Reflections on Yom Kippur

I found my own Yom Kippur message right in my back yard..well, front yard. The rosebushes belonging to the owners looked pretty dead but suddenly this one had the courage to bloom a beautiful rose in spite of the dead branches. So..... if the rose can do it, so, i guess, can we.

Yom Kippur is really nice in a lot of ways...it's sooo quiet...no traffic, kids on bikes and scooters. Erev Yom Kippur, after the meal before the Fast, the City becomes still. Really still. It's quite amazing the difference. Many people go to the synagogue where the Kol Nidre and other traditional liturgy is sung. The tradition for those who observe is to dress in white (symbolizing purity and forgiveness (cleansed white as snow). With no autos or buses, the streets fill with people, many whom are dressed in white.

Last night I walked through my neighborhood and over to Rh.Yochanan ben Zakai where the street was filled with people, strolling in the quiet evening - children on bikes and scooters zipping between individuals, just missing the baby carriages. It was almost midnight and the atmosphere was peaceful and happy and full of community. And that what Yom Kippur should be - a happy day...after all, we are forgiven and given another chance, nachon? !!

I don't attend the services, but walking through the neighborhood, which is filled with many many beit knesset, one can hear the liturgy...and everyone in the neighborhood, whether you have gone to the services or not, drops by the beit knesset at the end of the day - to hear the blowing of the shofar. The shofar mystically signifies that the Divine Presence, which has been near during the 10 days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, is now leaving. Practically speaking, the shofar signifies the end of the Fast, the end of the 10 days and Yom Kippur, and the Book of Life is now sealed for another year.

Kind of nice..... and now we could go eat!!

Before the evening finished, the sounds and sights of succah building (for upcoming Sukkot) were echoing through the streets...even, to my great dismay, someone cutting all the fronds of a beautiful palm tree near my terrace steps...for their succa of course.

Ah, yes, Yom Kippur barely closed it's door and we are back to this, huh? ....taking liberty with the law...

Back to reality.....and traffic.

Who's On First ?????

Now this is a perfect example of what i was writing about in my previous post "It isn't legal is it?"...

Return to Standard Time Causes Uproar
by Maayana Miskin

While Israel switches to Daylight Savings Time at the same time as much of the Western world, the return to Standard Time in winter is timed to occur before the holiday of Yom Kippur, no matter when the holiday falls on the secular calendar. This year, the holidays are earlier than usual, meaning Israelis are planning to “fall back” to Standard Time in early September – several weeks before most of the world.

......By Sunday evening, nearly 115,000 people had signed an online petition created by high-tech professional Shimon Eckhaus calling to simply ignore the switch back to Standard Time. “Schools, businesses, public institutions, families, everyone – please just keep acting as if the clock didn't move,” the petition read.
Read more at http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139510

Really, if this isn't hilarious, well, i don't know what is then....

Let's see, in addition to being asked if I keep kosher, or am shomer shabas, i will be asked if i observe standard time or daylight time. 115,000 people said they would just ignore the law of falling back to standard time...leaving part of the country on one time schedule and others on another...except these aren't time zones, and you don't know who's on what!!..

Ammm, that doctor's appointment I made for late September - will my doctor's office be on my time or their time? I'm in a coffee shop and I look up at the clock...is it my time or their time? Will Bezek lower the evening calling rates on my time schedule or theirs? Will the autobus stop running now? or an hour from now?

Look, you wanna live in a country where everyone like a bunch of lemmings, just follows the same clocks within each time zone? Come on... boorrring.....:)