… to prevent folks practicing Orthodox Jewcraft from being booted off the plane: story. The crew thought the weird-looking teenager’s Tefillin were bombs and made a precautionary landing so that the plane would blow up in Philadelphia rather than Louisville. Counting up the extra takeoff, landing, fuel, aircraft time, crew time, passenger delays, value of passenger time, cost of paying law enforcement officials to question passengers, etc., this probably took $25,000 out of the U.S. economy.
3 thoughts on “Airline training should include a very careful reading of the Bible…”
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An absolutely incredible and little-noted essay last week in the Wall Street Journal – Understanding the Terror Threat by Professor Paul Campos – should be required reading for anyone. The numbers do not lie, and give some sanity:
http://www.wservernews.com/100125-Terror-Threat
I realize you’re probably joking, but if you can go from these obscure passages all the way to little black boxes being manipulated by scruffy dudes, then you’re a much carefuller reader than I:
And it shall be for a sign for you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand did the LORD bring you out of Egypt.
—Exodus 13:9
And it shall be for a sign upon your hand, and as totafot between your eyes; for with a mighty hand did the LORD bring us forth out of Egypt.
—Exodus 13:16
And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes.
—Deuteronomy 6:8
You shall put these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall tie them for a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes.
—Deuteronomy 11:18
True, the written Torah (which, translated into English, is known as the Old Testament) does not give the details of tefillin observance, which are more fully described in the oral Law (which later came to be written down as the Talmud).
Translations of the Talmud are not as readily available as the Bible, and would not be much help in any event, as the Talmud reads more like an extended argument between people who could be charitably described as detail-obsessed, than a how-to manual.
I can’t see an easy answer to this: suggesting that Orthodox Jews confine their travel to NYTel Aviv seems a bit discriminatory…