The beauty of snow in Israel

We were one of the last families in the country to get our electricity running in the aftermath of Israel’s big snow storm. A combination of bad decisions and really smart ones led us to spend some of the time outside the storm zone and some of it in our freezing cold home. Walking around rainy and then sunny central Israel, we felt like we had landed in a different planet.

It’s not uncommon for those of us living in Judea and Samaria to feel that we are living very different lives from the rest of Israel. But this time we were privileged to feel how much the rest of Israel cared about our predicament. When we went to fix our car (damaged by the storm) we were told that people watched TV like there was a war going on, continuously checking to see how their snowed-in brethren were doing.

When I posted on Facebook that we needed a place to spend the night, invitations poured in, from people we knew and people we didn’t know; from people who had space and those who didn’t.

The electric company worked all hours to get our electricity working again, and in between they came to jump start our car so we could get to a warmer area. Everyone we spoke to wanted to know how we were managing and what they could do to help.

Our children finally went to school today, albeit a little late. I assume the first period will be dedicated to discussion of the snowstorm. My daughter said she will talk about the difficulty of being at home without water or electricity while half her family was unable to get home. I guess that’s what she will remember from this storm. But I will remember the concern of people all over the country, who could only experience the snow through TV, pictures and social media.

The snow on the ground is turning gray and has lost its beauty, but the heartwarming memories of Israelis united to help each other are still beautiful to me.