Life

Avoiding a Hijacking by Lulav Rod

By Nathan Jeffay October 9, 2009

Many a peeved passenger has arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport this week. Some Diaspora Jews pay big money for their lulav or palm branch, waved with an etrog and two other species in synagogue over Sukkot. But airport security staff around the world have apparently become convinced that the protective lulav bags used to carry them pose a security risk. They insisted on removing the plastic rods that keep the bag, and therefore the lulav, straight, and prevent knocks — if a lulav is even the tiniest bit misshaped it’s off-limits for ritual use. So many passengers arrived with unusable lulavs — but at least we averted the highly-conceivably possibility of a hijacking by lulav-rod.

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