Shabbat and other Observations

We noticed a lot of things during our stay in Israel, especially during the Sabbath and tried to document it for the blog.  For example, if a Kosher business is open 'round the clock, they are still closed for Sabbath, hence the 24/6.

Below is a shot of Ben Yuddah Street.  Normally the place is wall to wall with people, but the place was like a Ghost Town.

Starting at sundown on Friday, the hotel reception desk closes.  A Palestinian cashier works in the back office and they handle the necessary transactions.

We noticed that most of the staff working on Shabbat were Palestinian.  Kirsten and I had a glass of wine in the lobby bar that evening and our Palestinian waiter asked us if we "sign on shabbat?" when it was time for our bill.

We also noticed that as a rule, Orthodox families seem to give their kids free reign.  There isn't much discipline and the kids tend to be unruly.  We noticed it on the flight into Tel Aviv, and we noticed it at the hotel.  The place we stayed was located next to an Orthodox Synagogue.  The women and their kids would sit in the bar area waiting for the men to return from evening services and the kids were just all over the place. One boy picked up a leftover glass of wine and started yelling in a mocking voice like he was giving a prayer.  

There were two of the four elevators that just go up and down stopping at each floor.  We had an Orthodox family staying on our floor and we overheard the young son say to his father, "can we ask them?" which we think mean't he wanted to know if they could ride in our elevator since we were taking direct elevators and they were on the floor by floor route.  They ended up having to go back to their room so they missed their chance. (Incidentally, they did not use a key card, they had to use an old fashioned key to open the door).

Each room is equipped with a timer in the closet which can be set so the power turns itself on and off.  Orthodox Jewish law is very strict about any sort of melakhot, or deliberate work.  Interesting side note: Marital relations do not fall under this definition, so "getting busy" get's a green light.