The Day of Atonement and Bicycles

In a few days Israel will shut down.  No TV, no movies, no entretainment of any kind.  No cars on the streets, absolutely no business open for any reason.  Evening comes and in synagogues all over the country a rams horn will be sounded to herald the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, holiest day in Jewish calendar.  Jews all over the country will go and pray to their god, asking for forgiveness and for another year to live in which they'll be able to do whatever it is that they do.  For twenty-five hours they'll pray and they'll fast and the ones that do it for real will try to find their peace with their god.

In a few days Israel will shut down.  No TV, no movies, no entretainment of any kind.  No cars on the streets, absolut... wait, no cars on the streets?  REALLY?  That means that I could ride my bike in the streets, up and down the highways and not be mowed down by the notoriously aggressive Israeli drivers, doesn't it?  Yes, it does.

And there you have it folks, the religious fault lines of Israeli society out where everybody can see them.  That thing with the bikes?  I was not making that up.  It's a beautiful sight to behold.  As night falls more and more kids take to the streets on their bikes; dozens, hundreds of them moving slowly or fast in groups from three to fifty.  Last year our family took a long trip from Kiryat Ono where we live down to the Tel Aviv beach and back, roughly 18 miles all in all.  Along the way we saw all twelve tribes having a ball.  My kids love to ride a bike, needless to say they await Yom Kippur breathlessly.  And god you ask?  Well, were you to ask my boys they'd tell you in all honesty that it would be god-damned shame to waste perfectly good, empty roads on the one day when you can enjoy them.  The greatest part of this whole deal is that there is no law that prohibits using a car during Yom Kippur, it's just something that we all do, period.

A couple of years ago, just before Yom Kippur I told a friend of mine how much my children were looking forward to the holiday.  Steve (that's my friend) is a deeply observant orthodox Jew that moved from the States to Israel so that he could practice his religion to the full.  Steve looked at me all funny, thoroughly confussed.  It took us a couple of minutes to figure it out that Steve had no idea that the biking thing took place.  For him the very thought that a Jew would do anything else during Yom Kippur other than fast and pray was totally alien.  

So I was shocked by his ignorance, and he was shocked by my... well, by me.

So if you want to see Israel in all of its multiple-personality glory, drop down in a couple of days, just in time for Yom Kippur.  Lunch's on me.