# Day of Atonement



## dimrub (25 Sep 2021)

Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, is a holy day in the Jewish calendar, but is not a holiday. There is nothing celebratory about it. It is rather a day of prayer, reflection and atonement for one's sins. Religious Jews fast on this day, and in Israel and elsewhere, many non-believers join them in fasting, if not in prayer.

In Israel, all of the businesses are closed, all but essential services shut down, and the roads are empty. So what do the non-believers do, if they don't choose to fast? They ride bicycles!







Not just bicycles, of course: with the roads and the highways free of all but infrequent emergency traffic, people bike, rollerblade, skateboard and just walk from city to city, and one frequently sees groups of kids just hanging out on a road.

Me and my kids as well. We started back in 2013, when they were 5 and 8, and we rode all the way to the sea, a respectable 20 km roundtrip.





Next year, it was Shefayim, a commercial center a bit further South, and the distance was now 30 km:






And so it was, me, my kids, and a bunch of their friends, with their parents trusting me to bring their precious back unhurt and, if possible, not overly taxed. Gradually though, as the distance grew, the number of participants dropped down, until it was just me, Daniel my eldest, and one friend.






Yes, the kid has grown a bit.
This time we rode to Caesarea on the sea, a round trip of 56 km, and the background was supplied by the "Lights of Rabin", the largest power plant in Israel.
I already know what our next destination is likely to be - the Atlit beach most likely, within the view of Haifa.


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## HobbesOnTour (25 Sep 2021)

Family traditions on a bike, father son bonding, what's not to like?


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## matticus (25 Sep 2021)

Great story!
(Are you only allowed to ride in the dark?)


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## PeteXXX (25 Sep 2021)

My riding in Israel was mainly from Degania by the Sea of Galilee (Ha Galil?) heading up into the Golan Heights, plus a few circuits of Galilee. I did do a bit on the West Bank and Negev, too, but it wasn't quite so pleasant. 

I guess things have changed a lot since I was there in 1976/77, like the tank traps not being by the bridges and sectioned off areas on the Golan due to mines!! 💣 

I can't remember exactly what I was doing on Yom Kippur but I'm certain that alcohol was involved


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## dimrub (25 Sep 2021)

matticus said:


> Great story!
> (Are you only allowed to ride in the dark?)



The way the Jewish calendar works is that days start and end at sunset, so the Yom Kippur too lasts from a sunset (around 7pm) to the next one. We usually start riding soon after the roads clear. One can ride the next day too, but it gets unpleasantly hot quite fast, unless one starts really early.


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## dimrub (25 Sep 2021)

PeteXXX said:


> My riding in Israel was mainly from Degania by the Sea of Galilee (Ha Galil?) heading up into the Golan Heights, plus a few circuits of Galilee. I did do a bit on the West Bank and Negev, too, but it wasn't quite so pleasant.
> 
> I guess things have changed a lot since I was there in 1976/77, like the tank traps not being by the bridges and sectioned off areas on the Golan due to mines!! 💣



A lot has changed in the last 45 years in Israel, indeed, but the sectioned off mine fields are still there, I'm afraid. The roads are fantastic though, and so is the food. Work is being done now on an Israel Bike Trail, which will cross Israel from North to South, similar to a walking Israel Trail, and in the meanwhile there's the provisional HLC Route, unsigned, but, I hear, quite rideable. I'm going to try parts of it soon, and will probably report my findings.



> I can't remember exactly what I was doing on Yom Kippur but I'm certain that alcohol was involved



Sounds legit .


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## PeteXXX (26 Sep 2021)

dimrub said:


> A lot has changed in the last 45 years in Israel, indeed, but the sectioned off mine fields are still there, I'm afraid. The roads are fantastic though, and so is the food. Work is being done now on an Israel Bike Trail, which will cross Israel from North to South, similar to a walking Israel Trail, and in the meanwhile there's the provisional HLC Route, unsigned, but, I hear, quite rideable. I'm going to try parts of it soon, and will probably report my findings.
> 
> 
> 
> Sounds legit .


That HLC route looks like a fun ride from what I remember of the geography!


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## dimrub (5 Oct 2022)

Yep, we did it again, and the destination was indeed Atlit. We could see the lights of Haifa just next to us. The Garmin was showing 111.1 km when we entered our neighborhood, and I was exhausted - the kid wanted to ride on to meet up with some pals.

On the way we got to handle a puncture in a tubeless with a worm, and when that didn't work - to put a tube in it (was it now tubeful?) All in all a good way to atone for one's sins.


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