FLY THE HOLY SKIES

Took a flight to JFK yesterday from Los Angeles.
I was seated next to a Hassidic dude. Nice enough fellow, just not the most personable fellow in the world.
Anyway, I'm a Catholic. My entire life I've been surrounded by both Irish Catholics (Dad's side) and Italian Catholics (Mom's side.)
So needless to say, I got kind of confused when the guy next to me started praying on the plane. First thing this morning I sent an email to two friends of mine at work who are Jewish about what I witnessed. Here's the original email and replies.

-----Original Message----- From: Der Kommisar
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:08 AM
To: (Censored)
Subject: Jew Question My Chosen Friends- Yesterday on my flight back from LA I was seated next to a Hassidic fellow-nice enough guys, just not very personable. Anyway, about an hour into the flight he rolled up his sleeve and tied this gnarly looking black leather strap on his arm all the way down to his index finger. Then he opened a little red box and took out a device that he kissed and then strapped onto his head. It looked almost like a headlamp that hikers use. Then he basically rocked back and forth like a motherfucker for like 15 minutes. What is that strap and head ornament all about? Seriously.

-----Original Message-----
From: (Censored)
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:08 AMTo: (Censored)
To: Der Kommisar
Subject: Jew Question

Funny...I actually do that every morning. Not even kidding.
It's called Tefillin...it's sort of like prayer gear. Inside those little boxes on his arm and head are prayers written on tiny parchment. When Jews pray, they wear this stuff. If you ever see pictures of Jews praying at the Western Wall in Israel, you'll probably see tons of it.
There's more to it, but it's hard to explain. Just realize that we're kind of crazy.


-----Original Message-----
From: (Censored)
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:08 AM
To: Der Kommisar
Subject: Jew Question

You just discovered tefillin.That means you're Jewish now too.


There you have it.
I kind of felt like a heathen sitting there sipping my Bloody Mary and watching some God awful Hilarie Duff movie while homeboy was kicking it to Yaweh.