I have now read two accounts of people being pulled in by airport security because they were transporting shofarot from one country to another. But neither of them matches the experience of a gentle rabbi of my acquaimtance who, taking his lulav to synagogue in one of those closed cardboard containers which give no idea of their content, was challenged by a policeman during a period of high alert to say what was in the box. “A palm frond. some willows and sprigs of myrtle,” he told the increasingly suspicious officer. “Oh, yes,” said the PC, “and you’re going to tell me that other square box contains a lemon!” It took some patient explanation and an escort to shul to avert a major alert in south London. But then I could tell you about the wartime occasion when my father was challenged by railway police in a closed compartment aboard an LMS train with the blinds drawn…he had just donned his tefillin!