Yom Kippur in Jerusalem

Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, is the holiest of Jewish holidays. This year, it was from sundown October 7 to sundown October 8. Yom Kippur is observed all over Israel, even by the non-religious Jews, and is a day of fasting, mourning, and prayer. And absolutely NO DRIVING.

I knew what Yom Kippur was before I came here, but when other branch members told me about "the day we can't go in to church," I was a little skeptical. Everyone in the Primary presidency (which, btw, I'm in the Primary presidency!) was really worried about what would happen to Primary. "None of us will be able to get in to church," they said. "They close the roads and no one drives. So only the children who live at the Jerusalem Center will be in church, but what will we do about Primary for those kids?"

I certainly didn't want to sit at my apartment alone all day while all the Jews in Israel were mourning, so I volunteered to spend the night with a member of the branch who lives in East Jerusalem and take care of Primary in the morning. But really, I thought, it can't be that hard to get in to church. It's nice to respect the holiest Jewish holiday, but surely some people drive on Yom Kippur. I mean, religious Jews don't drive on the Sabbath or other holy holidays, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of cars on the road causing traffic jams every holiday!

(Turns out that we just watched General Conference instead of having Primary, so I didn't have to do anything anyway, but that's beside the point.)

The point is, I went to meet my friend (Arlissa) Friday afternoon. She was getting off work early because "they close the roads and I won't be able to get home after 4."

I'm used to everything shutting down (busses, stores, and everything else) early Friday afternoon for Shabbat each week, so I wasn't surprised to see that there were very few cars on the road at 3 pm on the eve of Yom Kippur. But nevertheless, Arlissa and I both breathed a sigh of relief when we got out of West Jerusalem before 4, when the roads were supposed to close.

We decided to run and grab some groceries in Beit Hanina, an Arab area just outside of Jerusalem, and thought for sure that we would be safe, since we were just going from East Jerusalem to East Jerusalem.

But guys. When we tried to get out of Beit Hanina, THE ROADS WERE CLOSED. The police had come and put huge cement roadblocks in the road, and no traffic could get in or out.

Luckily, we found another route home without roadblocks, but I was astounded. The reason that no one drives on Yom Kippur is because the police enforce the no-driving rule by putting up roadblocks on all the roads!

Unfortunately, I didn't any pictures of the barriers, so you'll just have to imagine it. But if you come to visit Jerusalem during Yom Kippur, don't expect to be able to drive anywhere...

(As a side note, I was talking to an Arab man in a store that evening, and he said that this year was great because the police left most of the roads in East Jerusalem open so that the Arab population could go about their business, since they do not celebrate Yom Kippur. Only roads that went through or near Jewish areas were closed, but most of East Jerusalem was still accessible--which he said was a big improvement over previous years, when all the roads were closed.)