The first time I went to Israel was in 2004. That was not the first time I saw it — in graduate school I saw the Rabbis vested this way then i visited an Orthodox Synagogue. However, in 2004 that was the first time I saw it on an airplane.
The great thing about educating oneself about such things is that then one doesn’t react idiotically when one encounters strange practices. I know what Jewish religious practices look like I know what Muslim religious practices look like. They are very different.
each time I fly I usually cross myself and the aircraft on take off. The last time I flew the lady seated across from me thanked me for it. Some one who was uneducated on such matters might have been frightened by my making such a tiny hand motion over my head/heart and out in front of me, I suppose. But it would be their ignorance fueling their fear.
Greg, you have called me an idiot again. Can’t you just say I am uninformed?
Smug, arrogant academic types piss me off.