Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

True, I just got back from a wonderful trip to Jordan and Egypt with my dad, but, I decided I should post about an experience I had before I left for that trip.

For those of you who don't know, Yom Kippur is pretty much the most important Jewish holiday. It is the day of atonement; the day where we apologize to God and each other for the bad things we have done and hope for forgiveness and mercy. We believe in a book of life and a book of death, whether these are real physical books is not really the point, the point of the day is to remember that ultimately, our life is not solely in our hands. God put us here and God can take us away, and if we are here, alive, on this earth for the next year, it is through God's mercy and compassion alone. Now, that seems like a strong, slightly ridiculous statement, and I can see a lot of you roling your eyes or maybe even being surprised that I would say this and believe it. Here's how it works in my mind: I believe in an all-powerful, all knowing God, but I also believe in free will, human choice, etc. I know that I am not perfect and that I make mistakes, and I believe in a God that allows that. I believe in a God who wants me to learn and grow on my own: to realize my problems and fix them, to struggle with my faith but always return to it. All the while I still believe that if God wanted my life to end here and now, it would. So do I think my name will be written in the book of death because I spoke behind someone's back or cut someone off in traffic? no. But I think Yom Kippur is the time for me and other Jews to remember that there is a force much much larger than us making these decisions.

Anyways, that was a very large diversion from the story I wanted to tell about Yom Kippur in Jerusalem. Kira's parents were in town for the holiday, so they made us a great pre-fast meal in our apartment. Then we drove into the city and got our rooms at a hotel near the synagogue we were going to. The interesting thing about Yom Kippur in Jerusalem is that every single thing shuts down. On shabbat, most things shut down, but there are still cars and taxis on the streets. On Yom Kippur, no one drives, the streets are completely empty. After Kol Nidre services (the night Yom Kippur started), we walked around town. We walked in the middle of the bussiest streets in the city. Other people were out, sitting in circles in the middle of the streets or strolling like us. The city was silent. Our fast was long and difficult (26 hours) and I'm not sure how I felt about the services we attended, but what really struck me was the trasformation of the city on that one day.

The problem is that some people in Israel took the holiday way to seriously this year (as I've heard that they have done for years in the past). A couple days before Yom Kippur my roommates came home from class saying that they had been told stories of people in religious neighborhoods stoning cars that were driving on Yom Kippur. Ambulances have even been stoned on their way to the hospital. I couldn't believe it. But, it turns out, this year was also not free from incidence. In a town called Accho, an Arab man was driving to pick up his daughter from relatives. It happened to be Erev Yom Kippur and the Jews in the neighborhood stoned his car. This started a riot between the Arabs nearby and the Jews in Accho. Police didn't respond for hours. There are different accounts- some claiming the arab man was playing loud music and causing trouble and others claiming this was a racist attack on Arabs. But the point is that this is where I dissagree with people who claim to practice the same religion as I do: I don't believe in a God that wants me to stone people driving on my holiday. I don't believe that wins me any points with God or will help me get into the book of Life. In fact, I believe in a God that would want me to repent endlessly for doing what the Jews in Accho did.