Oh No! …. Shortage of Horseradish

by Rabbi Michael Plaskow MBE z”l:

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A few years ago there was a root crop failure in the Middle East because of a combination of drought and a blight blown in by the winds of  Europe . While virtually all root crops were affected, the worst hit was the horseradish crop in  Israel . Instead of being available in the weeks before Passover, not one piece of horseradish was to be found anywhere in  Israel.

By the time this was realized, there was very little time. The religious parties in Israel’s government began to create a major crisis. The Ministry of Agriculture went into emergency mode to try at the eleventh hour to locate alternative supplies of horseradish for the Sedarim of Israelis all over the country.

The agricultural attaches at every embassy were alerted, and frantic phonecalls were being made to and fro. Finally three days before Pesach, the undersecretary at the Israeli embassy in  Madrid  found a supplier who undertook to immediately air-freight thirty tons of local horseradish to Tel Aviv at three times the normal price. Well, there was no choice, so the Israelis agreed, and next day three trucks loaded with boxes of horseradish arrived in  Madrid   Airport  for loading onto a specially organized El Al jet.

All seemed to be going well, when the ground crew union at Madrid Airport suddenly announced an immediate strike. No aircraft could land or take off. The strike lasted two days, and as a result…

“The chraine* in  Spain  stayed mainly on the plane”. **