Seuda Mafseket and our "break fast" were quite a spread, courtesy of Debra. We enjoyed every morsel. I have not spent יום כיפור in Israel since 1981, and never had the opportunity to spend it in Jerusalem before, so this was quite an experience. No cars anywhere but LOTS of Israelis on bikes. Funny sight. I wonder if they ever take the bikes out like that, as a nation, on any other day of the year. If not, this could become quite an event: Eddie Merckx day, or something (ok, ok, make that Lance Armstrong if you want).
After breaking the fast Dani had the opportunity to perform a special מצוה of starting to build the Succah right after the fast.
Tonight I intend to upload a lot more pictures (our tour of the Jerusalem Archeological Park and the kids' visit of Mini Israel among them) and some of the speeches to the sight you can reach from the link to the right of this message, the one entitled "Bar-Mitzvah Pics & Speeches".
posted by jsaar @ 11:06 PM
1 Comments:
Gmar Tov, A Git Kvitle, or in Hebrew: Pitka Tova!
Indeed, there's no other day when all secular Jews go out en masse and ride their bikes.
It all started because there are (almost) no cars driving the streets so it's a great opportunity to enjoy the empty streets riding the bikes. Over the years this became like "the thing to do" on Yom Kippur.
The news before Yom Kippur used to say how to make your fast easier. Nowadays, they first say how to be careful with your bike on the streets and then they give you doctors who say that it's dangerous to fast (honestly, that was on TV this week).
Last year when we came back from Kol Nidrei, our secular neighbors caught us and full of pride asked us if we saw their kid riding his bike. People actually think this is the "Mitzvat HaYom" and aren't even aware it isn't allowed.
Yesterday on our way to Kol Nidrei we overheard a kid yelling to his father: "it's now 16:47, 3 more minutes and we can ride our bike" (16:50 was candle lighting time) - as if they can't ride their bike before and as if they MUST ride their bike on Yom Kippur.
Post a Comment
<< Home