hebrew.
Smiles and nods.
“Where are you from?” he asked, finally. “Are you from England?”
We replied that, no, we’re Americans.
Ah.
Nodding.
Pause.
How long have you been in Israel?
We told them that we’d been here only two or three days.
Ah.
More nodding.
Pause.
“Obama dreck, no?”
(See here for definition of dreck.)
I laughed, and it was our floor. We bade them “Shabbat shalom” and left the elevator.
A profound meeting between people of distinct cultures and languages.
Posted from Tiberias, Israel
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