Double Life – Time to leave Egypt
By Daniela Fubini*
Israelis at this time of the year get a little confused. The weather is still moody, hot chamsin waves share the week with chilly nights and even rain at times. The trees are blossoming everywhere, but rather often you can see new leaves, flowers and fruit on the same tree. Is it Mother Nature singing “I want it all, and I want it now?” Maybe. It would match the personality of this corner of the Middle East, for sure.
So, humans, mostly the Jews among them, try to navigate the unstable season and get a bit confused with timing and directions. And within weeks from Pesach, instead of focusing on making a suitable use of the impossible amounts of flour and pasta they brought clearly by mistake, or not coordinating between spouses; instead of planning the seasonal cleanings room by room, and cursing the help who all of a sudden starts not showing up on time on those two short hours you had fought for like a lion; instead of repeating the spring inspired songs with the children and making sure they catch the festive atmosphere connecting directly Purim and Pesach, well, Israelis take a walk on the wild side and lose it.
I would not know how to explain it differently. I mean, it is written clearly in our holy sources, that the Jews left Egypt, crossed an impossibly dried up Red Sea and ended up.. – well, things went really wrong, but they were supposed to end up in Israel. So why every Israeli is (as I write) checking online the best flights and cruises, and plans on actually leaving the Land right when the Story tells us we should arrive here at Pesach?
I bet is the “davka” syndrome. That Israeli attitude of doing something obviously off, slightly upsetting, utterly and annoyingly out of the box, whenever possible. So be it, fellow Israelis, but then don’t complain that Pesach in Israel speaks French: it is because all the Hebrew speakers are abroad.
*Daniela Fubini (Twitter @d_fubini) lives and writes in Tel Aviv, where she arrived in 2008 from Turin via New York.