Matthew CP #4

CP: Aviv
Date/Time: 10/1 6:30-7:30
Aviv and I had a very interesting talk on US and Israeli holidays. We spent most of our time talking about holiday origins and their religious implications. He also shed light on a very interesting war that I had never heard of that occurred on Yom Kippur called the Yom Kippur War. From his knowledge, it was a war in which Israel was at a huge disadvantage to Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Somehow, by sheer luck, the Israeli army ran into the armies of these other nations and disrupted the attack. Although there were mass casualties, Israel came out on top dispelling the attack by the other nations. I found this story very interesting because it was so good and intriguing. I also found our talk on religious holidays very interesting because of the fact that the United States has so few religious holidays that we celebrate compared to those of the Jewish religion. In the US, a predominantly Christian nation, only Easter and Christmas have christian roots, though the latter stems from Nordic traditions of the winter solstice. We talked about the large effect religious holidays have on every day life in Israel. Some last up to 3 weeks. I found this fascinating since most American holidays last only one day. I learned a lot about Jewish culture through our discourse on the holidays and am looking forward to our next conversation!