The Journey to Israel

Days 1-2: June 18-19, 2009

My plane was scheduled to leave Norfolk at 2:55 p.m. Thursday, June 18. However, bad weather in New York delayed the flight until about 5:45. Julie, my wife, whose flight to Kansas was also delayed on account to weather, told me that Peter Vogt (for his blog, go here), my good friend, with whom I was going to Israel, was also delayed and might not make the 7:50 departure from JFK.

Once on the ground at JFK, we stayed on the runway so long that I only had about 15 minutes to make my flight to Tel Aviv. So, I ran through the airport with my backpack bouncing on my back and I made it to the gate about 7:45 and learned that the departure had been delayed until 10:45. Thanks to God, this gave Peter time to arrive (about 8:30) and we boarded our 777 about 11:00 p.m. We had to wait for other plains to take off, though, and did not take off until 12:45 a.m. Friday.

Most of the 270 passengers were Jewish, and most were Israeli. While waiting in line shortly before boarding, A mother with three young children was trying to get the youngest, a cute little girl about 2 years old, to stop running around and to sit in her stroller. When the little girl did not obey, the mother said, "Ekhad, Shtayim, Shalosh," then picked up the little girl and said, "Shvi!" It was fun to hear this language live and in person. The mother was speaking Modern Hebrew (which is about 85% like biblical Hebrew), but biblical Hebrew would be identical to this.

What did the mother say? "One, two, three, sit!" The command to sit is how to make the command to a female. The command to a male would be "Shev!" in Hebrew. Fun, eh?

The ride was nice and long, but basically comfortable. I slept about 4-5 hours on the plane, I suppose. We arrived in Tel Aviv at 6:00 p.m. (Israel time), which is the beginning of Shabbat. Many stores were closed, so Peter split a sandwich in the airport and took a taxi to Tzuba and got checked in about 8:00. It was a long day and we were tired. More tomorrow.