TERUMAH 5784 The Challenge of Life Rabbi Andrew Shaw Chief Executive, Mizrachi UK
Picking up someone from the airport is not an exact science. However, normally you want to be waiting for them to come out about 45 minutes after they have landed (if they have luggage to pick up!). Then you have to add how long it will take to drive to Heathrow. In the olden days you normally left about forty five minutes from North West London or one hour to be safe. Sometimes you would be on time, sometimes very early or occasionally, if there was particularly bad traffic, you would be late. Nowadays with Waze, it is much easier to work out when you need to leave home. So, this week, when working out when to leave to pick up my wife with my son, I checked Waze and saw that it would take just thirty-five minutes from Edgware to Heathrow. We set off, expecting no delays on our way. As Waze predicted, there were not. However, about six miles from Heathrow we saw it on the other side of the motorway. There had been a horrific accident involving three cars and a truck and the place was swarming with police and fire engines. Not surprisingly the traffic had been stopped and as we drove further, all we could see on the other side was standstill traffic for miles. I turned to my son and said to him, there is no way we are driving back this way. We picked up my wife on time and we got back to the car. I then turned on Waze for the journey home, and not surprisingly the M25 route home, had now increased with a 32 min jam to over 1hr. However, of the routes suggested by Waze, it was still the quickest route. I really didn’t want to go that way home, I knew the horrendous traffic we would encounter, yet I also knew that it was the best way to go. So M25 it was. The journey home did take over and hour, but as we sat in that traffic, I reflected on the lesson that this episode taught me. There are times in life when we know what we are about to go through it going to be painful, yet at the same time we know it is the best thing for us and we have to do it. How many times since October 7th have we heard story after story of soldiers that