Yom Kippur in Israel (and Jerusalem especially) is incomparable to any other YK observance anywhere in the world. The entire city comes to a halt for 25 hours - all businesses and restaurants are closed, and most strikingly, no one drives their cars. The streets are blocked off and the traffic lights are set to flashing. Teachers and long-time Jerusalemites told us what this would be like, but experiencing it first hand was awe-inspiring. Shira, Sarah, Evelyn and I went to Kol Nidre services at Shira Hadasha, and while Evelyn had a reserved seat, the rest of us fully expected to be standing the entire time in the unofficial "young mothers with crying babies section" in the back. I wouldn't have minded standing so much, but when a few seats opened up in the front, we gladly took them.
Alick Isaacs, who spoke at Rice back in April (he was a guest scholar at the Houston JCC for a few weeks and spoke about his new book on the theology of peace), led services, and it was exactly the spirit I was looking for. The worshippers at Shira Hadasha create such beautiful harmonies whenever they open their mouths, and the music really put people in the right mindset to spend the next day taking account of their souls and their actions. I had spent the last few weeks really taking stock of my life and the person I want to be in the coming year, and Kol Nidre really helped me focus more closely on the work that I need to do.
So back to the uniqueness of Jerusalem - when we stepped out of services and onto Emek Refaim, we were floored - the entire street was filled with people, when normally it would be flooded with cars. Men and women and children dressed in all while, laughing and talking and remembering together - it was absolutely surreal. My friends told me about a group of teenagers that they saw sitting in the middle of a huge intersection on Derech Hevron playing a game of cards - where else could that happen? And while for the secular Israelis (chilonim) this day is referred to as "Chag HaOfanayim"- the biking holiday for bikes, skates, and scooters in the street - everyone is taking this chance to somehow take a break from their routine and reflect.
Another fascinating thing about YK in the Jewish state is that the clocks changed back one hour the day before, solely for the purpose of making the fast easier! Apparently in the West Bank, the clocks had changed back even earlier, for Ramadan! It certainly helped when the fast started at 4:45 and ended at 6:05 - you don't get those crazy evening hunger pangs like you do during Neilah (the last service of YK) in the States - but now it's weird for the sky to be getting so dark so early, and I wish they could just change the clocks back to the way they were for a couple more weeks. One nice thing though - it's lighter in the mornings, so it's easier to run by myself, and my morning showers are a little bit warmer because they're solar-heated!
The day after YK we had a Yom Iyun (a topical learning day) about Sukkot at Pardes, and after a couple of really interesting shiurim (lessons) about the laws of the lulav and etrog and the commandment to be happy on Sukkot, Evelyn, Naomi, Miriam, Laura, and I planned our mini-vacation to the Galil (Galilee).
We stayed on an incredible moshav, which is like a farm cooperative, called Moshav Almagor. It's a few kilometers above the Kinneret, and we could walk out of our cabin and see the Kinneret lit with beautiful sunlight and moonlight.
Those sunset pics were taken right outside a really dumpy "Mini Market", but you'd never be able to tell.
The rest of this saga, plus the beginnings of Sukkot in Jerusalem, will have to wait for tomorrow b/c I'm pretty exhausted, so stay tuned!
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