Another one of those 'Only in Israel' days!

It's not that I think that we need more ways to make our holidays relevant.Yom Kippur is pretty relevant all by itself. In Israel from just before sundown on the afternoon before Yom Kippur until the stars come out the next night all traffic stops. There are no cars on the roads and no planes land or take off from our airports. The radio and television go off the air and everything but the synagogues closes down. There is no law of the state that requires this. It is just what happens in the Jewish State.The result: according to an item in Haaretz

"Air pollution in Jerusalem and the Dan region was 100 times less on Yom Kippur than on ordinary days, when cars are on the roads, air pollution monitors from the Environmental Protection Ministry found.
"According to the figures released by the ministry Sunday, levels of nitrogen oxide in the Dan region over Yom Kippur were two to 12 parts per billion - but when the holiday was over, the figure rose to 205 parts per billion. In Jerusalem, the numbers declined from 250 parts per billion in the afternoon before Yom Kippur to between two and 12 parts per billion during the holiday."

That's such great news that even Dov Hanin who heads up the Hadash (ultra-left and vociferously anti-religious Arab-Jewish party) to tout Yom Kippur as an environmental experiment and brag about how at a European environmental conference the European delegates reported success in attempts to institute experimental 'no car' days of up to 25% compliance, while the Israeli delegate could point to almost 100% compliance. (full article here in Hebrew) It's nice to see even he can find the positive value in Yom Kippur!