{"id":19902,"date":"2015-04-26T09:23:15","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T15:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=19902"},"modified":"2015-04-26T09:23:15","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T15:23:15","slug":"a-very-brief-conversation-with-an-israeli-couple-regarding-barack-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/04\/a-very-brief-conversation-with-an-israeli-couple-regarding-barack-obama.html","title":{"rendered":"A very brief conversation with an Israeli couple regarding Barack Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tiberias<\/a>
\u201cThe Sea of Tiberias, Looking Toward Bashan\u201d
(David Roberts, 1855)
Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other night, at the commencement of the Jewish sabbath, my wife and I shared the \u201cShabbat elevator\u201d here in our hotel with an Israeli couple.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cShabbat elevator\u201d is set to stop at every floor, so that the riders don\u2019t need to push any buttons. \u00a0Thus, 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were very friendly, but spoke no English, only Hebrew.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smiles and nods.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d he asked, finally. \u00a0\u201cAre you from England?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We replied that, no, we\u2019re Americans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ah.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nodding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pause.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How long have you been in Israel?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We told them that we\u2019d been here only two or three days.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ah.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

More nodding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pause.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObama dreck<\/em>, no?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(See here<\/a> for definition of dreck<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I laughed, and it was our floor. \u00a0We bade them \u201cShabbat shalom<\/em>\u201d and left the elevator.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A profound meeting between people of distinct cultures and languages.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Tiberias, Israel<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The other night, at the commencement of the Jewish sabbath, my wife and I shared the \u201cShabbat elevator\u201d here in our hotel with an Israeli couple. \u00a0 The \u201cShabbat elevator\u201d is set to stop at every floor, so that the riders don\u2019t need to push any buttons. \u00a0Thus, since our room is on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA very brief conversation with an Israeli couple regarding Barack Obama<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    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\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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