Yom Kippur 2007 / 5768

In 2007 I found myself in Tel Aviv. By chance it was Yom Kippur and I was staying with my ex (not my other ex, IsraeliBaby who also lives in TLV) but an English ex I dated when I was 19, I think (I can hardly remember - I was always trashed at that age, which is why I'm atoning for my sins now...)

Experiencing Yom Kippur in Israel was a completely different experience. Firstly, I didn’t fast. The reason for this was because I was in Israel for 5 days, fasting would have made me feel tired and I was invited to a dinner that same night by the Australian ambassador.

Now Jewish law states that only reading and praying should be permitted during the fast. Therefore you cannot pick up a pencil as this would mean you are working. You cannot even discuss or touch money (during Shabbat Orthodox Jews discuss money in terms of apples: i.e. how many apples is that worth?). And of course no electricity; which means that television was shut down and you just got the channel showing a blank screen; no public transport; no electricity (though this was not turned off by the authorities, most people just didn’t use it. We did as my previous English ex is not Jewish). So literally within an hour of Yom Kippur beginning the city of Tel Aviv was virtually dead. When I say empty I mean EMPTY. No cars were to be seen other than a rare ambulance (which even under Jewish law is permitted of course).

Before Yom Kippur began I was wondering the streets of TLV. A tall man, with the religious headscarf; phylacteries (boxes with verses from the Torah wrapped on the arm) and a long flowing beard came bounding towards me. He was a Hassidic Jew; ultra Orthodox and as if in slow motion passed all other Israelis and approached me. I’m not surprised by this as I look Israeli but he started shouting at me in Hebrew and pointed to the Torah. ‘Get in now. Get in now’ he kept saying. I kept walking and he kept following me.

Moments later I passed his Synagogue. ‘Hey – come here now and dance the Minyan’ shouted one of three Hassidic men standing outside, with beards and religious garment covering them. (A Minyan is a religious dance composed of 10 men. No women allowed; although some movements of more liberal denomination want this to change). ‘I’m sorry. I’m busy’ I said ridiculously as if had to be somewhere. Everything, literally everything relating to commerce, entertainment, anything was shutting down – and I sounded like I wanted to buy a pair of jeans. ‘What? Why don’t you come into the Synagogue?’ shouted one ‘you are not Jewish?’ shouted another. I said no. Not that I wasn’t Jewish but what was the point explaining to them that I am converting. They not only will not consider me Jewish even after I convert but they will not like the stream I am converting to; the liberal stream.

By the end of the afternoon, Israel was closed for business for the day.
Except at the Australian diplomat’s house which was hosting a dinner. On the way there we walked across TLV’s Tayelet (the promenade) and the streets were overtaken with kids roller-blading and playing with their bikes – as there were no cars. It was like Makariou at 4am on a Sunday morning. At the dinner there were Australians, Israelis, New Zealanders and a few others. But it was really funny being the only European around alongside a Belgian diplomat. My ex is English but even they don’t consider themselves European.

So of course I didn’t fast for Yom Kippur 2007 / 5768 but naturally I refrain from eating pork, shrimp… etc (as non-Jews they had non-Kosher food). But I don’t eat non-Kosher food anyway so that didn’t bother me. One Australian/German man kept arguing with me that I should be fasting and that it was wrong of me not to fast. Politely I pointed out that I am on holiday and I would learn more about Judaism if I had energy and that I was at a dinner, it would be rude to the hosts and unfair to me to be there in front of all that food and not eat. And I had remained Kosher since May 2007. He didn’t see my point. I didn’t care.

I met a wonderful Jewish lawyer there who was impressed by my Hebrew and told me so – which of course I love hearing. We actually hit it off and I was upset I didn’t get her email. She said ‘to me, you are not only Jewish, you are Israeli’ which is a huge compliment and asked ‘in Cyprus – don’t you have lots of spies?’ ‘Yes’ I replied ‘you guys!’ Israelis love this type of humour, so she didn’t take it the wrong way.

So although I didn’t fast and didn’t have a religious experience, I still made the most from Yom Kippur. I learnt that you have to think about which sins you committed – and endear to correct them by making yourself a better person rather than saying ‘I won’t do that again.’ Which is not enough. And I was there to learn about Israel, and the people. So my second Yom Kippur was much different from my first.

The next day I spent in Yafo (Jaffa) where I watched the sun go down. Which signalled the end of Yom Kippur. Below you can see the pictures from that day.