Yesterday we went to the beach with our regular Pesach crew. We had a row of six reclining chairs and several chairs facing them from various angles. Everyone was talking across other conversations because that is how we roll. We are all good friends so the conversation just flowed along haphazardly between adults and kids.
Apparently between the chair set-up and the multi-conversationn atmosphere, my husband saw an opportunity he couldn't ignore. It was the perfect set-up for a mini Dvar Torah ... about the history of matzah. He tried to get the crowd interested at the Seder two nights earlier but that crowd was too busy diving into their much anticipated meal when he began, so the thrill factor never really materialized.
But the beach crowd was much more open to hearing about the history of matza and my husband was in heaven telling the story to a much more attentive group. There were questions, clarifications and a discussion about the accurate thickness of a tefach. I don't even know what a tefach is (actually I do now, but I didn't three days ago) but apparently that put me in the minority in our little area of the beach because next thing I knew the man in the chair sort-of next to our little social/study group joined in with his take on the tefach question.
He held his rolled fist vertically in front of him and said to no one in particular -- and everyone within earshot -- that a tefach was the height of his fist. And for the next three or four minutes he was part of the conversation. And then, as suddenly as he entered the conversation, he left.
It wasn't a particularly earth shattering moment. But it started me wondering: "where else would such a thing happen" particularly on such an arcane subject to the average beach-goer? The answer is probably NOWHERE. I am willing to bet that it is not even an infrequent topic during conversation on beaches in Hawaii, Tahiti, The Hamptons or The Seychelles!
But on a beautiful April day on the beaches of Herzliya, Israel, it is a conversation that can -- and surely might -- happen. The people having the conversation may all be in their bathing suits and keeping half an eye on their children playing in the water, or they may be soaking up the rays with a friend and a soda, but just like that, they will hear some Biblical measurement terminology and just assume that the conversation now includes them as well.
It is truly one of the miracles of Israel.
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