Yom Kippur

Have a miserable Yom Kippur, everybody! I say miserable because at Yom Kippur you aren't supposed to be happy, or else you will be punished. It says in the Israeli Bible, that on the tenth day of the first month there shall be a day of atonement where you shall ask forgiveness for your sins from the lord, and then you shall go and ask forgiveness from a fellow person. You have to fast on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is from the sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

On Friday night, Dad and I went to Simon and Orit's for dinner (which was excellent, by the way) and Orit explained to me what Yom Kippur was. We went home, and the next day Dad fasted, but I didn't because the age at which you can fast is twelve, and I'm eleven. I was actually surprised that Dad didn't get grumpy because he was hungry.

At around 5:00, Dad, Orit, and I went to the synagogue. I was wearing my red dress, which was, really, a slip with a cover-up dress that had netting in between this flower pattern of thicker maroon material. At the synagogue, we sat down at these wooden benches that were in rows, and in front of them was a cleared space of floor, and there was a little table at which the rabbi, who is like a priest, was talking in Hebrew. there was also a cabinet that had white cloth covering the inside of it, and there were objects wrapped in white cloth there (everything is white for Yom Kippur, it means purity.), too, but I couldn't really see them. Everyone stood and sang these long chants at intervals, and my legs got really tired. Then, this older man stood up and blew a goat's horn, or something like a goat's horn. Then he played an instrument sorta like a flute. Orit told me it was to open the heavens so that God would hear everyone's prayers.

Soon after that we went home to break the fast. Yom Kippur was over.