Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to Haifa by Sherut

A Sherut is a shared taxi, kind of like a shuttle. However the sherut will only leave the airport when it has at least 6 passengers. This means a wait of a little bit or a lot, depending on the time of day etc.

My sherut on Sunday - which I took instead of a train or a bus since it would bring me directly to the hotel rather than to a station AND I wouldn't have to lug my luggage - made an interesting detour through Netanya because the last group of people desiring a ride had the address and phone number of the location to which they wished to be driven .

Now - was there a lot of traffic? Sure - it was Sunday - a work day - which took me awhile to figure out. We're used to Sunday's being quiet times for traffic - or at least less busy.

By the time we took the exit into South Netanya, it was clear that the driver - HaNahag- was doing what my naval captain father did - he was navigating.

Unlike the image of men in America - he asked for directions - over and over again. When he found a fellow sherut driver he would yell out the window and inquire. When we were stopped at a light he would open the door and ask random people where to go next.

Finally, after interesting detours through neighborhoods that I'm sure I would never have seen otherwise, we made it to the correct location and the rest of us headed to Haifa.

The best part is that when we left Netanya we went right up the coast and had wonderful views of the Mediterranean all the remainder of the way to Haifa.

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting - but it was quite a ride.

Rabbi Heath