Only in Israel…
Posted on October 9, 2013 by Hannah Joy
Tags: appreciation / gratitude, bus / buses, culture, High Holidays, holidays, pictures / photos, sukkah, Sukkot, Yom Kippur
From my blog:
Some more of my observations, now that I’ve been here for about a month and a half:
Only in Israel…
- Would the entire country (including the airport) shut down on Yom Kippur, and the streets be empty of cars, but full of people dressed in white walking to synagogue, and bikers enjoying the day off.
- Would a bank give away keychains with their logo on the front and t’filat haderech (the traveler’s prayer) on the back.
- Would that same bank invite you and your family to a “VIP Sukkot Day Trip,” with options to visit a winery, the Bar Kochva caves, or the Weizmann Institute.
Invitation to Mercantile Bank’s day trip
- Would the city buses wish you “Moadim L’Simcha” (the traditional greeting said during the middle days of the holiday).
Egged bus during the middle days of Sukkot
- Would sukkahs pop up everywhere for the holiday (in front of restaurants, storefronts, synagogues, houses, backyards, alleys…), and be taken down as quickly as they appeared.
Sukkahs everywhere!
- Would your neighbor, five days after Sukkot, ask you to take down your sukkah because it’s been up for too long.
- Would you be at the grocery store on your lunch break and run into your cousin (who lives in a different city), only to learn that she works down the block.
- Would you get invited to a total stranger’s house for a holiday meal, only to discover through a round of Jewish geography that the host had worked with your mother.
Gotta love it 😉