Yom Kippur

Today at sundown is the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement (and to my observant friends, "Tsom cal"). Everything, and I do mean everything, will be shut down. Driving is prohibited. Last year, the quiet of no traffic was like the quiet of the first snowfall, except of course it was hot. And the city sort of looked like the aftermath of nuclear winter...the survivors out walking around through the once car-filled streets.

I had planned to get out of the country this year, but the plans fell through. Luckily, we have friends within walking distance, so we will walk over and spend some time with them.

Last night, we went to my second Iftar. The food, again, was fabulous. It was hosted by the head of our PD section here, and most of the 50 or so guests were PD contacts. It was good to get to meet some new folks and hopefully I will be talking with them soon in my work in political.

Oh, and just in case any of you heard about the car bomb the other day in Rishon LeTzion, it wasn't a terrorist act. About 20% of the population here is Russian, and as I think I mentioned before, that means we also have Russian mafia here. So the car bomb was *just* a hit on a member of one of the crime families.

I'm not sure that makes much difference.