It was different from the very beginning - extra boarding security, and justifiably so, at the El Al Airline counter in Toronto as we waited to board for an almost eleven-hour flight to Tel Aviv, Israel. We must have been two of very few non-Jewish passengers on board and our flight was excellent, with attentive service from the flight attendants. We got our first surprise just as we began our descent into Israeli airspace when the young male flight attendant asked "Do you know that you will arrive at a very special time for Israel and that everything will be closed?" In ignorance, we both showed surprise and inquired as to why. We had no idea when we selected our date of arrival that we would land at the time of Yom Kippur, the Day of
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