December 3, 2007 was a most exciting day for us in Israel. In the mid-afternoon  Esther and i were  at a special session of the Knesset to mark the 60^th anniversary of the U.N.’s approval of a partition plan for what was then called Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab State. (The actual anniversary was on November 29^th, but because Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister , Tzipi Livni  were occupied in Annapolis it was postponed for December 3^rd.) We listened to speeches from the Speaker of the Knesset, Dalia Itzik, the President of Israel, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, Leader of the Opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni. It was uplifting and inspiring. We left with the feeling that between the ruling coalition and the opposition, the right thing for Israel, whatever that will turn out to be, will be done. 

That evening we attended a program sponsored by Nefesh B’Nefesh, the organization that facilitates aliyah and absorption (we highly recommend this organization to anyone contemplating aliyah  or return), on Israel’s  National Health Care  system and private Health insurance. The presentation was very interesting and informative. But what followed was the most exciting of all. 

When the program was over, another couple, who lives in our neighborhood,  and we decided to share a cab home. The  cab driver, it seems, was   sephardi  with a mesorati  orientation, i.e. not necessarily fully observant of halacha, but maintaining  kashrut, a sense of shabbat , possibly attending  shul in the morning and a soccer match in the afternoon, with a definite reverence for Torah and religion. He also turned out to be a  talkative type.  The first topic of our conversation was political. Remember the Annapolis Conference had just ended. His opinion: success of a peace agreement not likely: Abbas is not qualified to even be mayor of Ramallah, much less President of a Palestinian state and the only good Prime Minister was the late Menachem Begin z”l. As the conversation continued we got onto the topic of Chanukah which was starting the next night. While on the topic of Chanukah, he shared with us a d’var torah about Chanukah based on the Torah portion of Vayeshev. 

Tell me where else in the world you will hear a d’var torah from a cab driver.

EZ