This morning in Israel, the media is filled with Yom Kippur images of Tel Aviv’s busiest highways. Guess what? In video after video, the busy streets of Israel’s secular, high-tech metropolis are deserted of cars. Zero. Totally void of traffic. Not even one lone auto can be seen. Bicycle riders, yes. Car, buses, trucks, trains, and taxis, no. In the city that never sleeps! In Brooklyn or Monsey you might find a single street spanning two blocks where traffic is cut off in an Orthodox neighborhood on Yom kippur - but an entire major city? Voluntarily? No way.
How can it be?
Rabbi Kook provides the answer in his book “Orot." A Jew may appear non-religious on the outside, but in the depths of his soul the flame of Torah and the yearning for a full Israeli life blessed with the closeness to Hashem constantly burns:
“Within the inner heart, in its pure and holy chambers, the Israeli flame ever increases, demanding the strong, brave, constant connection of life to all of the commandments of Hashem. The inner soul seeks to pour the spirit of God, the full, all-encompassing spirit of Israel that fills all of the vaults of the soul, into all of its many unique vessels, to express the full Israeli expression in its complete practical and idealized form... in the heart of all of the Nation, it continues to burn from the days of yore, ‘A fire will constantly be burnt upon the altar - it shall not be extinguished.’
“And in the hearts of all of those seemingly empty of Torah, and in the hearts of all of the sinners of Israel, the fire burns and blazes in the most inward depths. And in the Nation in its entirety, all of the desire for freedom, and all of the yearning for life, all of the yearning for the life of the Clal and the individual, all of the hope for Redemption, only from the source of this inner spring of life do they flow in order to live Israeli life in its fullest, without contradiction or limitation.
“This is the yearning for the Land of Israel, the Land of Kedusha, the Land of Hashem, where all of the mitzvot are realized and expressed in their finished form.
“And this yearning to reveal the special quality of the spirit of God, of raising one's head in the spirit of God in its absolute greatness, this is what activates everyone's hearts, and all wish to unite with it, to taste the pleasantness of its life: ‘Therefore I loved your commandments more than gold and refined gold.’
“If it be a wonder in the eyes of all those who stand at a distance and ask, `How is it possible that there will beat the spirit of Torah life with its inner force in all of the souls who are apparently even far from possessing faith - not only to a general closeness to Hashem, but to the true Torah life of Israel, to the framework of the mitzvot in their outward expression, and in their idea, in song and in action?' - it will not be wondrous in the eyes of all those who are attached in the depths of their spirit to the depths of Knesset Yisrael and who know of its wondrous Segulot.
“This is the secret of the valor, the uplifting of life which will never cease. ‘You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, that a man shall do and live by them; I am the Lord.’ - As King David said, ‘To walk before the Lord in the Land of Life, in Eretz Yisrael.’"
So if you think that Israel is a secular country you are very mistaken.