Happy Accidents

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"... neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD."

-- Leviticus 19:16

Usually this is translated to mean "do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor."


I got married 9 months ago.
My wife and I came to live in Israel 5 months ago.

It's treacherous.

I can't walk down the street without worrying.
I am paranoid. I am neurotic.

Too much Larry David and "Final Destination" movies.

I'm afraid of traffic.

I see a cars speeding, cars backing out of a drive-way, a lady on a bike, a dad pushing a stroller, a cat underneath a parked car... like a video game of potential tragedy... so many things that can go wrong.

I know what you're thinking:

"C'mon, think of things as glass half full"

Sure, half full... of bloody, severed fingers!

... of a concert pianist!!!

Bottom line: tragedies and accidents occur all the time.

And sometimes... they don't.

I often go running through the streets of Jerusalem.
Just like dudes from the Bible: David, Solomon and Jesus did... when they were kids... probably.

Yesterday I was running along somewhere, got a phone call from my new wife, it turned into different kind of run-- errand!
Yay!

So I turned around and started heading home along Derekh Beyt Lekhem (in English: Way of Bread House... or Bethlehem).
Then I passed a gas station-- and slip!-- an old man fell down.
He slipped and landed on his side, in front of a car that was about to pull out of the station.
I moseyed on over and helped the fellow to his feet.

"Are you all right?" I asked him, but in Hebrew (so it's literally, "You in order? All good?")
He responded in English.

We returned to the sidewalk, started talking-- he's American, moved to Israel 35 years ago.
"I was just coming from a Shiva call. I usually walk on the other side of the street... now I know why."
He chuckled. I smiled.
"You never know what's gonna happen."
I agreed.

We chatted and walked together for another 10 minutes.
He told me his condensed life story-- focusing on how he met his wife.

"We've been married 54 years. I'm 82. She's 7 years younger than me. Maybe 8 years. I dunno. I think she's 75. Anyway I'll tell ya something-- she's the best looking 75-year old I've ever seen."

Once we got to Emek Refa'im, he gave me his address and told me to swing by any Shabbat afternoon.

"We're old, so if you knock and nobody answers, give it a minute. We move slow."

We shook hands and parted ways.

I called my wife, told her I was on my way.

I walked the rest of the way home.

Not worrying about traffic.


Sometimes nothing goes wrong.
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