As you walk in the Geula neighbour-hood of Jerusalem, you slip from modern Israel into another society, one far older and more steeped in tradition than the rest of the country.
Some of the men are wearing long black coats and black hats, a look that goes back to 17th century Eastern Europe. A woman talks on a mobile phone in Yiddish, the German-based vernacular that was the language of most European Jews until the Holocaust. And even some men who are not religious but work in the area wear the traditional skullcap, apparently to blend in with the surroundings.
Segregation of the sexes extends to shopping. 'Because of repeated requests from our customers and in order to preserve modesty, we ask men to wait for their wives outside the store,' reads a sign on the door of a woman's clothing shop.
Inside Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf's spacious office it is Sabbath observance that is at issue. Since March the office has served as the command centre of an economic holy war over just how Jewish a state Israel should be and how much power haredim, or ultra-orthodox Jews, will wield.
And no one disputes that their clout has grown in recent years - at times, such as now, they become Israel's kingmakers. The ultra-orthodox Shas party, with 12 seats in the Knesset, was seen as holding the key to whether Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert's replacement as head of the Kadima party, could cobble together a coalition and become prime minister or whether there would be early elections. On Friday, Shas announced it would not join a Livni-led government and yesterday she said she would recommend early parliamentary elections.
Ms Livni's main rival for power, Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the right-wing Likud party, is vigorously courting ultra-orthodox leaders in a bid to block a new Kadima-led government. But Ms Livni gained momentum in her bid to form a coalition when the centre-left Labor party agreed to join forces with Kadima.