India for me… (Scene 1)

There it was, a full page ad in Torah Tidbits (the ubiquitous weekly publication of the O.U. Center in Jerusalem) announcing the “Historic Adventure & Mission To Jewish India With Ari & Ari.” That’s all Barbara had to see.

We all do this in our mind: divide people into groups with opposing points of view. For example, people who like herring and people who don’t like herring; people who like bourbon and people who prefer Scotch; people who drink wine and people who (shudder!) drink grape juice; people who go to our shul and people who, for one reason or another, go to the other one. You get the idea.

I had never considered India as being a topic of controversy, but there it was. Barbara being in the “I always wanted to travel to India” camp, whereas I have always been firmly in the “Why would anyone in his right mind want to go there” school of thought. (Of course, there’s the third group, the billion or so people who actually live there, but they’re not part of the equation.)
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A Tel-ing Tale

You’ve been waiting months for this opportunity, and now it’s happening. You’re finally a contestant on the 640,000NIS Question – your category being “Ancient History.” So far the questions have been relatively easy, but you know they’re going to start getting harder as the prize money gets bigger. “For 320,000NIS, name the three most important Canaanite cities.”You start to think. Hatzor (that’s easy!) Ummmmmm……… Megiddo! One more…… What’s the third??? Continue reading