Go Ye and Repent! (or maybe just watch movies)

When givens are choices....and choices givens.

I'm remembering that one person's deepest obligations are another's "optional."

For example: I once knew a young woman whose approach to potential imagined financial crisis was to rely on the charity of the charitable. To me, the notion was an anathema. As far as I was concerned, the way to handle potential imagined financial crisis was to work hard now, when no crisis loomed, and save carefully, not only for the "rainy day," but to safeguard against hurricanes.

Doesn't it happen to you, now and again? You meet someone and discover their norms are utterly the opposite of your own and neither of you can reconcile to even the possibility of the other's approach?

In the case that spurs this post, however, there are no real surprises. On this eve of Yom Kippur, I can acknowledge that I never thought all Jews treat the day as one of fasting and repentance and prayer. I have always known Jews for whom Yom Kippur was a day like any other. For most of American Jewry, I believe that is the case.

אבינו מלכנו...

שתהא השעה הזאת שעת רחמאים ועת רצון מלפניך

For the State of Israel, however, Yom Kippur is a national holiday, albeit not the most festive one on the calendar. The entire country shuts down:

• Buses and stores and recreational sites (and businesses) that are open throughout the country (though not in Jerusalem, and select other places) on any given Sabbath of the year are closed on Yom Kippur (it would seem that it is not for nothing that the Bible dubs the day "shabbat shabbaton" - the Sabbath of Sabbaths (the Sabbath to beat all Sabbaths?) - though I'm fairly certain (ahem) that the biblical epithet pre-dates the Israeli practice). 
• The television channels have no programming (can you imagine, no T.V.? - though cable from outside of the country is available to subscribers). 
• The radio stations do not broadcast - they close off the year by wishing everyone a good year, with the traditional greeting of "G'mar chatimah tovah" - A good sealing in the famous Book of Life - and the playing of Hatikvah, the national anthem (they begin broadcasting again with the hourly news report which permeates every other Israeli day: "Shalom Yisrael...henei ha-chadashot mi-Kol Yisrael..." (Hello Israel...Here is the news from the Voice of Israel...)
• The streets are free of cars - really! See here: 24 hours of a busy Tel Aviv intersection (with thanks N, who directed me to it). In fact, the Israeli news reports on the number of bicycle accidents on Yom Kippur. The rest of the year, the concern is the crazy high number of car accidents. But on Yom Kippur, kids on bikes rule the roads - and they take wild advantage (The other important statistic reported every year in the aftermath of Yom Kippur is how many babies were born over the course of the day - another statistic not reported any other day of the year, as far as I know. I'm fairly certain that more women go into labor on Yom Kippur because fasting induces labor (and for someone whose due-date is near, the fast is (usually) not considered dangerous, so the pregnancy does not offer a medical exemption. But I believe the news report is a reminder of the quintessential nature of the Jewish state. That is: we're all in this together, we Jews, in our tiny country, and we rejoice in the birth of our children).

So, Yom Kippur is pretty much impossible to avoid in Israel. But that does not mean that everyone "keeps" Yom Kippur. 

A few months ago, I startled an Israeli with the notion that I indeed fast, and not only on Yom Kippur, but the other minor fasts that are sprinkled throughout the Jewish calendar. In turn, he startled me with the fact that he had grown up eating on Yom Kippur - he was not rejecting the religion of his forefathers; rather, he'd been raised with a strong tradition of Judaism that did not include barely a whit of observance.

More recently (as in, this week), I've been taking note of the way people who are ostensibly not religious deal with Yom Kippur. One guy said - yes, he fasts. He and his family have a big meal beforehand, rendering the fast "not that hard." Someone else explained that she used to fast, but she felt that it was wrong to do so, since she basically spends the day hanging out watching movies, and just not eating. So she stopped not eating, rather than feel hypocritical in her lack of practice (she acknowledges, however, that she would NEVER get in a car on Yom Kippur - "people would look at you! It's just not done"). Someone else has been unintentionally incorporating Yom Kippur into her entire year, excusing any exception to general level of observance (mostly kosher, for example) as peccadilloes to make sure she has something to repent for (she does fast).

On the opposite side of the spectrum, some folks have been rising early to recite Selihot (poetic penitential passages written in the Middle Ages) for the past couple of weeks (Sephardic Jews for the past month +). In yeshivot, there has been in-depth study of the laws of the day, and the manner in which it was observed in days of yore, when the Temple stood in Jerusalem, and animal sacrifice was a focus of the day. And many people have been giving serious consideration to their conduct of the past year...resolving to reform their lapses of practice, and affirming their desire to improve themselves. The confessional recited in the Yom Kippur service makes self-reflection an integral part of the day - for those who participate in the Yom Kippur service.

And that's the point: for some, the fast of Yom Kippur with all of the trappings is a given, and not fasting is unheard of. For others, fasting on Yom Kippur is a bizarre, antiquated, quaint notion. And for many, it is optional, whether a preferred ideal or attempted at whim. Personally, I found it moving when I rode a post-Yom Kippur bus one year, and overheard a weathered gent proclaim with pride that he indeed had made it through the whole fast, and had never done so before.

תשובה ותפילה וצדקה

מעבירין את רוע הגזרה

וכן יהי רצון.

Of course, what is key here is the sense of obligation - whether to fast or to eat. In truth, we are fortunate that every approach is a matter of choice. As compared to past eras when the non-Jewish governing authority forbade the celebration of the Jewish holidays. Or the concentration camps, in which any morsel of food sustained life, which trumped the obligation to fast, though it dampened Jewish pride (worse, the Nazis offered more, better food on Yom Kippur, though not everyone ate). Or the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pulled Israel's reserve army from the synagogues. Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that keeping Yom Kippur in a serious way is easy in any age, and I'm not sure everyone who does so is thrilled by the experience. Still, for all that religious sensibilities or lack thereof may dictate a person's practice, in this day and age, at least in Israel, people do whatever they want....or rather whatever they choose - even when they treat their practice as a given. 

As with so much, the day will largely be what we make it.

Here's a shabby approximation of the sun as I expect to see it setting, when Yom Kippur is coming to a close (at least, if previous years are any predictor):

(http://almostaliyah.blogspot.com/2007/11/sunset-from-neve-daniel.html)
Post-fast PS: Turns out it was a cloudy day, with the glorious sun ducking/hidden by purpley grey.

G'mar chatimah tovah.