What’s the big dill? Pickleball hits the Holy Land

The 2020s offer an endless menu of micro-obsessions, sometimes making you feel that you are expected to pick one: Get on board or get left behind.

In recent months, I kept hearing about people playing pickleball, a sport invented in the United States, and I admit that I initially thought it was a gimmick best left alone. I mean, really—kosher pickleball? It sounds like something you’d find in the Kiddush Olympics, where they play the herring toss followed by the whisky shot.

With Israel marking 23 months of war, I started asking people who play the game for their take, and here’s what shocked me: unanimous agreement. Usually, Israelis can’t agree on anything. But pickleball? Apparently, it’s unimpeachable.

I set myself a two-part challenge. First, to work out what it is about this odd l