Holy Cow

38 TODAY’S IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT

Tom’s learning curve was steep. He was right, flying was in his bones. Within twenty minutes, he was handling that plane like a seasoned pilot. The rest of the flight passed without incident. After about an hour and a half, Tom came on the PA again. “Folks, this is your captain speaking. Because of the heightened security restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport, I’m gonna take us in at a low angle, try to get in under the radar, so don’t be alarmed if we almost clip some trees on the way in. We know you have a lot of options when choosing an air carrier, so we thank you for flying Air Turkey and hope you have a safe journey whatever your eventual destination. Flight attendants, prepare for landing.”

As we descended, Shalom looked out his window at Israel rising quickly to meet us with the same rapture that Tom had beheld Turkey. Soon we were barely higher than the buildings. It was scary, but the land also felt so close, just within our grasp. Shalom was davening all the way down and said he had a tingly feeling in his “schpilkes.”

The moment the wheels touched tarmac, he announced, “The promised land!”