New "Only In Israel!" Section

So my father reminded me how my grandmother (may she have a refuah shelama) used to write to him very frequently. I remember often getting those light blue airmail-envelope-and-letter-in-one combos. On the back she often wrote a small piece entitled. "Only in Israel." A perfect example is that old post of mine about a taxi driver giving me a free lift to the kotel just as a chesed.

So in her footsteps I’m starting a new section on this blog called "Only in Israel!"

Let’s begin:

Only In Israel! #1: Yes Officer, You Can Daven Here

So I’m on my way to shul to daven Mincha - nothing unsual about that. But to get to the shul I have to cross one major intersection. The crosswalks on this intersection are actually indented – giving cars a chance to make the turn and then to stop. Well it’s honestly a bit of a pain – and the light was green anyway so I went to cross from the corner just a bit outside the crosswalk.

Suddenly I hear someone calling me.

"Excuse me, sir! Excuse me, sir, please stop!"

I looked up. Right there in front of me was standing a police officer in his light blue uniform and yellow vest. Oh no! "He’s not going to give me a ticket!" I thought to myself. "I was only a few feet out of the crosswalk. Give me a break!"

"Yes, officer?" I asked.

"Do you know where there is a shul around here so I could daven Mincha?"

"Ohhhh!" Whew! "Yeah, there’s a shul right here."

And so we went there together.