Last minute going out before Yom Kippur

The image of a soldier praying is indelibly etched in the Israeli mind

Tel Aviv is getting ready for the biggest day in the year. The city is not particularly religious but Yom Kippur is a big event here. This is the one day that everything shuts down. The streets are so quiet that kids with their bikes take over and make roads a biking highway like nowhere else. For the adults it is the last night, a last chance, to go out and enjoy a meal in a restaurant or a cup of coffee with friends. I had dinner at the Italian restaurant Amore Mio (100 Iben Gvirol, 03-52-44-404, site:HE). The restaurant was filled from 9:00 PM when we arrived to about 11:00, so I would call it an early night in this part of town.

The section of Ibn Gvirol between Shaul Ha'melech and Arlozorov is packed with cafes and restaurants. Most nights there is more foot traffic here than most city streets during the day. Last night was busy but not wild, everyone seemed like they were thinking of something distant, maybe even something sad or serious. To secular Jews Yom Kippur has not just a religious meaning but a spiritual one. Maybe secular Jews don't wear black hats and wool suits but that does not mean beliefs in our traditions are not important. The tradition of "cleansing your soul" and "asking for forgiveness" once a year is one of the most unique ideas in Judaism. It seems like in the modern world we live in, this is still an appealing practice. Judaism does not demand personal belief or even public practice, actually rabbis emphasize inner belief and personal spirituality more than the external trappings of looking and acting. Judaism gives us a framework of beliefs, values, and practices. In modern Israel, where Judaism is a state religion, all holidays and vacations are dictated by tradition. Government education and food (kosher) policies are based on tradition and Jewish law. Rabbis are employed by the government and synagogues are built with state money. This makes the average secular Israeli much more knowledgeable and observant than the average christian American and probably British and French (where state religion is also practiced).

---

Amore Mio on Iben Gvirol [from mapa.co.il]

Yom Kippur is the most personal and spiritual Jewish holiday. The practice of fasting for a day makes it clearly a religious holiday. The whole country stops, closes down, and becomes a calm oasis for a day. Even if you do not have a reflective personality the quiet will get you. No matter how much noise you make a home with music, TV, and electric appliances, the quiet seeps in from the outside. This is specially noticeable in Tel Aviv. The city that never sleeps, small sister to New York and London, goes quiet, really quiet.

The approach of Yom Kippur was clearly in the air and people gave off the feeling of deep thoughts. Yom Kippur is the day of reflecting and coming to terms with the terrible things we have done, but it takes time to prepare. What are exactly "terrible acts?". These of us who practice religion on a daily basis tend to think more about what is right and wrong mostly reminded by the daily prayers and readings. From the sources in the Torah all the way to today's Rabbis the discussion of wrong and right, specially among people and their daily interactions, is a topic read and discussed over and over. But us secular Jews are more attuned to the western thinking of appropriate social behaviour and the legal basis which fence us at the very extremes of behaviour. This leaves a great deal of ground, specially in how we behave with people. From street conversations to intimate pillow talks we can humiliate, put down, debase, attack... just with a small comment. Most times we don't even know how our words hurt another.

Sometimes you can hear people asking each other quietly if they think something they said was hurtful or critical. What would their friend have said? Can they ask someone at work what they felt when they were told something? Finally if their friends have any new resolutions that can help them too? Some confess quietly of last year's wrongs and hope that their regrets will be erased from memory. The idea of remembering and than erasing last year's mistakes is simple. But does it really work? Will it help me? Then come the thoughts about acts not just talk... deep thoughts... they take over our quiet evening just two days before Yom Kippur.

Well, these are my observations for that Tuesday night at the strip between Alrozorov and Shaul Ha'melech on Iben Gvirol. Good luck with your thoughts about "terrible acts"... AmiV @ Tel Aviv