Dear Hitch-Hiker. Shibboleth can save your life!

(Judges 12:6) Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

Dear, Hitch-hikers, ‘Shibboleth’ can save your life!

The Torah gives us the solution to the hitch-hiking problem. In short, in the book of Judges 12.1-6, the Gileadites did not trust the Ephramites; hated them actually, and when an Ephramite wanted to cross the bridge into Gileadite territory, he was challenged. Are you an Ephramite (read: a terrorist)? If he said, ‘No’, the Gileadite (read: the Jewish hitch-hiker) would demand of him, ‘then pronounce ‘Shibboleth’. The Ephramite had a problem forming the ‘sh’ sound and exposed his true origin when he said ‘Sibboleth’ instead, revealing him as an enemy (a terrorist).

The lesson for Jewish hitch-hikers. Demand that the driver, even if he or she appears to be Jewish, pronounce ‘Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers’ (or the equivalent in Hebrew) . If he/she cannot because of the difficulty of pronouncing the ‘p’, then do two things. 1) slam the door of the car and do not get in. 2) note the number and make of the car, description of the driver, time etc. and call the police IMMEDIATELY because a Ephramite just tried to kidnap you!

We’ve got to be smarter!
With love
Yeriel