Good Morning Tel Aviv!

So a brief background to this story….4 nights straight of extremely limited sleeping time (around an average of 1½ hours per night), two of those days packing and the last night dancing and singing my heart out and crying when numerous goodbyes to life long friends!! Nesher (taxi) picks me up at 5am and I am already starving, last meal was around 6pm with no sleep since the previous night. Basically the picture I am trying to paint is a VERY tired, hungry and emotional 22 year old woman who just wants an easy and quick check in and flight….YEAH RIGHT! Little did I know what H-shem had in store for me!

I arrive 30 minutes late for check in to a VERY busy airport filled with queue after queue. I wait and wait to get questioned then again to get my bags X-rayed, then again to be questioned about my friends gifts (some Halva) and have to explain the South African use of the word sweets and then wait and wait to actually check in.

A weird occurrence happens when I get to the front of the queue…A women comes down and pushes in front of me, I ask why and she quickly says that she was there before and ignores everyone around with their gestures of disbelief. To be honest, I know she wasn’t in front of me, but to be very honest, in my state I really couldn’t care! Now the people around me, are normal, energetic WOMEN, and start to look at each other and decide to ask me questions one after one. ‘Ma Ackshav?’ (What now) but in a very attacking tone (note this women is not even in our line!!) and another asks in a similar tone ‘what she really there?!’ Let me paint the scene, I have been sitting on my bags during this last queue, head in hands, eyes closed contemplating the necessities of life (sleep and food) and not really in the mood for any person under the sun. I simply explain to the ladies around me that in life, you can either be right or happy - thank you Oriana Levin. (Your line was a great pay back for explaining your sweets). And I try to say ‘Maybe she was there’, giving her the benefit of the doubt. They seem to calm down….Victory! It turns out that she was already half checked in and just needed to give in another bag….she was right!

So I finally get to the front of the line. I give my passport and put my bag on the belt. Elal had specifically called to tell me about a change in flight details as well to remaining me that I am limited to ONE bag at 20kg. My FIRST bag weighs around 34kg!! I tilt it slightly so it reads 28kg but this doesn’t really help. My heart is still praying away to let me get done with this. I am told that I have bigger worries to be worrying about. They can’t find my ticket. They keep scanning their database, asking questions about my stay, exits, entries, visa, they can’t find me!! Note, we are now one hour before take off. After 10 minutes of this, I am sent to another desk to sort it out. Calls back and forth to South Africa and technicians endure. They find that they had a bug on their system that they can’t access some ticket numbers from December.

During all this, I was thinking about maybe I’ll get to fly first class or maybe get a free return ticket. Nope, but at least they find a way to give me a seat. I need to go back all the way to check in with a small torn piece of paper with a message in Hebrew basically saying ‘let her on the flight, call me if you need to’. Quite the professional plane ticket!! If you have now figured it out, I now have to be the next lady to push though that same line which now has new people in it! I get the same looks that our other lady got. I profusely try explaining Elal’s mess and how sorry I am as if I was trying to get out of capital crime punishment.

SO, now this is the beauty, I have been very friendly to my check-in lady. Through our endeavours, we have built a relationship. She is very sympathetic to my situation. I now get why I had to go through it all. Since time is now a key factor, she lets me check in my 34kg bag and another (Yes, second) 12kg bag. No problem except a little skew smile when I brought up the second bag. Yes, my strict one bag 20kg allowance was change to a two bag, 46kg allowance!! I guess it was worth the shenanigans and somehow the only way H-shem could answer my prays of not paying for overweight and getting stuck in duty free bored stiff!!! Now this is the part which had me on the floor laughing, almost literally almost in my state! She gives me my boarding pass and says ‘Now your plane is about to board, I would advise you to run, run, run like hell!’ ONLY IN ISRAEL!

So I am off!! I remember to apologise toe ach person around me for inconveniencing them and begin my 5 minute mission of jumping queues of security, passport control with the constant use of the words ‘sorry, slicha, BeEmet Slicha’ (Truly sorry) with a sensitive almost crying voice. Nobody can help but be sympathetic about my story and they all let me go! Thank-g-d, proper! Finally I arrive at my gate. Exhausted as ever, hungry as ever and jump on my plane. So I find my way to my seat and I have seat mate. He is around 50, relatively large, greyish hair, typical miserable Israeli syndrome. I greet him (now don’t ask me why, because I don’t know where it came from) with a chirpy ‘Hey, I guess we going to be friends’. No response. He simply gets up to let me in, and sits down. His legs have some excess fat on them making them protrude onto my side and touching me leg. I sit there thinking how exactly I am going to work this one into a positive situation when he gets up and find a new seat. Sorry to say, but at this point I couldn’t ask for better.

So lessons from this day. Don’t think H-shem can’t pull miracles but definitely don’t rely on easy ones! Judge others favourably because you never know how soon the tables could be turned! Remember to sleep, eat and pack light! Also, don’t think G-d is going to let you leave his land that easily!

I am now around an hour from landing and realise that t was probably a way to distract me from the real situation: that I was actually leaving Israel after 9 incredible months. When I said Modeh Ani and morning brochas (after no sleep – still advisable for custom), I meant every word: H-shem giving me each bit of strength, the ability to stand, all my might, removing sleep from my eyes, and for giving me every need!.

But one thing struck me in Modeh Ani, the first prayer: ‘I offer thanks to you living and eternal King, for you have mercifully restored my soul within me, Your faithfulness is great.’ This was my Israel experience. H-shem gave me back my soul in full force to use it for his will. He trusted me after many years of me ignoring his messages. He gave me try after try and finally I decided to utilise the opportunity. This is the story of the Bal Teshuva (somebody who returned to Judaism), that one day when we say this, we really realise how incredible this gif of g-d himself is and we decide to reveal it in everything we do!! Ay you truly have an amazing day and be blessed to fully reveal your Neshoma easily and speedily.