A lot has happened the last three weeks: I transitioned to my new home, immersed myself in my internship, and delved into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Peace-Building Leadership Seminar (PLS). I will focus on PLS and my internship in future blog posts, but I want to share a bit about my experience with the High Holidays in Israel.
If you aren't familiar with the High Holidays: Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year, followed ten days later by Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement" and the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The days between the two holidays provide a time for introspection, to think deeply about how you hurt others and to consider your goals for the new year.
The desert offers the perfect place for this introspection. For most of these ten days, I walked into the desert an hour before sunset to "find my place in the woods." (The concept of a special place outside for just me was a cornerstone of my Intro to Environmental Studies course at Brandeis, where we searched for a special outdoor space and recorded our observations.) The colors in the desert are especially beautiful around 6 pm. I had a field day taking pictures, though I feel the pictures cannot fully grasp the desert's beauty:
After my fourth hike into the desert, I found a "zoola," which has now become my "place in the woods." (A zoola is a shaded place to sit in the desert, usually a few chairs under an open tent). My zoola is about a fifteen minute walk into the desert from the Kibbutz. It is an open tent with wooden benches surrounding a fire pit. I had the most beautiful view of the Jordanian "Red" mountains and the surrounding Arava valley. All I heard was the whistling of the wind.
Last weekend, I traveled to Tel Aviv to spend Yom Kippur with my friend there. I was happy to eat Mexican food and fro-yo the day before the fast (no kibbutz food for a weekend-- yay!). For the holiday observance, Jenna and I attended Progressive services in the city. Progressive services were a blend of American Reform and Conservative services, but of course it was all in Hebrew. The community was extremely welcoming, and it felt nice to go to a familiar service in Israel.
The weirdest (but coolest) thing about Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur is about how the city completely shuts down, even though a large percent of Tel Avivians are secular and do not observe Yom Kippur. Every single business, including the 24/7 convenient stores, are closed. No vehicle -- no bus, no taxi, no car -- is on the road or even the highway. Pedestrians and cyclists take over the city. It is a truly amazing feeling to stand in the middle of an intersection in the middle of the day without any threat of a car hitting you. The city feels very open without cars on the road (though as I told my friend Jenna-- at points the city seemed apocalyptic, as if all cars could no longer operate). Ironically, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are among the greenest cities in the Western world on Yom Kippur: air pollution levels drop by up to 99%.
