{"id":761,"date":"2008-06-08T21:42:34","date_gmt":"2008-06-08T19:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=761"},"modified":"2009-12-28T21:43:22","modified_gmt":"2009-12-28T19:43:22","slug":"capturing-the-high-ground-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2008\/06\/capturing-the-high-ground-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Capturing the High Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>We were walking home from a friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house after lunch on Shavuot<\/a> a couple of years back. It had been a blazingly hot day, a real Jerusalem sharav<\/a>, but at one point we were sure we felt a slight drizzle. As we entered the courtyard to our apartment complex, we felt it again.<\/p>\n Then we noticed them: a group of 9 to 12-years olds huddled together in what I can only describe as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153scheming posture.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the center was one child with an enormous water pistol.<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when we remembered. The holiday of Shavuot as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observed in Israel is also known as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yom HaMayim\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Water Day.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Run for it!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I yelled as we scampered towards our apartment before a stream of water headed our way.<\/p>\n We avoided any serious soaking\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.this time. But the battle had only just begun.<\/p>\n The doorbell rang. Two of then eight-year-old Aviv\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friends were outside. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can we use your terrace?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d one of them asked.<\/p>\n Before I could think if this was a good or a bad thing for the Jews, Aviv had already ushered them inside.<\/p>\n Now, we live in an upstairs apartment that has several inside levels; the sought-after terrace is actually three stories above ground level, giving anyone standing on it an unparalleled strategic advantage over enemies in the courtyard below. It truly is the high ground in the battle for Yom HaMayim supremacy.<\/p>\n Aviv and his friends surveyed the scene from the terrace, then headed downstairs to our kitchen where they raided our collection of plastic water bottles that were waiting for recycling. They filled up three then resumed their positions. When the first volley of water was launched, the hapless soldiers below didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what hit them.<\/p>\n What are the origins for this uniquely Israeli holiday custom? No one I asked could give me a definitive answer and the Internet wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much help either.<\/p>\n Perhaps it has something to do with the parting of the waters<\/a> of the Red Sea as the Jews left Egypt in preparation for receiving the Torah, the main event which Shavuot commemorates.<\/p>\n