It was the opportunity of my dreams: a week on a sailboat bobbing up and down on the ocean waves, not a soul in sight ,A Drop in the Ocean
It was the opportunity of my dreams: spending a week on a sailboat bobbing up and down on the ocean waves, with nary a soul in sight. A little sea-sickness notwithstanding, I could even imagine myself alongside some of those famed Jewish pirates who took revenge against their Spanish oppressors. Anything’s possible when there’s nothing around you but sea and sky
We all have dreams of things we’d love to do but they are often not in the realm of reality. One item on my wish list was to experience being in the middle of the ocean on a small sailboat. Just close your eyes and imagine the silence and serenity — without the distraction of another boat electric lights or the buzz of humanity.
Crazy no? Well when one of the patients in my Jerusalem dental practice told me that her son — also a client — had just finished serving in an elite army unit and he and his father were planning to take a 38-foot sailboat on a six-month journey from Florida to Australia lightbulbs started flashing in my head. Gingerly hopefully I stammered “Uh do you think there would be any chance that possibly he would let me join for a week?” When the answer was yes I began to plan a halachic adventure I never thought was in the realm of possibility.
Traveling to places off the beaten track carries its own set of obstacles, as my “halachic adventures” partner Dr. Ari Zivotofsky well knows (and as you’ve been reading about in these pages), but this time, going it alone — on a small boat in which the other five sea travelers are not mitzvah-observant — involves a slew of halachic issues.
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