Judgment Day for all Jews

Every year, Jews around the world celebrate Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement, which is also called Judgment Day. Travel blogger Alexander Belenky visited Tel Aviv during this unusual holiday and told how ordinary residents of the Israeli city spend the day of fasting.

It's like the apocalypse. Life in the country stops. Cars and people disappear from the roads, there is only interference on TV and radio. Nine million people seem to disappear into thin air in an instant.

You walk along absolutely empty expressways, peer through closed windows into shops and feel the utter unreality of what is happening.

Once a year, life in Israel stops and Judgment Day comes. It's too late to apologize.

Unbelievable! Tens of thousands of cars a day rush along this highway, and today it is completely empty.

Not a single traffic jam, not a single car, not a single living soul…

Traffic lights are working, pigeons are shitting on the asphalt… Where are you people?

If you don't know about what is happening in advance, it will become really scary.

This is how Hollywood films about the invasion of zombies begin. And when you see a lonely figure on the horizon, you start to think where to run — towards or away.

The most guarded place in the country, Tel Aviv Manhattan, the diamond exchange district, is also completely empty on this day.

At first you get scared of every shadow, then you realize: the brave souls who took to the streets today are the same as you, made of flesh and blood, and not zombies at all, hungry for brains.

In the Jewish calendar, this is called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It comes ten days after the New Year, and then the sentence imposed on everyone for the coming year is approved.

And for all non-religious Israelis, it is also a "day without a car."

All roads are occupied by cyclists, and most often by children.

Before the holiday, it is customary to buy new bicycles or other toys on wheels for children.

By the way, secularism often does not cancel strict fasting, and on this day everyone really goes hungry. Except at home, there is nowhere to eat, absolutely everything is closed!

For working people, this is a great reason to spend the whole day with their family.

I wonder if there is anything like this in any other country?

"Zombie invasion" is written on the guy's backpack. I found when to wear this!

If you publish this photo separately, you can think something terrible.

Did he steal a chair in some cafe? He's so happy.

The most interesting thing happens near the main Tel Aviv highway "Ayalon" and at the complex of towers "Azrieli".

If the coastal streets are full of people, then the expressway is absolutely deserted.

This is where the most apocalyptic landscapes are filmed.

The same thing happens on other roads throughout the country, cars do not drive anywhere except in Arab cities. But in theory, you can get from Tel Aviv to Haifa (100 km) by bike, right on the expressway.

People go out for a walk with dogs and children.

It's also a great day to meet someone!

The girls walked and walked and got tired.

It's the middle of October, and it's still summer here! By Russian standards, plus twenty—five is great!

The only ones who go on this day are the operational services. Secular laws do not prohibit Israelis from driving and even directly prescribe doing so if there is a real need or threat to someone's life and health. I saw several ordinary cars flying along the highway, all had an emergency light on, as if they were apologizing…

While I was standing on the Ayalon and recording a video broadcast, a police car was passing by. The law enforcement officers stopped to find out if I was all right, if I needed help. After learning that I am from Russia and seeing this for the first time, they laughed, wished me a good day and drove on.

The main Tel Aviv highway combines a road and a railway, and in the middle flows (ha-ha) the river with the same name Ayalon. Most of the year the bottom is completely dry, and in some places it is enclosed in pipes: this made it possible to build the road forty years ago.

Israeli rivers are generally famous for their fullness.

People have fun as they can. On other days, you can't see the river with your eyes, or draw a silhouette with chalk.

And everyone takes photos for memory. And tourists ask to eat… I myself have heard several tearful stories about how people came to Israel in the fall and turned out to be completely unprepared for the Day of Judgment.

In the Facebook group "Secret Tel Aviv", the guys wanted to make a PEACE inscription out of people lying on the road. They succeeded, enough people came. But it was only read from the air.

After sunset, people return to normal life, restaurants make a weekly profit. And each of us has an understanding of how to live the next year.