Yom Kippur

Hello Daaaahlings,

Sorry for the lapse in posting, I have been quite busy. With what, you ask? Well, I'll tell you all about it in the next posts.

Let's start with that funnest of Jewish Holidays... Yom Kippur! Where you get to atone for everything that you've done wrong in the last year and start a blank slate for the new one. Isn;t sinning and being forgiven fun?!?!

Every week on the Sabbath (Sundown Friday till Sundown Saturday) most businesses close. Those that do not (restaurants, 7-11's, movie theatres, etc...) are not considered "kosher" and therefore are not patronized by the religious community. Which is fine by us seculars :)

But even on a Sabbath you can still find plenty of coffee-shops, restaurants and stores open to entertain you. On Yom Kippur, however, EVERYTHING is closed. The country basically shuts down for 24 hours.

No TV, no Radio, No restaurants/cafes/shops.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Thanks God for the internet!

Also on this day, no-one drives their cars (except for emergency vehicles). So the streets of Israel are empty of cars, and thats when the kiddies take over with their bikes (why cars are not allowed but bikes are is another story). It's actually quite surreal to see the streets all empty and people walking on them and strolling about. I took a couple of pictures of Dizengof and Ben Yehuda street:

This is Ben Yehuda Street, a main thoroughfare, close to my house. Barely a dog and a person on the street :)

And to the right is Dizengof Square, which is on the main street of Tel Aviv. As you can see, just people walking. Very surreal.

I also took a walk on the beach promenade (beaches were all full, yo) and found these gentlemen that were apaprently having a good time with some pigeons.... I wonder what they're atoning for...