Picture of the week – A green Yom Kippur for all the world

September 30, 2009 - 8:20 PM by Nicky · 1 Comment
Filed under: Environment, General, Holidays, Picture of the Week 

Children riding their bikes and bimbas on an empty street in Jerusalem. Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90.

Children riding their bikes and bimbas on an empty street in Jerusalem. Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90.


For some it’s a solemn day of fasting, prayer, and asking for forgiveness, for others – specifically children – Yom Kippur is the day they claim the streets.

Ever year, children all over the country hone their cycling skills as the traffic stops and the roads clear. Whether it’s on a bike, roller blades, scooters, bimbas, or even unicycles, the nation takes to the street in what is probably – ironically – one of the most joyous holidays of the year.

Aside from the sheer pleasure of cycling undisturbed down some of Israel’s main arteries – like route 6, or the Ayalon Freeway, the quality of undisturbed silence is unparalleled. There are no buses, no cars, no trains, no airplanes even. The only sound is the whir of bikes, and the calls of children.

And the air quality, well…

I’ve long thought that some form of Yom Kippur actually ought to be adopted by other countries as an environmental measure. This must be the greenest day in Israel.

Every year there are reports in the local press about the dramatic decline in air pollution throughout Israel’s towns and cities. It’s a chance for the country to breathe again. Imagine what would happen if London followed suit, or New York, or Beijing. Perhaps this should be the latest campaign for environmentalists.

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Holiday transitions

October 12, 2008 - 8:19 AM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Holidays, Israeliness 

paperchains1.jpgHard to believe, but we are already in the middle of the chagim period, the month-long period of holidays that falls every autumn. We’re past Yom Kippur, a.k.a., the Festival of Bicycles, when a good chunk of the country spends the evening and following day in synagogue, while many kids take over the empty streets of all cities on the eve and day of Yom Kippur with bicycles – as well as skateboards, roller blades, skates and scooters. In fact, bicycle sales rise in the weeks prior to YK, with companies advertising Yom Kippur specials.

Then, it was straight into another Shabbat, as Yom Kippur ended on Thursday night, which meant a rush for the supermarket and butcher counter on Friday morning. Unlike the week before, when Rosh Hashanah ended and we went into another Shabbat, there wasn’t quite as much of a fresh chicken shortage, because the week before also coincided with the end of Ramadan, which meant a lot of chickens being eaten out there.

But the end of Shabbat this week brought the annual put-up-the-sukkah evening, when you gather your forces to snap together metal poles and string up the canvas walls. With Sukkot beginning Monday night, it’s another rush into the third holiday of the season, and the longest, at a full seven days. So now we’re thinking sukkah decorations of paper chains, plastic fruits and blinking lights, and one-dish meals that are easier to serve to the crowd.

I’ll let you know what I decide to make, as soon as I get started on the paper chains…

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Getting ready

October 8, 2008 - 9:35 AM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Holidays, Israeliness 

kippur.jpgThe day of Yom Kippur eve is, ironically, usually quite pleasant.
Most people don’t go to work, the kids are home from school, and it’s almost like a Sunday morning would feel like if there were Sunday papers and football games on TV.

Since there’s no big meals to prepare for, you get a free pass for the morning – watching a movie in bed with the kids, doing some household chore that had been put off, or doing some reading in preparation for the fast and solemn day of prayer.

In the afternoon, though, the complexion noticeably changes, and one eerie element is that you being noticing that almost all the cars on your street are parked, and everyone is home. As it gets close to sunset, people start emerging from their homes, either dressed in their Beit Knesset finest, or for the neighborhoods kids, brandishing bicycles, scooters and any other mode of transportation that they can ride down the middle of the roads with.

After the Kol Nidre services in the evening, it looks like huge block parties everywhere you go, with neighbors and friends hanging out and milling around. It’s definitely one of my favorite moments of the calendar here, and so uniquely Israeli.

Here’s wishing you a meaningful Yom Kippur.

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