Yom Kippur

The month of October contains at least four Jewish high holy days. Of these holidays, Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn and important. Jews spend this 25-hour period fasting and praying, and mending the wrongs of the past year to start afresh. One source, I remember, calls the activity on this day "squaring yourself with God". This is one of the few holidays that is observed by even the most secular Jews, and synagogue attendance doubles or triples that of a normal Saturday.

Not only do most Secular Jews observe Yom Kippur, the entire state of Israel, as a definitively Jewish state, does as well. This means:

• No place of business is open
• No cars drive anywhere
  
• No planes take off or land
  
• No radio or television broadcasts

Which means me, as well. I don't think there's a law in the books, but as far as driving goes, it's just not done.

Q: So, what does this mean for non-observers?


A:






Bike shops have their biggest sales week of the year leading up to Yom Kippur. Once sundown hits, it's open season on the roads and freeways for anyone wanting to walk or bike, which usually means yelling kids. There is the occasional ambulance or emergency car, but nothing beats the post-apocalyptic thrill of laying supine in the freeway express lanes at 10pm on a Wednesday, watching the stars and feeling the dull warmth of the day's trapped heat in the blacktop.

In other news, a janitor came into my band room yesterday sporting a Washington hooded sweatshirt with an enormous purple logo "W". This was at first cool, then shocking. We didn't share a language, but I tried to tell him why I loved it by pointing enthusiastically to the shirt, then myself, then Seattle on a map of the world.