I traveled by train within Jerusalem.
The road was wet. The train was crowded.
One man with a dog climbed into the train car and stood to the side with the dog by his side.
A mother of three small children held them close to her, standing, while they squinted at the dog with slight apprehension, and listened to the woman carrying the baskets next to her.
""It wasn't one dog, not even two," the woman with the baskets explained to her loudly, so that things would be clear.
""Yes, I know," the children's mother nodded. "There were ten dogs there! I heard, you know what it is, ten dogs attacking one girl, God forbid, where was her mother? Where was the father?!""
""Where were their owners?""
""And why didn't any adults come to hear the girl's screams?""
""I'm telling you, if their owners are found, they should go to prison!""
""But that's the problem, they were abandoned dogs!""
""Have you seen the girl? Poor thing, all covered in cuts, the dogs almost killed her!""
The two continued to talk loudly. The people in the train car listened, some willingly and some unwillingly.
•
From moment to moment, the three children became more and more attached to their mother.
""Enough, why are you pushing?" she suddenly burst out shouting at them.
"Mom, we’re afraid of the dog!" they whispered in an anguished chorus, their faces as pale as chalk.
She stopped listening to her friend for a moment, glanced at the dog sitting submissively next to his master.
""What's there to be afraid of a dog?" she asked the children, as she was accustomed to asking them whenever they showed fear of this animal.
They looked at her with a puzzled look, asking, confused: "What's there to be afraid of a dog?""
""Well, really, Mom, what's there to be afraid of a dog?""
•
Sometimes we talk in front of our children and think they are silent walls. It seems to us that they don't hear, don't understand, don't care, aren't interested.
Then we are surprised that they are afraid of thieves, because we just talked to the neighbor about the thief who broke into his house when he wasn't there; that they don't want to go to school, because just yesterday we gossiped about the teacher and said he was worth atonement; that they are rude to grandparents, because they hear us talking about them without a shred of respect.
So if we don't want our children to be afraid, disrespectful, or rude, we should measure the words that come out of our throats. And speaking of dogs... The murderous, so at least we will remain faithful to the source and not ask with false innocence:
""What's there to be afraid of a dog?""
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