A Country in Standstill Once More (For 24 Hours)
Tzom Kal1 to all those who fast today.
One jewish year ago I wrote a blogpost about Yom Kippur, a jewish holiday where we fast for 24 hours as some sort of last-ditch attempt to look good in God's eyes as he decides our fates for the coming year. With 2 hours on the clock before the fast arrives once more, I think it'd be interesting to see how everything changed since last kippur.
Both Kippurs I'm spending in Tel Aviv at my sister's house, helping her wrangle my two demonic nephews (who are actively climbing on the fridge to steal a bag of Nachos she is calmly asking them to put back) and hopefully reading some books I've been procrastinating on the rest of the year.
Last Kippur there was an air of unrest due to the protests of the time: we knew nothing major would occur, but there was a general vibe that someone was going to start some sort of protest in the middle of a day where everyone was already super tired. This Kippur there's also an air of unrest, but due to an external threat rather than an internal one; random rocket fire catching people offguard at the synagogue.
Sidenote, it is incredibly hard to focus on writing this while my older nephew is very passionately explaining to his dear mother why he should be allowed to eat an entire bowl of choco-chips (not choco-chip cookies, just the choco-chips) and how this will not impact at all his ability to finish his dinner dutifully. It's funny but it would be probably funnier listening to it happening in retrospect rather watching it happen in real time2.
I'm in a very different place in life than I was last year, too. Last year I was in many different "structures", so to speak. I had a boring-if-consistent job, I was in uni, I was in a relationship, and I was regularly going to the gym. Now I'm in a new city, unemployed, not in education, haven't found a new gym to be in... I'm in a complete limbo state. I don't have much motivation to do anything due to the aforementioned limbo state, too, which is fucking me over worse3. Hopefully, I'll be able to start afresh tomorrow evening.
If not... well, there's always next year.