New Year, New Country

My first of many holidays in Israel has come to an end. I was really excited to experience a year's worth of holidays in a foreign country; especially Israel. They always say next year in Israel and here I am!
I guess technically Rosh Hashana was my second holiday in Israel....we celebrated Shabbat at the Kibbutz. However, Shabbat happens every week, so it doesn't count for the purposes of this post.

In the states most people are aware of the fact that 6,489,000 people (I looked it up) are celebrating the new year. In New York public schools have the day off and in many places it is accepted that people are not going to go to class or work. In a country where religious freedom is a privilege, Jews can celebrate/observe (can't decide which word is appropriate) the holiday without prejudice.

Israel is a whole different can of worms.
The whole country comes to a screeching halt. For someone who has lived in New York her whole life, the prospect of everything stopping and shutting down is a new and strange phenomenon. Almost all stores are closed, no one goes to work, school is closed, and public transportation stops running. For the most part this is true of Christmas in America too, but public transportation in New York NEVER stops.
Wednesday afternoon people began closing up shop and taking off to be with their families for erev Rosh Hashana. The entire state of Israel seems to be closed for business.
I was always told that while we in America celebrate 2 days of Rosh Hashana, in Israel it is only observed for one day. If that is true they have a funny way of showing it. Today, the second day, everything was still closed....maybe even more so than yesterday.

It is very strange to walk down a street that is normally crazy with life and movement, and see absolutely nothing moving. There are people out and about, but mostly just out for leisurely walks or because they are going to family to celebrate the holiday. Tourists who end up in Israel for the High Holidays, who are not religious tourists, must get kinda bored.
And on top of all of this, it's Shabbat. Every Friday evening businesses close and people leave work early for Shabbat, and Saturday most things are closed too. So this week no one went to work all week. It's intense....like a week long siesta.

From what I have been told and what I have seen, most Israelis are not very observant. So it is interesting that the whole city, maybe even the country, observes holidays so....strictly (that really isn't the right word, I just couldn't find a better one). I have also been told that Yom Kippur is even more intense. The air port shuts down for 26 hours, and there are no cars on the road..I guess we will see next week.

I do not mean any of this as a criticism. I am merely fascinated at the way things come to a grinding halt for the Jewish holidays. This happens nowhere else in the world. Seeing this for the first time was fascinating....I can't wait to see what the other holidays are like here.