Yom Kippur

I've been slacking on the blog lately. Poland update to come.

But this past friday night marked the beginning of Yom Kippur (aka the day of atonement)... it's basically the biggest/most sacred Jewish holiday where you're not supposed to eat or drink for 25 hours and pray for forgiveness for all your sins of the last year. In Israel it's a national holiday and the country pretty much shuts down. No one is allowed to drive cars, play loud music, or disturb the general peace and quiet that takes over. It was a really cool and different experience being here for it. Friday night I ate the pre-fast meal at one of my teammates houses. Then, after everyone goes to synagogue, the streets are filled with people just hanging out. No cars in sight, just people walking everywhere. I snagged a picture of the area near the city centre:

Anyways a bunch of guys from the team were in this area hanging out, people watching, and talking to some people. It was a really cool experience. It's crazy how quiet it gets everywhere, you can hear peoples voices carrying from very far away. Saturday night the fast ended at around 6pm and we had a practice later on at 830. Last week before the season starts... Poland pics coming soon