Stress and Fasting

So the past 2 days have been pretty significant; first Slichot in Jerusalem and then Yom Kippur. So we drove to Jerusalem thursday night for a traditional Slichot service which is I guess a prayer service you can do from a month before to start.... okay I wasn't really listening, but we went through some of the old city and it was nice. I was very excited because I couldn't even remember the last time I had been there if at all. Then we went to the Kotel, or near the Kotel because I have never seen so many people in one place before. It was insane. There must of been 100,000 people or something, it was ridiculous. I really liked having so many people there all for the same purpose. There was a group of Yeshiva boys near us singing the prayer and dancing and I just thought, 'where else could this happen?'

When we tried to leave, though, all the good feelings evaporated. The masses had started to disperse and the way out was blocked. We tried to push and move through the crowd but it had become a mosh-pit. It was very scary and stressful to feel like I had no control where I was going and not knowing where I was if I were to get lost it would be such a struggle to find the group again. Also in the back of my mind I had what happened at Love Parade in Germany, so I kept thinking, what if someone fell, what if I fell?

We started to leave at midnight and only returned home at 4AM.

The next day Yom Kippur began. It was the normal deal, Kol Nidre, fasting, Neila, but in Tel Aviv the atmosphere is amazing- no cars on the road, everything is closed. I wasn't expecting this because so many people are secular but the tradition is that people don't drive. It was incredible- everyone was walking on the roads and riding their bikes. Wow