Between holy and regular

October 14, 2005 - 9:09 AM by David Brinn

I always get a kick out of Yom Kippur in Israel.

Unlike in the US, where it felt like being a member of a secret club – walking to shul and fasting while everyone else carries on with their daily lives – in Israel, the whole country changes.

Hours before, as the holiday approaches, traffic has almost ceased to exist, and everyone’s inside their homes. It’s like a scene in one of those disaster movies where the houses and cars remain unscathed, but all humanity has been vaporized.

Juxtapose that with the evening hours after Kol Nidre – the streets suddenly become swamped with every neighbor you haven’t seen the whole year – kids are riding down the median strip on bikes and scooters, and it’s like a neighborhood carnival without the cotton candy.

Yom Kippur day is similar in the late afternoon – with the synagogues and the streets both full with Israelis observing the holiday in their own styles.

Sunset comes, the shofar is sounded, and at some point later, the first car starts its engines. The bikes and the pedestrians, for a short spell, compete with the new invasion of automobiles, but within a half hour or so, technology has won out, people go back to their 364-day ways, and the rhythm of the streets returns. The magic of Yom Kippur will have to wait another year.

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