I just love this essay by Judy Lash Balint on Yom Kippur in Jerusalem. It captures the essence of a very special and completely unique experience.
I know most Jews call Yom Kippur by other names, but here in Jerusalem, it's the Day of No Traffic Lights. There are no traffic lights because there's no traffic on Yom Kippur in Jerusalem.The city just turns them off for 25 hours. Imagine--a capital city without any motor vehicle traffic at all except for emergency vehicles and army patrol jeeps. The quiet is absolutely stunning.
Starting from sundown on erev Yom Kippur, 25 hours of blissful peace and quiet. Pedestrians share the road with bicycles ridden by hundreds of secular Israelis who savor the day as a safe opportunity to try out their biking skills with no irritating traffic lights or crazy Israeli drivers. But the overwhelming sense is of a people taking a complete day to evaluate and perhaps change their lives.
Walking to Kol Nidre, the streets are thronged with people clad in white, to signify purity and a withdrawal for one day from the vanities of our usual fancy clothing.
Every synagogue is packed to overflowing, and several hundred community centers around the country offer Yom Kippur services too, with emphasis on discussion and openess for those who might never have stepped foot in a synagogue.
After the Kol Nidre prayers are over, it's as if the entire city spills out onto the streets. Strolling along in the middle of roads usually clogged with cars is the main pastime as people saunter off home, greeting friends along the way.
Who knows? Maybe next year, as we say...
Shabbat Shalom.
