On Friday, in the train from Rehovot to Tel Aviv, we were asked by a passenger, who was dressed in the orthodox way, whether we were Jewish. When we answered no, he turned to the next passenger - in fact he only asked men. One accepted his service, then an arm and his head were wrapped with a black band to both of which belonged a small, black box.
We were a bit surprised to see this ceremony. Only later on, I read that these "tefilin" (the black bands and boxes) belong to prayers on weekdays, so Friday morning (before the Shabbat started) was within the designated time. We observed this happening also in the streets and at the beach of Tel Aviv.
At the entrance of the central train station, we saw a piece of wood or metal with letters at the door, and people touched it, but we could not guess why. Later we heard that these "mesusot" are attached to every door as a religious protection.
Before sunset, we noticed that many men were walking towards and into the synagogues. Many shops, restaurants, cafés, juice stands closed, but there was still life going on in Tel Aviv.
Of course, there was no train on Shabbat, but we went back to Rehovot by sherut. Long-distance sheruts depart from the central bus station. A driver was announcing his destination Be'er Sheva (100km away) and was looking for more passengers. We asked which sherut would go to Rehovot and immediately a driver opened his sherut for us. There was no direction written on the car. Maybe he flexibly decided to offer a service to Rehovot because there was demand. We were the only ones in the beginning, but on the route trough Rishon, 4 more passengers entered. He even asked us where to stop in Rehovot, so we had a shorter walk home than from the train station. It took 35min from Tel Aviv (only few minutes more than by train) and the price of 20 NIS (shekels) per person (4.70€, not comparable to a normal taxi!) was only 4 NIS more than by train.
Thus, our experience with the sherut system has so far been really good! Despite the shabbat break of the trains, we could get everywhere we wanted, and even back :-)
We were a bit surprised to see this ceremony. Only later on, I read that these "tefilin" (the black bands and boxes) belong to prayers on weekdays, so Friday morning (before the Shabbat started) was within the designated time. We observed this happening also in the streets and at the beach of Tel Aviv.
At the entrance of the central train station, we saw a piece of wood or metal with letters at the door, and people touched it, but we could not guess why. Later we heard that these "mesusot" are attached to every door as a religious protection.
Before sunset, we noticed that many men were walking towards and into the synagogues. Many shops, restaurants, cafés, juice stands closed, but there was still life going on in Tel Aviv.
Of course, there was no train on Shabbat, but we went back to Rehovot by sherut. Long-distance sheruts depart from the central bus station. A driver was announcing his destination Be'er Sheva (100km away) and was looking for more passengers. We asked which sherut would go to Rehovot and immediately a driver opened his sherut for us. There was no direction written on the car. Maybe he flexibly decided to offer a service to Rehovot because there was demand. We were the only ones in the beginning, but on the route trough Rishon, 4 more passengers entered. He even asked us where to stop in Rehovot, so we had a shorter walk home than from the train station. It took 35min from Tel Aviv (only few minutes more than by train) and the price of 20 NIS (shekels) per person (4.70€, not comparable to a normal taxi!) was only 4 NIS more than by train.
Thus, our experience with the sherut system has so far been really good! Despite the shabbat break of the trains, we could get everywhere we wanted, and even back :-)
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