Time to check the filter on our gas masks?

This flyer (pictured) arrived in my mailbox, and a large poster bearing the same inscrutable message and mysterious picture was posted in the entrance to my apartment building.

The picture on the postcard - what could it be? An envelope? A notice from the municipality that they are going to be working on gas pipes in the neighborhood?

I finally asked a neighbor, who was amazed that I didn't know that the picture was a gas mask kit. "Everyone knows what a gas mask kit looks like!" I was told.

"No, not everyone - not me, for instance - I don't remember anyone from the Jewish Agency or Nefesh b'Nefesh or the Ministry of Absorption showing me a picture of a gas mask kit or even offering me one!"

Apparently the flyer was to let us know that the gas mask folks were going to be in our neighborhood, collecting expired gas mask kits from the 1st Gulf War (1991), which have surely passed their expiration date.

All of us need to get new and improved FRESH gas masks now, with new clean filters, "just in case" Iran gets funny with their latest science project, an atomic weapon.

Note to self: when in doubt, ask an Israeli neighbor what these public notices mean. I might be missing something.