Hatikvah - A Blog About Life in Rabbinical School

Matt and Jen's blog about their adventures while Matt is in rabbinical school. Hatikvah, the name of the Israeli national anthem, means "the hope." This blog reflects their many hopes and adventures about their experiences during this process.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Shabbat Shalom, as in Peace

Last night we had dinner at Anna and Jamie's apartment. Jamie is a first-year cantorial student at Hebrew Union College and Anna has been our Hebrew study buddy since the summer. They recently kashered (an inappropriate past tense word which is Heb-rish [Hebrew-English] for "to make kosher") their apartment and thus now keep kosher so in honor of their apartment's new status, they held their first kosher Shabbat dinner. It was a wonderful dinner and a heck of a lot of fun.

Prior to dinner we went to Friday night services at Hebrew Union College. There is not a regular schedule of services at HUC but occasionally, the students plan and hold a service. It has been a while since we've been to a Reform service but we weren't as overwhelmed and shocked as one of our friends who was also there (having been also invited to dinner). For him, the siddur (prayerbook) he uses is inviolable and since last night's Reform service was a tad "different," I was worried he'd go into some sort of shock but, no, he held up like a trooper and made it through the whole thing without shouting "Heathens!" or anything like that.

So after services, which started at 5:30, we walked as a group to Anna & Jamie's and had a fantastic dinner and the theme of the night ended up being joke telling around the table. I've never been one who could remember a joke and even if I could, I'm not good at telling them because I usually tell the punch line before telling the joke. So, I sat back and enjoyed everything. Thinking about last night now, I don't think I can remember any of the jokes.

Yesterday was the first consistently rainy day and while it was fortunate that it didn't rain between HUC and their apartment, on the way home it was wet for a while and it was quite a walk.

On the way to their apartment and home, we passed by some normally very places on Shabbat for the first time since our arrival. Ben Yehuda Street and the Shuk are normally packed day and night throughout the week but on Friday night, they were completely empty except for others walking home from services or to a Shabbat dinner. It was eerily quiet and as I was reading Abraham Joshua Heschel's book The Sabbath today, I was struck by the following line...

A thought has blown the market place away.

For me, I was struck by how quiet the normal marketplaces of Jerusalem were, all because of Shabbat (the "thought"). This thought has created a wonderful day of incredible stillness and peace throughout Israel and especially throughout Jerusalem. Shabbat is an amazing concept and, when applied almost universally, it is an amazing experience for everyone. OK, that's as spiritual as I get.

I enjoy seeing bored non-Jewish tourists on Saturday, milling about with nothing really to do because the city is pretty much shut down.

OK, maybe a little more spirituality. This morning, walking back from services in a distant part of Jerusalem, it was really rainy. This week we read from the Torah the portion "Noah," which not surprisingly, is the story of Noah and his zoological arc. Some parts of Israel flooded due to the heavy rains today and when we were walking back from synagogue, the sun peeked through the clouds during the rain - Eve and I were really hoping for a rainbow - it would have made the day, one where we left synagogue after just having heard the story of Noah in the annual Torah reading cycle. There is also a blessing to say when one sees a rainbow, it acknowledges G-d's promise to Noah that the rainbow would be a sign that the earth would not be again destroyed by flood.

We searched and searched the sky but never found a rainbow. But, right before I arrived back at our apartment, I did hear thunder and got to pull out the siddur to say the blessing for hearing thunder.

Shavua Tov! (A Good Week!)

Friday, October 27, 2006

No Hair Left

I had a haircut at the end of June, before we left the States and I have had a total of three haircuts here in Jerusalem. I usually have a haircut every four weeks so I am behind at least one haircut but maybe it's because my hair keeps getting cut too short.

My first haircut was with a barber near the Yeshiva who paid my instructions no heed and cut my hair too short. I don't think he liked me because I arrived at his shop while he was eating lunch. It wasn't as though he had to put his lunch aside - he had me wait for fifteen minutes while he finished his lunch and his cigarette.

My second haircut, closer to our house, was a Russian immigrant barber who only spoke Russian and Hebrew. He understood my Hebrew instructions and I had a great haircut.

Last Wednesday, I went to the same place I went to the second time but I allowed my friend Mo to have his hair cut by the nice Russian barber. Mo's hair turned out great. I had my haircut by the owner, a much older barber. He spoke some English but didn't listen to my instructions at all and basically shaved my head and beard and so I hardly have any hair left at all. I'm nearly bald and my whole head is cold.

Thus, that evening, Jen and I went to the mall to buy her some winter clothing because it's getting downright cool here and while we were at the mall, I bought myself two very large kippot that cover most of my head. People who saw me yesterday at the Yeshiva said good things about my beard but I think they were just being nice. I think I scare small children and furry animals now. Well, in a few weeks it won't be so bad and I can probably wait two or three months before my next haircut.

I'm going back to the Russian barber - he understands my Hebrew and does a great job!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Rainy and Cool and an Update

The weather is definitely changing. It's been somewhat rainy today and has been intermittently sunny and cloudy. It's getting cool enough that Jen decided she needed to find a winter coat so this afternoon and evening after classes, we went to the big mall to find some winter clothes for Jen. We were successful but getting there was half the fun.

Our taxi driver on the way to the mall was the rudest we'd had thus far. When I pronounced "malcha" as my intended destination, I didn't pronounce the "ch" with a guttural enough sound for him so he was criticizing my Hebrew-speaking skills all the way to the mall. He told me to tell our Hebrew teacher that she hadn't trained us properly to speak Hebrew because if we didn't get the basics down correctly, there was just no hope for us. Needless to say, his tip wasn't very big. Up until tonight's ride, we hadn't had any rude drivers.

Besides the news about our pending trip (below), there isn't much going on. Yeshiva has been interesting and educational and I'm still learning a great deal. I did sign up to lead the afternoon service on November 15 so I've been practicing a lot in anticipation of my big day in front of my fellow students and the faculty.

We haven't hosted a Shabbat dinner in a month and we're booked for the next two weeks as guests at fellow students' homes so it's nice to have Fridays free, for the most part.

The third-year rabbinical students who are here have begun classes so we don't get to see people like Eve as much as we'd like to (check out her blog for a nice rundown of her classes - interesting stuff!)

I grew tired of running to SuperSol every day to pick up lunch for myself so last night I got my act together and made myself peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Everyone who had to waste time standing in the long lines at SuperSol was jealous.

Tomorrow we have a trip out of town and it involves riding on a train. I'll take the camera and blog about it afterwards.

I take classes during several lunch periods each week and this week I started a new lunchtime class on Wednesdays that is about chaplaincy and how to develop the skills to work with people when they need it most.

As part of our Talmud class on Tuesday, we took a walking field trip to the Old City to see the places and understand the marketplaces as described in the Mishna. It was a great trip but we didn't get a lot of studying done. I couldn't concentrate because I was absorbed watching groups of tourists look at the Old City. It was really the first time I've watched tourists in the Old City and interesting to see how tourists perceived things I've become accustomed to seeing.

That's all I can think of for now...

The Ukraine is Weak?

Everything I ever wanted to know about the Ukraine, I learned from Seinfeld:

Newman: I'm not beaten yet. I still have armies in the Ukraine.


Kramer: Ha ha, the Ukraine. Do you know what the Ukraine is? It's a sitting duck. A road apple, Newman. The Ukraine is weak. It's feeble. I think it's time to put the hurt on the Ukraine.


Ukrainian: I come from Ukraine. You not say Ukraine weak.


Kramer: Yeah, well we're playing a game here, pal.


Ukrainian: Ukraine is game to you?! How 'bout I take your little board and smash it!?!


We're planning on going to the Ukraine early next year for a trip to visit Jewish communities in the Former Soviet Union. We are excited to be part of a big group of Americans who are living in Jerusalem and will be going on the trip through Hebrew Union College. Almost all of the participants are first year rabbinical or cantorial students at HUC. They spend their first year of their five-year program here in Jerusalem, at the HUC campus adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem.

So, for several years, the students of HUC have worked to plan and fundraise to send dozens of HUC students and their close friends (like us) to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus to spend a week working with Jewish communities there. The Jewish communities in these countries are not well-supported and are just starting to coalesce because under the decades of communism, the USSR wasn't too supportive of religion.

Thus, there are communities that need outside help to learn about Jewish culture and ritual. That's where HUC steps in to help. It's exciting to be part of this group. We're really looking forward to the trip. We're also excited because all trip participants need to be part of the planning so Jen and I are each on a planning committee.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Entertainment and Rabbi Shmuley

I was thinking of subscribing to Netflix but I didn't think it would be a good value if I received one movie every other month due to mailing times. So instead we go to the nearby Blockbuster for our DVDs. The last two nights Jen and I rented DVDs and enjoyed them here in the apartment. It's a comforting feeling to watch American (or in the case of the fantastic film from last night, The World's Fastest Indian, New Zealand) movies.

Israeli cable and international cable channels so a wide variety of American television shows but many are shows that weren't too successful in the states so their rights are bought by the cable channels and shown around the world. There is a complete listing of upcoming television opportunities but with my schedule and without a Tivo, it's hard to catch something I want to watch.

Thus, I have started downloading television shows from iTunes to watch on the computer. First it was an episode of South Park and now, I'm downloading an episode of Shalom in the Home. Shalom in the Home appears on TLC in the States and is a reality show hosted by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. It's a great show and I've been downloading one episode overnight and iTunes tells me that I only have four hours left to go!

Rabbi Shmuley is a great guy and his show is very entertaining. I discovered that he was in Jerusalem for the holidays when some fellow yeshiva students who went to the Western Wall on Yom Kippur discovered that Rabbi Shmuley was leading their service at the Wall! It was an exciting time for everyone.

In the course of writing this entry, I visited the good Rabbi's website and found an interesting article that he writes about the young misbehaving American Orthodox students who come to Israel to study for a year after high school. I posted previously about how these kids could be pretty loud when they lived across the street from our summertime apartment. Anyway, Rabbi Shmuley shares his thoughts on the obnoxious behavior of this group. Way to go Shmuley!

Sunday, October 15, 2006

"Who Causes the Wind to Blow and the Rain to Fall."

Right after the end of the holiday last night (5:45 p.m., as you'll recall), Jen and I went out to dinner and watched a DVD afterwards. It was nice just to hang out while the wind was blowing, clouds were forming, and the rain was getting ready to fall because apparently, our prayers for rain worked - it rained hard this morning for about a half-hour here.

One certainly would not have wanted to be in a sukkah when that happened. In future years, once I'm back home, I'm going to have to watch the Jerusalem weather forecast online for the days after Shemini Atzeret to see how close to that holiday does the rain actually start to fall. I'm just thrilled with this year's close correlation of Shemini Atzeret and rain.

The headline of this post ("Who Causes the Wind to Blow and the Rain to Fall") is the line that was added to the central daily prayer yesterday to acknowledge the season and power of rain for an agricultural-based society which lacks rivers. This line is said until Passover, when the rainy season is over and one ought not pray for miracles that can't happen.

The holiday season is over and the country gets back to business. I think it can be equated to the first week of January in the U.S. In the U.S. the time from Thanksgiving to New Year's is just over a month of celebration, parties, and eating and not a lot gets done during that time. I think the same is true here in Israel. Universities start after the hagim (holidays) and stay in session (with a Hanukkah break) until late June. Our friends who are here for their third year of rabbinical school start their orientation this week.

We go back to school tomorrow (Monday) and everyone says, "The Yeshiva doesn't really start until after the hagim." I'm not sure what that means because I feel like I've been working hard and learning a lot over the past month. However, a lot of the studies have been holiday-related. We studied Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot in great detail in our Talmud class.

When we start up again this week, we're going to be studying the Mishna section on Nezikin (Damages), a whole set of laws relating to Jewish civil and criminal law. We'll be focusing on Nezikin for the remainder of the school year. Each year the yeshiva studies a different of the six orders or books of the Mishna. I guess that keeps the instructors from getting bored.

After the rain stopped this morning, I walked to the commercial district to buy printer ink, which I desperately needed. I wore jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a jacket (for the first time yet) but minutes after I hit the sidewalk, the sun came out and it was warm. Thus, I ended up carrying my jacket throughout most of the trip. Others on the streets of Jerusalem were better dressed for a warm fall day. But, I had a pleasant surprise when I put on my jacket as I discovered that I had brought my gloves and had not left them home as I suspected. Whew!

Speaking of jeans, I wore jeans a few nights ago to go to the Old City and Chaya exclaimed, "I've never seen you in jeans!" I replied that it has been too hot for pants up until now. The seasonal change is even having an impact on my fashion.

[Note: Immediately after I posted this, I noticed that Danya also posted about today's rain and she used the same exact headline for her post as I did but her headline is transliterated from the Hebrew. Too cool. I'm still waiting for someone to introduce me to Danya, she's been a blogging hero of mine for a few years. Someone told me that we were apparently in the same place on Friday morning for Hoshana Raba services but I didn't get meet her.]

Friday, October 13, 2006

Eeeek! I Need Paraphernalia!

I was unprepared for this weekend's plethora of holidays, all rolled into one day! It was just after 3 p.m. and the beginning of Shabbat, Simchat Torah, and Shemini Atzeret is at 4:34 p.m. It was at that point that I realized that there is the Yizkor service tomorrow and thus, I needed to light a yahrzeit candle tonight but I had no candle!

The beginning of the holiday was just over an hour away and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a candle on such short notice. Most stores close on Friday a few hours before Shabbat begins so I expected they'd all be closed.

Nonetheless, I rushed out of the house and checked the first local store - closed; I briskly walked up the street to the second local store - closed! I kept walking to the major intersection and to the "24 hour" mini-market. Open! Thankfully, they almost are open 24 hours a day. Their name is misleading because they are closed on Shabbat but it turns out, thankfully, that they close right before Shabbat. So, they're a 24/6 sort of place.

They did have a candle for me and I waited in line, something I'd never had to do there before. In front of me were four Orthodox women, apparently buying last minute recipe items. After I paid, I grabbed my candle and rushed home to write this note.

Now, it's time for last minute cleaning, straightening, and showering in anticipation of a very early start to the holiday. (Although December will be the worst - for four weeks candle lighting time is at 4:00 or 4:01! Wow! The bright side to that is that Shabbat is over on Saturday night around 5:15 p.m. so Saturday night fun can be a lot longer and a lot more fun!

Tomorrow night marks the end of a huge number of Jewish holidays over the past few weeks. I'm really looking forward to 5:45 p.m. tomorrow. We go back to school on Monday, however.

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

60% Chance of Rain!

Saturday is the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, an extra day tacked on to Sukkot to celebrate for just one more day. It marks the transition when we begin our prayers for rain. We wait until Shemini Atzeret to pray for rain because we don't want to pray for rain while people are living in their Sukkot (i.e. under bamboo or other thatched material) because it wouldn't make for a pleasurable eating or sleeping experience.

I was so moved to see the seasons change around the high holidays. It was hot, hot, hot right up until the day before Rosh Hashanah and since then, the weather has been wavering between warm and cool - somewhat fall-like. It was fascinating to see the weather change around these holidays that mark the beginning of fall.

Fascinatingly, the current weather forecast for Jerusalem predicts a 60% chance of rain on Sunday - the day after Shemini Atzeret when we start praying for rain! I think it will be so very cool if it rains right after Shemini Atzeret! I'll let you know how it goes!

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Sukkah Photos

Here are some sukkot around town...



Thursday, October 05, 2006

Sukkot, Part I

First, it was Rosh Hashanah (the first of the month of Tishri), then it was Yom Kippur (the 10th of Tishri), and on Friday it's Sukkot (the 15th of Tishri). At the end of Sukkot (a seven-day holiday) is Hoshanah Rabbah (21st) and Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah (22nd)! But, then nothing happens until Hanukkah. Nonetheless, the holidays are wild and crazy and Sukkot is no exception.

Today is the first day of our nice and long 11-day Sukkot Break. This is a time for many people not to work and government offices are closed or on reduced hours. Everyone is celebrating Sukkot. And how does one celebrate Sukkot?

Well, the primary ingredient in a nice Sukkot holiday is a Sukkah, a.k.a. "booth." Sukkot (plural of Sukkah as well as the name of the holiday so pay attention here!) are built outside, to remind us of our time in the desert after being released from Egyptian slavery. Thus, we live in a Sukkah during the week-long holiday to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.

Sukkot must be built outside and a Sukkah must be exposed to some of the elements. You should be able to see sky and stars through the roof of the Sukkah and the roof must be made entirely of material that is a) grown from the ground, b) no longer attached to the ground, and c) material not able to become impure (i.e. items of wood that have been turned into wood boards are no longer natural and can "receive impurity.")

Unfortunately, our apartment does not have a balcony that can be converted into a Sukkah. A Sukkah balcony has a removable roof so that you can place the natural material (skackh) over the balcony as the roof of the Sukkah. It doesn't matter what the sides are made of.

However, Jean has a Sukkah balcony so we're helping to build hers. This morning, I went to a hardware store and bought the requisite amount of tied-together bamboo for the roof of Jean's Sukkah for when her landlord arrives Friday morning to remove her balcony's roof. Then, we'll have a Sukkah-making party.

As part of Sukkot, it is important to eat meals and sleep in the Sukkah whenever possible. Thus, our Sukkot (and Shabbat) dinner is going to be in Jean's brand-new Sukkah tomorrow night. Then, on Saturday, we're going to have lunch in another friend's Sukkah. Sukkot are popping up everywhere and I'm planning to explore the Sukkot of the city and take a ton of photos to share here.

In addition to personal Sukkot, restaurants build Sukkot so that their customers can fulfill the mitzvah of eating in a Sukkah at every meal. Jen and I are looking forward to eating out as much as possible during the Sukkot week in order to meet the requirements of the holiday.

In addition to a Sukkah, there are other agricultural requirements for Sukkot. One must acquire four species of plant for special synagogue services during the week. These include branches of myrtle tree, branches of willow tree, branches of date palm, and the etrog fruit. The branches are held together in one hand and the etrog fruit is held in another.

Our last day of classes at the yeshiva yesterday was devoted to learning about Sukkot. We learned about the requirements for building a Sukkah and how to buy and use the four species. Then, after classes, one of the rabbis of the yeshiva took a large group of students to the shuk to shop for our four species.

There was a large area of the shuk that was covered by blue tarp where a plethora of species vendors were selling any or all of the species. Unfortunately, we discovered that willow branches were not for sale yesterday due to their fragile nature but we were told to expect them to be sold on every street corner on Friday, right before the holiday of Sukkot begins.

A group of four of us found a vendor willing to give us a deal on the three species along with a nice carrying case. Thus, I purchased my first almost-complete set of four species yesterday for the mere price of 70 shekels (about $16)!

The most difficult and most expensive part of the set to purchase is the etrog. One must try to find a beautiful yellow etrog for the holiday. I found the nicest one I could from my package deal vendor. Here's our magic etrog...



One student spent 150 shekels on his etrog ($34) alone! That's dedication!

Your homework is to see the movie Ushpizin, which I mentioned here before. It's all about Sukkot. See it!

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

L'Shana Tova!

Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) began September 22 this year and lasted two days. For the first night, Matt and I invited about 18 of our friends over to our house for dinner. We wanted to make it a special night since it was both a holiday and Shabbat, so I worked for a week and half preparing for it. :)

There were two difficult parts about planning a dinner for twenty in our Jerusalem apartment. The first was how on earth to seat twenty people when we only have a table that sits six. The second was where to buy all the little extras that transform a regular dinner into a party.

Unlike the usual me, I decided that in some way we could seat all twenty and thus invited them before I had figured it out logistically. Luckily for me, on Monday before the dinner I figured out the seating arrangements. I could seat ten people on the couches and chairs by transforming my coffee table and ottoman in to a makeshift "table." I could fit another ten around an elongated table if I could find a card-table to extend my current table.

The only problem with the card-table idea was that it was already Monday and I yet to see a card-table in Israel. I was super-duper lucky in the fact that I happened to go shopping for said card-table with two friends, one of whom actually had a very nice folding table at home that he said I could borrow! What luck!

Then we needed eleven extra chairs. Instead of buying any, we borrowed chairs from three friends. The only down-side to that is that we don't have a car here so we spent all Thursday night walking all eleven chairs to our house (we had to return them all the same way).

Then I wanted to make fun signs. Unlike in the States, I haven't seen any huge stores such as Michael's that are one-stop-shopping stores of craft supplies. I did find a small stationary store not too far away and really lucked out because they had yellow poster paper among their only five colors of paper. I found Crayola colored markers at an office supply store in the mall. Balloons I also found at the mall in a small fun store that has greeting cards and strange knick-knacks.

I also wanted the tables to look festive so I wanted to create centerpieces and/or favors. Again, Michael's is my favorite store to get ideas for such things and so I had no place to begin for inspiration. After shopping at every store in the city (ok, it just felt like it :), I decided to go with mugs filled with candy. The mugs and candy were easy to find at the shuk (had to make sure to get parve candy though because we were serving a meat meal). However, where to buy cellophane?

Once again I became the luckiest girl on the planet because my friend Jean and I found a little "dollar" type store which had some cool stuff and some junk. Jean noticed a bin of yellow and red colored cellophane; what a find!

After getting all the decorations taken care of, I had to decide on a meal plan and start cooking. Since our oven is small and has only one rack, I started cooking at 6 a.m. and had something in the oven the entire day, with about a max of 5 minutes between items being cooked.

I ended up making honey-mustard chicken, stuffed bell peppers, yerushalami kugel, spicy potatoes, apple-kugel muffins, layered salad, honeyed carrots, and green beans with shallots. Plus, of course, we had apples and challot for dipping in honey. For dessert I made a sunken-apple tort and got some scrumptious chocolate cake from Marzipan (the best bakery ever!).

Matt asked our friend Matt to teach us all a new song, our friend Steve to give a drash, and Eve to say Kiddush (the blessing over wine/grape juice). We noshed, learned, and sang all night. Personally, I had a fabulous time!

Since it was Shabbat and a holiday, I couldn't take pictures when people were actually here, but here are some photos of it all set up.


"L'Shana Tova!" (Happy New Year!)


Our regular table plus borrowed folding table combined with favors in center.


Comfy seating around makeshift table.


All the food prepared and sitting on hot plates ready for everyone to come back from services to devour it.


Favors of mugs with parve candy encased in the precious and hard-to-find cellophane.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Yom Kippur is Over and I'm No Longer Hungry

Just a few hours ago, Jen and I left the synagogue after Yom Kippur services. A day of services and 26 hours of fasting (including no water, no toothbrushing, no bathing, no leather shoes, and something else, I can't remember) came to an end.

We were at synagogue last night from the beginning of the fast at 4:45 p.m. until about 7:30 p.m. and then again this morning from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3:15 until 6:15 p.m. That's 11.25 hours of services!

Last week, when we went to the Old City, I bought myself a brand-new all-white tallit to wear for the first time on Yom Kippur because it's traditional to wear white on Yom Kippur. I also had the opportunity to wear my white kittel through the streets while walking from home to shul and back and back and back.

At our 2 o'clock break today, I was really hungry and we came home to relax for a few minutes and we probably wouldn't have run back immediately at 3:15 except I had the honor of lifting the Torah (known as "hagba" and Jen had the honor of dressing the Torah), which is not easy because the Torah is quite heavy to begin with and I had not eaten in nearly 24 hours prior to the lifting. Dropping the Torah is not good because everyone has to fast for 40 days if they're in the room when it's dropped and I doubt anyone would’ve liked that.

The 11.25 hours of services was also exceptionally difficult because it was almost entirely in Hebrew so after 10.25 of hours my brain really started hurting, I was trying so hard to pay attention to every word and read as much as possible but my reading ability is not quite up to par. So, the last hour for me was difficult - I was starving, thirsty, tired, and tired of Hebrew. However, the 10.25 hours prior to that were fantastic and exceptionally moving. It was everything a Yom Kippur should be about.

We had front-row seats, which was particularly stressful because we had the "lead" on leading the congregation in standing and sitting. Us front-rowers had to take subtle cues from the rabbi as to what to do. Once, I was slow on the job and the rabbi had to go "psst!" to get my peers and I to stand up.

But, even though most Israelis are secular and non-religious at all, they honor the High Holidays and the streets are almost entirely empty of cars - Jen and I walked to synagogue and home in the street that is normally full of traffic. It's so surreal, I wish I could've taken photos but since it's a holiday, I couldn't take pictures. The entire city becomes a playground for secular Israelis and children take over the streets, bicycling anywhere they want.

Traffic lights are turned off on Yom Kippur and the only vehicles you see are ambulances (for all the Jews passing out from hunger) and police cars. There's also the occasional renegade driving Israeli, but they're cautious and careful as they drive among pedestrian-filled streets. It’s just an incredible sight!

The fast officially started at 4:49 p.m. on Sunday here in Jerusalem. We invited a few friends (including Eve) over for a pre-fast meal. We’d read that a little protein and a lot of carbs was what one should eat prior to the fast so we served up spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, and garlic bread. I knew that it was important to avoid caffeine before a fast if one has a caffeine addiction such as myself but I only stopped drinking cola the day before so I think that was a significant factor in my intense headache for the last hour of services. Drinking lots of water is important prior to a fast and I did well with that but it also means lots of bathroom trips during services.

Absolutely everything shuts down in Israel during Yom Kippur. The international airport closed at 1 p.m. yesterday, television and radio isn’t broadcast, the online news sources don’t update, and every single store was closed. On a typical Shabbat stores are closed but people are still driving in the streets and the airport is in operation but not today – we had an amazingly quiet night last night since there were no cars on the road, there was also no honking.

The Jerusalem Post just posted an article about the Magen David Adom’s (Israel’s Red Cross Society) response to medical emergencies on Yom Kippur – 65 people passed out due to the fast and, unfortunately, 195 children were injured on bicycles, skates, rollerblades and skateboard and needed first aid. I felt like I was going to be one of those 65 during the last hour but I made it.

Fortunately, our synagogue has fruit drinks and baked goods available immediately after Yom Kippur was over. The rabbi as hilarious at the very end of Yom Kippur – he ended Yom Kippur by drinking grape juice in front of everyone and he said, "Mmmmmm. Tastes good!" It was torture since we had to wait another two minutes before we could imbibe.

In all, experiencing the High Holidays here in Jerusalem was fantastic. We loved spending them with our new friends here who we’ve become very close to as we’re all so very far from home, it makes the holidays a bit more bearable.

UPDATE: I discovered that Israeli blogger Lisa Goldman has linked to some collections of photos of empty streets in Tel Aviv. Check them out!