The nose police

People being intelligent beings have an amazing ability to adapt to new circumstances.

The change from landlines to move around phones (what used to be called mobile phones in the house–those without a cord) was easy for people. “Look Ma-no cords”.

Around the same time, true mobile phones came into existence and you couldn’t take people off of them anymore. Everybody remembers the stories of how you couldn’t get a clerk in an Israeli store because they were too busy on their phones to service the customer.

Then came the internet with YouTube and music to go along with the phone calls and it was all over. People’s attention was moved to their nose which is now constantly stuck in their phone.

Well, now thanks to the coronavirus, we now have a new thing for where you stick your nose-THE NOSE Police.

I have no idea whether the masks we wear are necessary or not or whether they do anything to protect our health or not. It would be common sense that if someone is sneezing or coughing, that any type of barrier would stop the germs from spreading.

But does wearing the cloth mask or plastic shield stop me from inhaling it? I have no idea and neither does anyone else. Differing opinions from all over the world, are telling me that the masks are either good or bad for me and I have no idea.

What I do know, is that the masks have become part of Israeli society in a matter of months. Who would have believed that people could be trained in changing their behavior so quickly, but we have seen it before our eyes?

I am more exposed to the change than most people because I go to synagogue three times a day. The rules are that masks or visors (which I have changed to since it lets me breathe) must be worn and there is a designated policeman who enforces the wearing of the mask or you get thrown out of shul.

Now it was necessary to reopen the synagogues that we agree to the same untested behavior that we have on the street. Whatever logic we have had to the lockdown (and there has been precious little logic–who knows if the lockdown accomplished a single thing except single handily changed the world in three months) showed that if we have the same behavior in the shul as we do outside, the shul can’t be any more dangerous. And so far they have been right, nothing has happened in the synagogue that hasn’t happened outside.

But we now have the NOSE Police in the shul as we pray watching us constantly and telling us our nose mask has slipped down a centimetre and to push it back up.

Some people G-d created for this job and they do it well with courtesy and a smile. What was ironic tonight was the Gabi who is the nose policeman went over to someone to tell him something and as soon as he saw him, the person felt his nose to see if his mask was up, because now when he sees the Gabi all he can think is where is his mask!

The people change with the times as we become accustomed to the new normal!

Fuzzy Math
“Shmueli,” said Mrs. Robinson the 3rd grade math teacher, “if coal is selling at $6 a ton and you pay your provider $24, how many tons will he bring you?”

“A little over three tons, Mrs. Robinson,” said Shmueli.

“Why, Shmueli, that isn’t right,” said the teacher.

“No, Mrs. Robinson, I know it isn’t,” said Shmueli, “but they all do it.”