A Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur. Some of you may be familiar with the holiday. For those who aren't, let me give you the run down. Yom Kippur is the highest Jewish holiday in which we cannot eat, drink, use any type of electricity or light any fires for 25 hours. There is so much that we can't do so it might just be easier to tell you what we are allowed to do, which is sleep, read, walk, talk, go to the bathroom and wash our hands. If you're wondering if we're allowed to shower, the answer is "no." The main purpose of this extremely holy day is to atone for any sins we may have committed during the past year, which is also why Yom Kippur is always right after our New Year (Rosh Hashana). Now I usually dread Yom Kippur because I love food and because no one else I know celebrates the holiday so I always feel like I'm suffering alone. But I couldn't be further from the truth.

Never in my entire 22 years of living on this Earth have I ever seen an entire nation come together to celebrate a holiday in tandem. We celebrate many holidays in America but because the country has come to be a melting pot of sorts, there is not one single holiday that the entire country celebrates together. Since most of Israel is Jewish and Yom Kippur is such a high holiday, a great majority of the country celebrates it.

We start the holiday right before sundown, by eating foods that satisfy, like chick peas, eggs and rice. After the meal we lounge around for a bit and wait for nightfall. The main idea (for young people at least) is to stay up really late so that we can sleep during the day and not feel the fast very much.

As the stars began to take their places in the sky, my cousin and I made our way to the main street in Holon. Since no one is allowed to drive during Yom Kippur, people were walking in the middle of the streets with no worries of being run over. I had already begun to be amazed by the sight of people walking everywhere but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw as we approached the main street. A very large street usually packed with cars on their way to various destinations, tonight the dreary asphalt was brought to life with hundreds and hundreds of people walking all over it. Already a brilliant sight, it was even more radiant because almost everyone was dressed in white. It is tradition to wear white during Yom Kippur because it is the color of purity.

We walked around for a while and talked to so many people I couldn't even remember all of their names. As my eyelids began to feel heavy, I headed back home. As I walked the 20 minutes it took to get back home, my mind was clouded with all the charming memories I had just made. I may never be in Israel again for Yom Kippur but I will never forget the way the streets looked that very night.

TTFN XX