Tsfat

Candle store

The developers of the city of Tsfat clearly had little experience with strollers, but despite the stairs, we had a wonderful day in this very special place. We knew that things would be closing a little after lunch to get ready for Shabbat, so we got an early start, and drove down the hill to the Old City. We immediately got lost, a circumstance we would find ourselves in many more times throughout the day. If you don't get lost in Tsfat, you're clearly doing something wrong. Luckily, Tsfat is a very friendly city and more than once people noticed us looking lost and offered to help us find where we were going.

We visited three old Kabbalistic synagogues. First, we went to HaAri HaAshkenazi, Which was founded in the 16th century by Sephardic immigrants from Greece (but later became an Ashkenazi shul in the 1700's). It was named after Rabbi Isaac Luria (who was called HaAri). During the war of Independence, the story goes, worshippers were praying. At the moment that they bowed for the aleinu, an Arab rocket hit the building, but the shrapnel went over everyone's head and no one was hurt.

Next we visited the Abuhav Synagogue, a Sephardic shul which houses the oldest Torah scroll in Tsfat (almost 600 years old). The colorful decorations on the wall including the bright blue bimah (which is the trademark color of Tsfat) gave us a lot to look at.

Finally, we went to the Caro synagogue (we had to visit there, since its namesake was from Toledo [Spain]).  Rabbi Caro was the author of the Shulchan Aruch - the basic codification of  Jewish law. We were invited to listen in on the birthright tour that was there and heard a good explanation of the place (and then we stayed on to hear the beginning of the NIFTY tour, which was almost word for word the same (on a side note, having observed many teen tour groups, we have found NIFTY kids to be the least engaged of any). The coolest thing in this synagogue was the glass case genizah, where the old, worn out books are discarded.

We spent a while longer wandering the alleys and stairways of the Old City, looking in galleries and art studios, including the general exhibition of artists, and a really cool candle shop. We also went to the HaMeiri museum about daily life in Tsfat in the early 20th century, the upshot of which was daily life in Tsfat was rough -- Typhus epidemics, earthquakes, attacks by Arabs, starvation, cramped quarters, no electricity...you had to be seriously committed to the idea that the Messiah would be coming through on the way to Jerusalem to put up with it!

By 1:00 or so, we had seen a lot and were getting hungry, so we made our way up the Great Staircase to Jerusalem Street (the oval street that goes around the mountain in the middle of Tsfat). The Great Staircase was built by the British in the 1930's to separate the Jewish and Arab sides of the town. The searchlight that swept the steps at night is still there as is the bullet ridden police headquarters at the top of the steps (now a college). When the British left Tsfat in 1948, they left the police station and the citadel above it in the hands of the Arab fighters. The Jews won them in a hard battle and using their secret weapon, the Davidka, which does little damage, but makes a loud noise and scared the Arab forces off. We found a nice cafe still open and had omelets, sandwiches, and salads before heading back to the inn to pack and take showers for Shabbat. On the way back in the car, we discovered the quaint but sweet tradition of Israeli pop radio stations to play old Israeli folk songs and patriotic songs on Friday afternoons.

The Great Staircase

The Beirav shul where we davened that night.
Doesn't look like much, but quite a spirit!

Even though we had already had a very full day, I would say the highlight of our Tsfat experience came in the evening. We found our way back into town and managed to park (not easy in this city of narrow alleys and one way streets), and then found a way to walk (without stairs!) to the Beirav Carlebach synagogue. It would be hard to describe this kabbalat shabbat experience adequately. It was in a room smaller than the average US living room. A curtain separated the front for the men from the back for the women. There were at least 100 people (of all different walks of life - some fur hats, some black hats, some crocheted kippot, and Abe in a baseball cap) crammed in and the overflow was on the street outside, also divided by gender with a sheet hung on a clothesline across the street. There was singing, dancing, jumping, clapping (all in the men's section), and occasionally a group of hasidic men would walk past singing loudly. The rabbi would stop the service from time to time to tell a story (in mixed English and Hebrew). After about an hour and a half, the service was almost over so we headed out and walked to the home of these amazing people who had invited us to dinner. (They manage the Artist Colony Inn, and Abe had contacted them about us staying there. They said it wasn't suitable for kids, but they would love to have us over for dinner). They were recent olim (immigrants) from Canada, both ba'al teshuva (people who became Orthodox later in life). They were the most perfect hosts you could possibly imagine. They had also invited a couple from White Plains, who were staying in the Inn. There were lots of connections (e.g., the husband ran a moving company in Canada and had moved a former BGSU grad student I knew; the couple from White Plains knew Abe's sister's in-laws, the wife's maiden name was Eisenman, etc). We ate a delicious meal of mostly organic, fresh local foods. We ate and talked until well after midnight (all 3 of our kids and their daughter were asleep), and reluctantly took our leave. We left with an amazing feeling about the people and place of Tsfat. It's clearly a place where people care about people and where the finer things in life (family, friends, kindness, etc) are valued above all.