Yom Kippur

Friday-Saturday, September 17-18, 2010

Yom Kippur! Once again, everything in the entire city closed down. But at least it was only for two days this time, instead of the four we had for Rosh Hashanah. Morgan and Jodi spent a lot of time over here, which was awesome. Yom Kippur is, in Tel Aviv at least, like a giant block party. There are very few cars because people aren’t supposed to drive, so kids overtake the streets on their bicycles. There were more cars in Yafo, but they still had to navigate around the biking kids. Apparently people walk and ride their bikes on the highways, just because they can. It used to be that anyone driving a car would get stones thrown at them, and it might still be that way in Jerusalem, I don’t know, but here in Tel Aviv, and especially in Yafo, there is enough religious diversity that it’s not like that.

Quite a few of us fasted, me included, so we all got together and had a very nice break fast meal downstairs, with about 2/3 of the Yafo group (plus Morgan and Jodi.) It was really nice, and a good way to end the holiday.

Oh, also, incredibly weirdly, there is nothing on the tv or radio on Yom Kippur, apparently. You turn it on, and it’s just gray. So. Weird!