Yom kippur, daylight savings give us a fast fast

The Wednesday following Rosh Hashana was Erev Yom Kippur. Laurel and her friend Annie made pre-fast dinner for a group of nine people, including Brian from Herzl Camp who stayed with Laurel for the Holiday. Israelis are smart, and daylight savings was a few days before so the fast would end earlier, but this also meant it started earlier. The 25 hour fast lasted from 4:35pm until 5:35pm the following day. That night Laurel, Brian, and Suzy all went to Kol Nidra services at Kol Hanishama, the Reform Synagogue in Ba’ka, an area of Jerusalem 15 minutes walking distance from Laurel’s apartment. The entire service was in Hebrew, though Laurel told me it was beautiful singing Kol Hanishama at the end of the service with a whole congregation of people she didn’t know, but who all knew the tune she so dearly loves.

 

When they left Synagogue, Brian and Laurel walked up and down Emek Rifiem, one of the normally busy streets in the German Colony. The eerie silence of  no cars on the streets was another reminder of the significance of the holiday in Israel. The streets were full of people walking around, and children on bikes and rollerblades. They walked the whole way home in the middle of the street, meeting up with other people from the WUJS program as they were leaving their respective services. I sat on Laurel’s balcony and just watched the normally bustling city in its cocoon of silence. The only disruption to the quiet would be the occasional ripple of laugher from children still playing in the streets, way into the wee hours of the night.

 

At 3:00am Laurel, Brian and a small band of people on the WUJS program woke up to go to the Kotel, or Western Wall. I was not to be disturbed, knowing the long day of fasting I had ahead of me. The group set out on a 45minute walk in the cool early morning stillness to the Old City. When they reached the Kotel there were already groups of people assembling at the wall to pray. Laurel and Brian met up with their friends Scott from Jerusalem, and Evan from Tel Aviv. The boys went off to the men’s side of the wall, while Laurel stayed with her friend Lisa and walked around taking everything in. There were people camped out in sleeping bags around the courtyard, and religious families standing shoulder to shoulder from tallest to shortest with the father on the left, the oldest son, and so on to the youngest son on the right. At around 5am the sun began to rise, and Laurel, Brian, Scott, and Evan all went to a balcony atop the Old City to look down over the Kotel and watch the sun rise above it. As Laurel, Brian, and Evan walked back through the streets still void of cars, they passed people just getting up and walking to Synagogue or to the Old City. It was a really moving experience, seeing everyone walking to services as they were just on their way home.

 

The rest of the day was spend in Laurel’s apartment with the theory that if they had woken up at 3am to walk to the Kotel, they were for sure in good standing and could rest for the majority of the day. By evening Laurel was weak with hunger, and helped set up long tables for the break fast. Everything was ready yet she didn’t want to break fast until she new it was really over. Laurel and a boy Ben went up to the roof of the apartment building and looked for three stars in the night sky, which meant the end of the fast. They counted one star, then slowly a second was seen, and finally a third star was found in the sky. They stood for a moment, and realized that for them it wasn’t just the three stars, but they were waiting to hear a shofar being blown, signifying the end of fast. Next door to the apartment building is a Yashiva. The boys at the Yashiva had been singing, dancing, and praying all day long. As dusk began to settle groups of people gathered across the street from the Yashiva, just like Laurel and Ben standing on the apartment roof. It was as if everyone around had come out into the streets to wait for the mournful sound of the shofar ending the fast. From within the Yashiva they heard the sound of Avinu Malkanu, and knew that any moment the fast would be done and with the blast of the shofar the fast was over. Laurel, Ben, and 25 other people from the WUJS program all sat down together to break fast over bagels, salad, tuna, salmon, and pasta.