Yom Kippur

It’s eerily quiet in Haifa. It is Friday evening, 21st September and the special Jewish Yom Kippur Holy Day. Just a week ago we had Rosh Hashanah – the “Head of the Year” which is the official Jewish New Year’s day – a time of great festivities as well as a time of looking back on the previous year and looking ahead to the coming year. The blowing of the ram’s horn – called a Shofar – in the synagogue or temple announces the coming of the New Year in a memorable way; we have just begun the Jewish year 5768! Jews believe that between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, God judges each person’s deeds, deciding who will live and who shall die in the year to come. Therefore they pray fervently, fasting for the entire day of Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement”. Hence the eerie quiet. Very few adults are around for most of the day.

Yom Kippur was special this year as it coincided with Shabbat – the weekly day of rest – which starts at sunset on Friday and goes through to sunset on Saturday. On Yom Kippur it is not permissible to drive cars and so you might think the streets would be deserted. Not so. It is the one day of the year when children ride bicycles at any time of the day or night - and anywhere! It is a sight to behold – main roads which are normally jammed with traffic—cars honking their horns, sherutes frenetically weaving their way through traffic to pick up or drop passengers—are empty. Families like to walk down the lanes of the roads, with their strollers. Children on scooters and new bikes are riding all over the roads. Red lights don’t have much meaning on Yom Kippur.

This year, our dear neighbour invited us to accompany her to the Synagogue for part of the Yom Kippur service. We have visited a few synagogues, but not during such an important ceremony. Allan donned a kippah – the Jewish “skull cap” and off we went just before dusk on Friday night – on foot. Walking to a place of worship is nice, especially as the evenings are now pleasantly cool and couples make their way from side alleys and staircases – Haifa is built on a mountain. Although the ceremony lasts for several hours, many people come and experience part of the service and then leave. A Rabbi chants from a combination of the Torah and the writings of other famous Rabbis, and everyone follows from the prayer book. Each time the section chanted is from the Torah – the Jewish Holy Book – a curtain is opened in front of the congregation to expose the Torah scroll, wrapped in linen cloth. We stayed about 40 minutes in the Synagogue. The walk home was wonderful – a reflective time and a unique opportunity to learn more about Jewish tradition and practices from our neighbour.

Now that the weather is finally cooling down and the long-awaited pleasant autumn days are approaching, it is time to bring out the esky and the fold-up chairs and start visiting more places around Israel. One place that was highly recommended by Diane Costello and Doug Wilson when they visited us last February, was Netanya, which has the distinction of having the first Ikea store in Israel! It is a very popular tourist spot.
It is a new town half way between Haifa and Tel Aviv and has been largely settled by French-Jewish immigrants, hence the patisseries and restaurants are quite different to other cities. It's just like being in France with lots of cafes with chairs that face out into the street and plenty of ‘alfresco’ tables in the street itself (fortunately, a pedestrians only!!!). With a population of 170,000 it is one of the bigger cities in Israel (Haifa is the third largest city and has a population of 270,000). The big attraction is the 11 km of some of the finest beaches in Israel, and the Ha Rishonim Promenade, the cliff above the beach, offers magnificent views,

especially if you are a paraglider. Evening concerts are held throughout the summer.

The parks are green and lush - even some toadstills appear!

if you ever wondered how to write Australia in Hebrew - here is your chance to learn. And it is not surprising that Netanya is the sister city of the Gold Coast and a few other cities as well!

We also said farewell to a delightful Korean staff member who came the same time we did. Youngmin is such a sweet lass and some close friends took her to Yehiam fort for a farewell picnic, then continued on to Bahjí as the sun was setting in the sky. She will be sorely missed and we now have reached the stage in our service where we are saying good-bye to dear friends who have served 1 to 2 years. The wonderful thing is that new friends arrive each month and so a kaleidoscope of nationalities continues to brighten up the Bahá’í World Centre. We have also been to a few weddings of late – here is a photo of a relative of Muna – Payam Etminani and his bride Karina Purushotma.

Finally, we leave you with something we found uplifting:

Shed the light of a boundless love on every human being whom you meet, whether of your country, your race, your political party, or of any other nation, colour or shade of political opinion. Heaven will support you while you work in this in-gathering of the scattered peoples of the world beneath the shadow of the almighty tent of unity.