(DAYTON DAILY NEWS) — This is a city where they take the Fourth Commandment seriously.

It’s a city where shopping malls close on Friday evening and don’t open again until 40 minutes after sunset on Saturday. A city where visitors need to double-check their guidebooks to see if the restaurant they read about will be open on Friday night. Where hot meals, orange juice-squeezing and even elevator-riding are matters of religion.

A city that comes to a semi-standstill for 24 hours.

Like Sundays in the United States that once were impacted by Christian-based “blue laws,” the pace of life in Jerusalem changes dramatically on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.


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