"... One Who Learns from Every Person." (III)

Another "only in Israel" post (similar to here and here):

I had a conversation around the water cooler (actually, it was the coffee urn in the teachers lounge) with our science teacher, a warm, experienced woman who is a 9th generation Israeli on her father's side and a 6th generation Israeli on her mother's side.

We were talking about the situation in Amona and the disengagement this past summer. While she was appalled at the violence on both sides, she became emotional when she talked about what it was like growing up in the State of Israel's early years. She was a young girl in the 50's and she remembered that her father, with his kaputa (frock) and long beard used to drag his entire family - with no car - all across Jerusalem to witness every single cornerstone dedication. Sometimes it took all day... but he wouldn't miss a single one!

She remembered a specific outing - being dragged all day for the opening of a post office somewhere in Jerusalem - and her father's words as to why they were going through all this trouble (I got chills when she related his words): "Every single building - every new brick in Israel - is a simcha, a cause for celebration! A post office - a Jewish post office - in Israel....!! Can you imagine! How many soldiers died so that we could have a normal life here in Israel? A post office! What a simcha!"