8/27 | Newark, New Jersey

Saying goodbye is not easy.  Saying goodbye while the storm of the century slowly bears down on you is downright difficult.  After some tearful goodbyes with my mom and sister, my dad and I were off, come hell or, more expectedly, high water.

In driving up to Newark, we discovered something surprising: totally empty highways!  The trip, which I had made twice before during the summer, only took about 3.5 hours.  All the way up, the radio sounded with the voices of terrified New Jerseyites and New Yorkers.  These voices, mixed with eerily empty roads, made for quite an experience.  Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come--just heavy rain as of now--and as I sit here in my hotel room, listening to the news reports on TV, I hope for the best.

My location (in the red box) amidst the projected path of Hurricane Irene.

In regard to my flight, as of today it is still on schedule.  Although the airport departure board in the hotel listed nearly straight cancellations, today's El Al flight is still scheduled to take off.  Tomorrow, however, I imagine there will be nothing taking off or landing all the way from Boston to Raleigh.  Call it what you want--a storm, hurricane, monsoon--this is shaping up to be some once-in-a-lifetime rain!  According to all the weather reports, Monday is supposed to be beautiful and hopefully, my flight will take off with minimal delays (a bit of cautious optimism can't hurt, right?).

The main headline on Arutz Sheva, one of Israel's news outlets.

With the hurricane expected to come and go by tomorrow night, I am reminded of the old adage, "this, too, shall pass," or gam zeh ya'avor in Hebrew.  It is a reminder that there is always a tomorrow and that what may seem big in the present may not be so big in retrospect.  It is relevant to this storm, it is relevant to the expected "diplomatic tsunami" that will follow the Palestinians' statehood vote at the United Nations this September, and it is relevant to any Israeli, or any Jew that cares deeply for Israel, when thinking about the difficult position the Jewish State currently finds itself in.  Threats may emanate from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Egypt, and Iran, but when a nation comes together, as American find themselves doing now in the face of Irene, anything is possible.