Getting ready

October 8, 2008 - 9:35 AM by · 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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