Rights Reserved By HDM For This Digital - The Wesley Center Online

"Don't bother me, woman. I'm busy. You are a foolish woman."
"Sir," I offered, "if you're still angry and want your seat back, you can have it back. Let's
change back, but let me tell you, you'll be sorry if you do."
"Never mind," he retorted, "don't talk to me. Besides, I'm a sabra [a prickly pear]."
Now I had studied an Israeli guidebook before I went to Israel and read that anyone born in
Israel is called a sabra -- a prickly pear that grows on the end of a cactus. They are likened to
sabras because those born in Israel after the times of great danger and persecution there, especially
in 1948, developed crude and rude exteriors and mannerisms. To the outsider or foreigner such as
I, the attitude of this young man seemed very, very coarse. But, going back to the parallel, the book
continued to say that these sabras, these prickly pears, had very delicious, mellow, tender meat on
the inside. It was just the outside that was so prickly. In other words, these sabras who were born
in Israel quickly developed this sort of an exterior for self defense; but their hearts were tender
and mellow.
When he angrily said, "Besides, I'm a sabra," I said, "O so! Shame on you! You must have
read the same book I did. Is that why you act this way? Well, I'm glad I've met other sabras who do
not act like you. If I hadn't, I would have gone back to America thinking all sabras were like you.
Shame on you! Talking like this to me, a foreigner, a visitor on your soil!"
He put his papers back in his briefcase, put the briefcase on the floor, looked at me and
grinned. He said, "Madam, I have great regrets. You will forgive me? Yes?" (He said "Yes" at the
end of his own question without even waiting for me to answer.)
"O yes, of course."
"I will make it up? Yes? I will show you all the points of interest, all the way up. Would
you like that, Madam?"
I clapped my hands in delight and said, "O yes, I'd love that!"
"All right. We shall start now. Look out the windows! See out there?"
"Yes."
"That's Cana."
"Cana? O that's where my Jesus turned water into wine."
"Your what?" he asked in astonishment.
"My Jesus."
"You mean Yeshua Ha Nazeroth [Jesus of Nazareth]?"