The holy day of rest. In the secular American community the day is all but ignored. All the stores are open and many people still go to work. However, in Israel, Shabbat is observed throughout the community.
The Shalems hosted me. The mom and dad, from Britain and Israel respectively, and three kids: a girl and two boys. With my family the day started off relaxed by waking up at nine o’clock. We then decided to drive to a park outside of our kibbutz: Gesher. There we prepared breakfast with some of the other group members. Once we decided it was too hot for the Clevelanders to survive, we moved the operation to the pool. Our breakfast consisted of shakshuka, a dish with sauce and eggs. We relaxed at the pool for a few hours and we decided that, once again, we were hungry. But we had a problem. All the restaurants were closed. Eventually we found a place to eat, an American burger restaurant. There we had the biggest burger there: the Double American. We went around to the other places in the area, but most of the places were closed in the shopping center. After a while we decided to go back to the house where we relaxed and took a nap before going to our after Shabbat party. The experience was very different from what I might have done in the United States. The day was different but I enjoyed the idea of having a day where we are just relaxed and having fun without worrying about work or responsibility. I believe this would not be able to take root in the more secular Jewish community in the United States as the mindset of Americans is to always be busy and doing something. The day of rest in Israel is an important and culturally satisfying tradition stemming from Judaism and spreading throughout the mainstream of Israeli life.