The Three Day Yom Tov

Sometimes the Jewish calendar falls in such a way that there are two days of holiday immediately followed by Shabbat, or the opposite in the case of Passover. "Holiday" refers to the first day (or two days outside Israel) of any of the festivals (Passover, Sukkot, Shavuot) and Rosh Hashana. Inside Israel, the only time where it can occur is with Rosh Hashana that leads into Shabbat. Confused yet?

As you might have guessed, this was one such year in Israel, creating three days where work is forbidden along with certain other activities. For the purposes of this blog, I do not want to get into the halachic(Jewish Law)implications, but rather to simply set out the fact that as a result of the way Rosh Hashana fell, Jerusalem was essentially closed for three days. Last winter, cities on the East Coast of the United States were socked in by copious amounts of snow, causing municipalities to closed their doors. However, the weather in Jerusalem was sunny, beautiful, and perhaps even a bit too hot for some people. Nonetheless, the fact is that the roads were passable, traffic lights were working, but there were hardly any cars. Israel, known for its dangerous pedestrian crossings, was transformed into a place where main roads could be traversed with little fear.

In our apartment we hosted meals of 10, 9, and 8 people. If I do say so myself, we shared great food, some of which I cooked, wine, songs, laughter, and lots of blessings. I could not have asked for a better way to celebrate the beginning of Rosh Hashana, continue in my personal process of t'shuva, and appreciate Israel as the homeland of the Jewish People.