We are fortunate and blessed to have had incredible experiences on the road over the last few years. This trip was no different, perhaps somewhat superior. In fact, we celebrated our first anniversary on the road the week prior to Shavuot. It took us a while to consider how we should enjoy that special day. After racking our brains for a while, our editor’s head popped up, her blue eyes shone like Hawaiian waters, and then a smile creased her face as she announced: ‘Let’s climb a mountain.’ Once again, she trumped us. Why can’t we ever get original ideas like that?
When we were in Maui, we came across a sign one Shabbos that puzzled us. Many do but this one had us thinking more than usual. A person walks around with many questions and puzzling thoughts. The trick is not to be in darkness, not to be confused regarding values. For the rest, that’s okay, well sort of. Unfortunately, we could not take a picture on that day so we’ll set out the approximate wording we read: ‘Stay 100 feet away from whales. Failure….etc will result in a fine of $ 300.’ This got us thinking about the august legislative body that created this law.
Firstly, how does one determine that one is 100 feet from a whale? What if the whale is below the surface? What if one is minding one’s own business and a whale happens to swim past? We became more perplexed the more we pondered. We then moved to the rocks jutting into the ocean to do some whale watching. By the way, we think that is a misnomer in itself. We looked for an hour and did not see a solitary whale. Could we honestly say we were whale watching?
We thought it required deeper contemplation. Let’s say that one is swimming and a whale happens to streak by. A person would find himself within 100 feet of the mammal. Is that subject to a penalty? What happens if a whale attacks a person resulting in death, not the whale—we don’t want to upset the ‘Greens’—but the person. Isn’t this conclusive proof that the person must have been within 100 feet of the whale. Can the government sue the estate of the deceased for the commission of an offense? Let’s be practical, how does one estimate the distance of separation? Who carries a tape measure on his person? If you hold the measure on one side, can you ask the whale to hold the other side of the tape? No wonder we have the headache. And to be fair, we made the presumption that the sign applied to whales only in the ocean. Don’t get us started on land-based creatures.
It goes further. There is an information board explaining the migration of whales. It states that the whales migrate to Alaska, the last of the pods leave each May. That bamboozled us. We understand that the mammal is intelligent but give us a break. A whale uses a calendar? We understand that migrating makes sense from Hawaii to Alaska—the whales remain in the USA but keep away from the mainland. Who can afford to travel outside the USA these days? The whales seem to understand the immigration laws better than many lawmakers. In fact, there is a nice symmetry to it—Alaska and Hawaii being states 49 and 50, the last two to join the Union. Maybe the whales are cleverer than we thought.
We usually have to rely on our editor to bring some closure to these deep and difficult concepts. She is a practical woman. ‘Why don’t you take a hike!!!’ “We thought you’d never ask.”
We have just returned to San Diego. Regrettably, we were unable to find accommodation near our shul. This has created a dilemma because the walk would be ten miles. As our editor cannot carry us on Shabbos outside the eruv, we don’t know what to do.
Thank you as always to those kind souls who gave us encouragement, made us smile because of their humorous emails, shared anecdotes and ‘cheeky’ advice.
Cheers,
Jenni and ‘Shamu’
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