Yom Kippur, literally “day of atonement” is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It is celebrated 10 days after the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) and it’s basically dedicated for Jews to “afflict their souls”, abstaining from any recreative activity and spending the day praying in the sinagogue, at least the most religious people.

It’s considered the Shabbat of Shabbats, that’s why, like Shabbat, nobody works from the sunset of the previous day to the evening of the next day. Besides, the “affliction” includes avoiding five extra actions:

• Eating or drinking
• Wearing leather shoes
• Applying lotions or creams
• Washing or bathing
• Engaging in conjugal relations

Yeah, great piece of knowledge. But, what’s so special about it then?

Well, if you’re away from Israel, just interesting facts on how Jewish people spend their -literally- holidays (with 25 hours of fasting)

If you’re in Israel, here’s where the action starts.

Yom Kippur is probably THE day to be here. The country as a whole stops operating, businesses shut down, restaurants, places of leisure, transportation, even the airport closes. Nobody’s allowed to drive so roads are literally EMPTY of cars, apart from casual emergency vehicles. This means the highways are taking over by bikers and pedestrians, people doing pic-nics or just enjoying the silence of a country free of pollution.

Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv is specially magnificent, given the crazy daily traffic in the city and the struggle bikers go through every single day when adventuring themselves into the streets of the city.

We do recommend to take a look in the outside, make sure you grab some supplies the day before every business closes (we don’t want you to starve to death), and head to one of the main highroads close to the city center in order to admire the beauty of development without the hassle of transportation.