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When I woke
up this morning, I had a strange sensation that something was not quite right…
But what?
Oh, it was
the SILENCE.
No cars
zooming under my window, no buses, no garbage trucks banging, no shouting.
Blessed,
pure, wonderful SILENCE.
And then I
remembered. It’s Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. The day when the Jewish
people fast for 25 hours in order to ask God for forgiveness for their sins.
I love the
silence of Yom Kippur. Well, at least until all the kids get outside with their
bikes, rollerblades, skateboards, anything with wheels, really. But until they
come out onto the streets in droves, talking loudly and shouting, I have a
couple of hours of clean, unadulterated silence.
I get to
drink my coffee without the background chorus of a big, busy city.
But even though
I love the peace and quiet of this holy day, I have some not-so-nice memories of
it from over the years.
Back when we
didn’t have a hospital in our city, Maya had a strange proclivity for getting
sick during religious holidays, especially Yom Kippur.
You can
read about it in my post from that day.
https://aloneinholyland.blogspot.com/2011/10/rather-adventurous-yom-kippur-atonement.html
Thankfully,
she was OK in the end. Just a bad case of rotavirus combined with whooping cough.
Yes,
seriously.
We now have
a brand-new hospital here in Ashdod.
Although,
if I think about it logically, how exactly are we supposed to get there on Yom
Kippur, when there is no public transportation and no cars are allowed on the
streets?
This is Israel.
Full of contradictions.
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