High Holidays in Haifa

Ah the holidays.

Last week, I experienced my first Yom Kippur in Israel. In other words, for the first time in my 34 years I witnessed utter quietude in an otherwise bustling city. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, for my gentile readers, is a day of fasting and reflection for the religious, and a day off from work and school for the secular. Kids on bikes rule the city. And for 24 hours no one is on the roads, everyone is with family, and the city is so quiet, you can hear traffic signals switch from red to green.

My family falls into the secular category. I decided to visit my aunt and uncle in Haifa. For me, Haifa is synonymous with family time. As a child, I spent summer after summer playing with cousins while staying at my grandparents apartment. We gorged on grandmas cooking after going to the beach, and as I got older, to pubs and clubs in Haifa. But since my grandparents passed away, the city has lost its draw and there's an empty sadness I feel when I'm there. How fitting for atoning.

After I arrived from a day spent outside Jerusalem, I quickly threw on a skirt, and spent one hour at an uninspired service. We came home, ate dinner, and then the fasting began. I mostly slept. This year, no great hunger-induced revelation occurred. I did however, witness Haifa devoid of noise, which was pretty amazing. 22 hours later, my aunt insisted I eat something small. I always feel a sense of failure aquiessing so close to the end. But avocado toast never tasted so good. I threw my skirt back on and we heard the shofar blow, which was a pretty triumphant way to announce the end of looking back, and the start of looking forward. With that, I grabbed the first bus back to Tel Aviv.