Emergency Beeper!

Yesterday, noontime, as if we didn't have on our minds, the emergency beeper went off. I always run to check and read the announcements.

We were "urged" to get the beeper during the terrible, murderous Arab terrorism which characterized Ehud Barak's reign as Prime Minister of Israel.

Baruch Hashem, most of the announcements are useless or sad things like:

• Story time in Shvut Rachel


• Tour of the Tel is going to begin ten minutes ago
• No water, sorry. It's being repaired.


• Baruch Dayan Emet. __ passed away; funeral will ....

This time is it announced that we were all invited to a Brit Millah, Circumcision ceremony in the local shul, right behind my house. The baby just made a two generation Shiloh clan in to a three generation one, and there were lots of great-grandparents visiting, too.

Baruch Hashem, it was nice to have an excuse to change into clean clothes, put on lipstick and leave the house for an hour.

Guess where I am!

No, I'm not a home.
And no, I'm not in an internet cafe`
nor the public library.
I'm not at my husband's office,
nor at a friend's or one of my kids.

I'm at... work!

Let's put it very simply. I came about four hours too early for a staff meeting. How did I do that? Simple! I finished teaching at 3:25, and there's a staff meeting called for 7:15.
My daughter said that she'd be with the girls today, so I don't have to babysit. It doesn't pay to "tremp" (hitchhike) home or even go to Jerusalem for an hour or two, just to spend money. I did that here in Beit El while waiting. There's a nice-sized store near the yeshiva. I bought a couple of pairs of stockings.

That store "saved" me from being at a terror attack almost eleven years ago. Our old road went via Beit El, after going through downtown Ramallah. I was in a ride with a neighbor who wanted to shop in that store after going to the Beit El gas station. So instead of turning right to the main road from the gas station, she turned left to go into Beit El. Then she stopped the car and called the store owner on her cellphone to see if they'd open a few minutes early.

When she got off the phone we saw people running out towards the road. An Arab terrorist had shot at the people, mostly teenagers, students in this very same yeshiva. The terrorists murdered David Boim, HaYa"D.

If we hadn't turned into Beit El when we did, we would have had been on the road when the Arab terrorist was shooting.

I hadn't really planned on writing about it, but I guess it was on my mind, since I had already told the story to one of the teachers before going to the store. In three weeks, it'll be eleven years since the terror attack in which I was injured, lightly injured, but just have had been there changed my life.

That's another story of course.