Distance: 83.5 km / 51.5 miles
Time Waited: 10 minutes
The Story: Yom Kippur was amazing, and as the sun went down, I broke open a pomegranate to break the fast. I packed my stuff, and headed out to the road. A young man heading for Jerusalem stopped. Perfect.
Turns out, we'd spent the holiday doing very similar things. He's staked out a spot by Nahal David where he spends every Yom Kippur. He goes alone, cherishes the silence, and thinks. While I wrote, slept and chased the shade, he actually prays. He was armed with a beach umbrella, mosquito net and plenty of yummies from his Moroccan grandmother, including some delicious fried and honey-covered treats. He said he'd been suddenly awoken at night by biting ants. He described humongous ants, like he'd never seen before. They were all over him, biting away. Apparently they didn't get the Yom Kippur memo. He woke up, and began praying. When he went back into his sleeping bag, they were gone.
He works as a fish distributor in Jerusalem - his route goes throughout Mea Shearim. Turns out, most fish are delivered to the shop dead - except the carp, which apparently can remain dormant for an extended period of time and instantly spring (or wiggle) back to life upon reaching water again. Hm. He loves eating fish.
In his free time, he designs and makes silver jewelry. He showed me a beautifully detailed Magen David necklace he was wearing, inlaid with white stones. No, he corrected me, it was ivory. Eeks. His teacher had given him tiny shards. Apparently ivory is a fascinating and wonderful material to work with, and he'd contemplated buying some off EBay. For $120 he could have gotten a 10-inch piece, which would have lasted him for years. But his ethics got the best of him. Truly a good guy - he also dropped me off at home.
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