A Country in Standstill (for 24 hours, at least)
Gmar Hatima Tova1, everyone.
Yesterday was Yom Kippur (literally - Day of Atonement), a Jewish holiday marking the day God looks at what you did this past year, which people you hurt and which people you helped, and then uses all of that to decide what your next year will look like. As such it's expected that in Yom Kippur you try to atone for any misdeeds you've done in the past year, both against God and against your fellow people, because while God may forgive you if you pray enough and do religious customs, you can't force people to forgive you.
Most kind of half-ass the whole "forgiveness from people" part by just mass-messaging everyone with a hastily written "i'd like to apologize for everything I did the past year and everyone I hurt, super duper sorri :( <3", or (more commonly) just completely forgetting you're supposed to be nice to others and hoping that it'll all work out in the end. The "forgiveness from God" section, though, is something absolutely everyone does in some capacity: Fast during the day of Yom Kippur, don't use any technology/create anything, and go to the synagogue to pray. Also, swing a chicken over your head. I really wish I could explain that last part.
The part I'd really like to focus on is the "no technology" part of the custom, though. In Israel, the country screeches to a complete halt from sundown to sundown in a way I rarely ever saw: There are no parties, no stores are open, no cars on the roads. The country isn't even that religious, population-wise - we have a similar "no technology" rule on weekends but no one follows it - and yet everyone, religious or not, just agrees to stop everything. It's so barren that most children who aren't of age to fast start biking on the highways for hours while completely unattended, an idea that would probably terrify mothers everywhere on any other day of the year.
While the kids go off to ride on highways in ludicrous speeds and test how sturdy their headgear is, most adults stay indoors and do as little as they can in order to not make the fast even harder on themselves. The evening of Kippur is spent playing board games to try and keep everyone awake for as late as they can stand, and the actual day of Kippur is spent trying to be asleep for as many hours as possible. Once you give up and drag yourself out of bed at 1~ PM, you read books you bought ages ago and never got around to, or stare longingly at your kitchen's general direction.
It's really peaceful. There's no noise from cars, no large parties outside, not a single store using the day to stock up on supplies. Nothing. Hell, no TV stations are even broadcasting, each one simply shows a different banner saying "Our schedule will resume on 7 PM the day after Kippur". Driving isn't actually illegal during Kippur, but no one pulls out of the driveway out of a general sense of respect to the tradition. It's a whole day of nothing, actual nothing.
It's nice, in an odd way, to be so detached from everything. In this age of information technology and instant communication, you're expected to always be "logged on"; while you're not expected to answer every phone call at any hour of the day, if it's around noon and you don't answer a text message within 3~ hours from sending, it's assumed either your phone died or you have. This isn't just a comment about work/life balance, to be clear. I love my friends, and I try to answer as soon as I can, but it really is just nice to be tethered to nothing for a few hours.
This year specifically it seems this balance is changing somehow. Israel's been in quite a bit of political turmoil following a self-described "hard-right" government taking power and trying to push through a total judicial overhaul, and everyone's been getting increasingly radicalized. Even during Kippur, a day which historically people let eachother be and tried not to push on anything delicate, we've had protests in Tel Aviv and religious folk coming in to try and fan the flames. Some of my friends said a bunch of cars were driving during the holiday, pushing kids back inside the house to deal with their parents being hungry and tired. I hope this reverses course, and it probably will, but it's still disappointing to see.
Regardless, it's been nice to have a day of some real peace and quiet. A day where I could just relax, read Catch-22, and try to wrangle my 3 year old nephew who only recently figured out the concept of "throwing objects across the room" and has been attempting it on anything he could get his hands on.
It's a saying said during/after Yom Kippur, roughly translating to "Good End-of-Signing/Sealing".↩