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<p>You got me. 
But seriously, I may not think much of religion, but I do think we should all be committed to our country’s founding principle that it should be practiced freely. Otherwise it just becomes a form of reverse discrimination.</p>
<p>Mainstream? Why, there’s a Tefillin Barbie!</p>
<p>[Google</a> Image Result for <a href=“http://www.hasoferet.com/images/tefillinbarbiesmall1.jpg[/url]”>http://www.hasoferet.com/images/tefillinbarbiesmall1.jpg](<a href=“http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hasoferet.com/images/tefillinbarbiesmall1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hasoferet.com/bar/barbie.shtml&usg=__3NZYcZ0B6zI-QDtJOedAiE5R-A0=&h=240&w=180&sz=20&hl=en&start=5&sig2=6gkWEqwee1AL8niAEI8Wzg&um=1&tbnid=rI6Y6i4SCa0S2M:&tbnh=110&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtefillin%2Bbarbie%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=2JtcS6aQNZ3WNK_N4PIH]Google”>http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hasoferet.com/images/tefillinbarbiesmall1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hasoferet.com/bar/barbie.shtml&usg=__3NZYcZ0B6zI-QDtJOedAiE5R-A0=&h=240&w=180&sz=20&hl=en&start=5&sig2=6gkWEqwee1AL8niAEI8Wzg&um=1&tbnid=rI6Y6i4SCa0S2M:&tbnh=110&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtefillin%2Bbarbie%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=2JtcS6aQNZ3WNK_N4PIH)</a></p>
<p>I thought the Barbie was a spoof…but obviously not. Hurry, there are three left in stock!</p>
<p>Back to my original point though…if we can find a Barbie with teffilin on-line, why couldn’t the crew/ pilots confirm what teffillin was and how it is used from the air, before deciding to land the plane?</p>
<p>Isn’t there communication or a way of checking these things out? I mean it seems that the pilot made his decision based on a lack of information and that information should have been available to him. I don’t want to think that the pilot is so out of touch when flying that he can’t confirm things with the ground.</p>
<p>“Back to my original point though…if we can find a Barbie with teffilin on-line, why couldn’t the crew/ pilots confirm what teffillin was and how it is used from the air, before deciding to land the plane?”</p>
<p>The guy’s behavior still was strange. I’ve ridden lots of planes, and haven’t seen someone attach themselves to triangular objects and then start some kind of ritual.</p>
<p>Even if it were confirmed that the objects were tefillin (and how exactly would that be confirmed – thoroughly physically examined – without potentially endangering people?), there are terrorists who go through prayer rituals before performing their terrorist actions.</p>
<p>I know that we haven’t had Jewish terrorists as far as I can remember, but anything is possible including having a terrorist who’s not Jewish impersonate a Jewish person. </p>
<p>If a person pulled out a prayer rug and started bowing and praying on a plane, would knowing that can be part of Muslim’s daily prayer rituals be reassuring to you?</p>
<p>Everyone is tense about flying these days, the best thing is don’t do anything but just sit down and relax. If I see anything unusual, and that includes seeing someone praying, I would report the incident, not taking any chances. My thoughts would include this person is saying a prayer before blowing me into bits.</p>
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<p>I agree. What prevents a terrorist from dressing up as a nun for that matter? I don’t think the crew overreacted.</p>
<p>I guess I am coming from the perspective that someone praying would not be a reason for suspicion or landing a plane. </p>
<p>I saw it that the crew was alarmed by the sight of the tefillin itself --being bound to him–it looks like wires and a box containing something that can be ignited. If the boy explained that what he had with him was teffillin then it could have been confirmed as sometihng that is used in Jewish ritual. But I guess they were mostly suspicious of him because he was praying, not just his paraphernalia.</p>
<p>So anyone seen fervently praying on a plane, airport or other public place…they are now seen as perspective terrorists. It used to be that people prayed because they were afraid the plane might go down and hoped their prayers for a safe fight would be answered. Now a person praying is seen as the reason WHY a plane may go down</p>
<p>The orthodox Jews and Muslims who ride the NYC subway and pray daily better watch it, too. Some tourist may pull the emergency chord on them!</p>
<p>“I saw it that the crew was alarmed by the sight of the tefillin itself --being bound to him–it looks like wires and a box containing something that can be ignited. If the boy explained that what he had with him was teffillin then it could have been confirmed as sometihng that is used in Jewish ritual. But I guess they were mostly suspicious of him because he was praying, not just his paraphernalia.”</p>
<p>It’s not just the praying, it’s also the paraphernalia, especially his tying the tefillin to himself. His holding the odd looking object wouldn’t have drawn my attention, but his tying it to his arm would have gotten my attention and concern.</p>
<p>However, as I mentioned before, someone doing some kind of prayer ritual such as rolling out a prayer rug and then kneeling and bowing at the back of the plane would be behaving in such an odd way as to be suspicious.</p>
<p>“. If the boy explained that what he had with him was teffillin then it could have been confirmed as sometihng that is used in Jewish ritual.”</p>
<p>That still wouldn’t have been enough to have allayed my concerns. People normally don’t use things involving Jewish ritual on planes. People also normally don’t tie ritualistic things to themselves on planes.</p>
<p>Here’s a serious article about a response within the Orthodox community, from a definitive source ([JTA</a> - Jewish & Israel News](<a href=“http://www.JTA.org%5DJTA”>http://www.JTA.org))</p>
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<p>**my explanatory note: “haredi” means ultra-orthodox, the very noticeably dressed orthodox Jews (black hats, sidecurls). Not all orthodox Jews are “haredi.”</p>
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<p>If you ever fly to Israel on a weekday (not on Saturday, when orthodox Jews don’t fly), you will see (and hear!) plenty, probably around sunrise at the back of the plane.</p>
<p>I’m perhaps being oversenstive, but the continued use of adjectives like strange and weird and odd on this thread bothers me. Unusual, yes, and, as I said, unfamiliar to many, but there’s nothing strange or weird or odd about them. Those terms are a little bit pejorative and condescending, I think, and remind me too much of old pop-anthropological writings about “strange and weird rituals of the Amazon tribes,” etc. People don’t use words like that anymore to describe the peoples of exotic locales around the world, and I don’t see why it’s necessary to use them for a kid putting on tefillin. (This has nothing to do with whether it was necessary to turn the plane around.)</p>
<p>I don’t see anything pejorative about “strange,” “weird” or “odd” for something that someone has never seen before. For instance, I have dredlocs. The first time I ever saw locs was about 40 years ago when I saw a film with a man with dredlocs. I thought they looked strange, weird and odd. I know that people who’ve never seen locs may view my hair the same way.</p>
<p>Those words don’t mean “bad”, just “different.”</p>
<p>I’m Buddhist, and if I decide to sit on the floor cross legged and meditate or chant on an airplane or in an airport, I know that my behavior to many would appear to be weird or odd, and frankly, it would be weird, strange or odd since few people act like tha in such places.</p>
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<p>Remember Meier Kahane and the JDL? They perpetrated a number of murders and bombings inside the US and elsewhere. Baruch Goldstein (correct name?) who massacred Muslims in a mosque in the 1990s was a member or former member.</p>
<p>That’s of course leaving aside the assassination of Count Bernadotte and various massacres and other acts generally considered to be terroristic in nature by Irgun and the Stern Gang back around partition in 1948. (Menachim Begin was a former leader of Irgun, if memory serves.)</p>
<p>So there have been some. </p>
<p>Leaving that issue aside, disguising oneself as a harmless person or person from a group not readily suspected of terrorism would be a pretty obvious ploy. And if the teffillin did indeed contain explosives, only physically ripping them from his grasp would have even a decent chance of preventing them from being detonated.</p>
<p>I agree that obvious public displays of prayer, no matter what kind, are not the norm in our society, and on a plane or in an airport, are likely to arouse suspicion.</p>
<p>I’m with AnudduhMom: I don’t care WHAT religion you are, if you are fervently praying on the airplane, I’m going to wonder what you know that I don’t. And I don’t want to be on a plane with a suicide bomber.</p>
<p>And Meir Kahane was no shrinking violet or an apologist.</p>
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