Yom Kippur יום כיפור

I did fast today and stayed in Akko. Last night, as the sun was setting, the city became more and more quite, by nightfall the city seemed a little spooky. I went to sleep early and slept in the next day. In the late afternoon, a few of my roommates and I went for a walk toward the old city (in Akko). We walked through the center of town and again it was a little spooky how quite everything was. All the stores were closed, and there were NO cars driving anywhere! We saw other people walking around, and riding bikes, but again the city was eerily quite. We walked around the shuk toward the water. There's a swimming and boating area near the shuk and today it was very lively. We sat down at a table for a while, listening to music and watching the boaters and swimmers. Someone saw a tiny kitten near the area and picked it up. It instantly wanted to cuddle with all of us. It did not look diseased at all, just hungry and skinny. Unsure of what to do, we started walking away from the kitten but she followed us, so we decided to find some food for her. Inside the shuk some of the stores were open and we quickly found some tuna for her. We didn't want to feed her in the middle of the shuk so we decided to take her a little closer to our apartment. The kitten refused to walk and simply wanted to be carried so we obliged. She preferred to ride on our shoulders and when she was on my shoulders I kept thinking she was like Connie- our bird. Long story short we fed her and brought her back to the area around our apartment. Since then we have checked on her every few hours, we have a small bowl of water down there and she ate the rest of the tuna we bought her.

More interesting- I went to a Sephardic service tonight, the singing was a lot of fun- although unfortunately I could not join in because I did not have a book. It was a nice experience. Also toward the end of the service I went outside and noticed that most of the neighborhood had ended up "hanging around" the outside of the Synagogue. There were tons of people all waiting to hear the shofar blow. I actually did not stay that long- I was extremely hungry and thirsty and decided it was more important to go back home and break the fast than it was to hear a shofar again. I don't think I missed out on any part of the "Israeli Experience", and it was nice to celebrate Yom Kippur here in Akko.