Holy Day in the Holy Land

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. Given its proximity to Saturday, most people enjoyed a long weekend--3 1/2 days, and in a country where the weekend is usually a day and a half, that's pretty long. Saturday night Israel went off of day light savings time and began the "winter clock". So for those of you keeping track at home we are now six hours ahead of east coast time. Israel makes the switch on the Saturday night between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur in order to make the fast of Yom Kippur shorter. Well it's always 25 hours, so not really shorter, but the fast ends at an earlier time. We were all off school on Sunday, so we had the opportunity to prepare for the holiday. We did some more home organization, and Sidney and I headed out to the store for some last minute groceries.

One block from our house is a small shopping center known as Country Center (nice bit of transliteration). It contains a grocery, a fruit and vegetable stand, a pizza place, a felafel place, a bakery, a candy shop (or two), a hair salon, a bike shop, and a few other stores. It's extremely convenient. The parking lot was packed! Cars angled their way past one another treacherously. I figured that the traffic must reflect the number of people, like us, who needed groceries. When we got inside the center, we found a line of people wrapped around the courtyard, mostly kids, with their bikes in line for the bike store to make sure that they were ready for the holiday. Yes, Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, meant for reflection, but in Israel, it's the one day of the year when not a single car is found on the streets from sun down until dark the following day. It is the holiday of the ofanaim (bicycle). Some prepared for Yom Kippur by repenting...some by filling their tires. So the streets were filled with kids and adults riding bikes, scooters, and wheeled devices of all kinds--all day. That's not to imply that people didn't go to synagogue. Of course, religious people did--all dressed in white--but secular people did as well--some dressed in finery while others came in white shirts and jeans. Somehow they combined the desire to be part of the communal spiritual experience with the enjoyment of the outdoors and the gorgeous weather.

Our synagogue services were really lovely--amazing singing that created powerful vibrational energy in the room. You would think that a room full of people who hadn't eaten all day would be drab and depressing, but the singing brought energy to everyone. When we blew shofar last night, the room was packed with people who are regulars at our synagogue as well as neighborhood people looking for somewhere to be a part of the experience for the holiday.

Afterward we walked home to break the fast, and once Sidney was asleep, we went out to the mirpeset ("veranda" but it sounds too grand) to begin to build the frame of our sukkah. We weren't the only ones. Echoing between the buildings was the sound of hammering from several other apartments where people were already looking forward to the next festival--Sukkot.