Beautiful Tsfat and fun activities!
We're spending our first two nights in Israel on a co-op called a Kibbutz. They grow a lot of their own produce here, and it tastes delicious. Healthy kibbutz living has invigorated me; I got up at 6:00am and was ready for breakfast by 6:20am. Now that the sun is up, I can see that we're staying in some gorgeous wooded hills. The stray cats who hang around here are very friendly and calm around people.
Yesterday we went to the city of Tzfat. It's the birthplace of Jewish mysticism, known as Kabbalah, and we met with a Kabbalist friend of the tour guides named Avraham. It was very fun to meet him and get to see this city!
Tour Guide Dan, who got us the introduction to the Kabbalist, is very spiritual. He has a little pouch of healing rocks and they're very pretty. He's also vegan, which is a great help for me (also vegan), because he speaks Hebrew and I can eat whatever he eats. If only he didn't have the same name as my brother, so I wouldn't be so confused! :)
Avraham The Kabbalah Scholar was exactly what I wouldn't have admitted I was expecting, the very image of a spiritual man seeking enlightenment and peace. He told us about how nothing is a coincidence, because everything is a reflection of the same underlying structure. He was also very interested in the symbolism of names, especially Hebrew names. We got to see some of his art: paintings and prints inspired by quotes from the Torah and the sound of the shofar.
After the Kabbalist we visited a glassblower, Sheva Chaya. Her shop was at the end of a plant-covered tunnel with blue glass bits in the floor. She also uses a lot of pomegranates in her art and makes larger pieces with pomegranate motifs.
Sheva Chaya did a live demo of glassblowing, which was so amazing I forgot to take pictures. I bought a glass wand with an abstract wisteria blossom on the end, and it should be shipped to Boston soon. Next stop was a synagogue, and on the way, we did some walking through the beautiful city of Tzfat.
The flora and fauna around here are amazing. I keep seeing birds, trees, cacti, and rocks I don't even know the names of. Tzfat is made entirely out limestone, also known around here as Jerusalem stone. The divisions between buildings are obscure to nonexistent. There are lots of stairs in the streets and alleys that are flights of stairs. It is very cool.
The Ari Synagogue is famous and beautiful and dedicated to Isaac Luria. The Ark had the Live Long and Prosper gesture, which is also the gesture you make during the priestly blessing.
We went to a candle museum and Oh My Goodness I took so many pictures and now I want to learn to make candles. :)
Lunch was falafel and hummus at an authentic "hole in the wall" type place, in a fried baguette that was super soft and tasty.
The rafting trip we took in the afternoon was super fun! We floated down the perfect-temperature river in the perfect-temperature shade, looking at pretty birds and trying not to run into the plants on either bank. After that, we went to an olive oil factory.
I keep wanting to call the olive oil factory the olive juice factory, because words are hard. It had trees and birds and enormous olive-pressing machinery inside it. Parts of it smelled terrible, but other parts smelled nice. We got to try bread with lemon olive oil and garlic olive oil and basil olive oil and three kinds of regular olive oil and spices like paprika and salt, hyssop, mustard seed, etc. Paprika and sea salt is awesome!
En route to the overlook, we saw a big tank and learned about Israeli tanks. The latest Israeli tank has anti-missile defenses like chaff and flares, and the soldiers inside wear air-conditioned flight suits so they don't get too hot. The overlook itself was gorgeous. We could see the "no man's land" between Israel and Syria. Elaun and one of the Israelis told us about the Yom Kippur War, and how 90 tanks held off 1000 tanks using the high ground we were currently standing on. It was amazing to learn about history that took place right where our group was standing.
After dinner, we played some fun games. One was a version of Never Have I Ever, where people told interesting facts about themselves and then everyone they applied to had to move chairs. The other was a series of pairings off and conversation topics, letting us make small talk with people we hadn't gotten to meet so far on the trip. I really feel like I'm getting to know a large fraction of my 50 fellow participants. Now it's time to go to bed so I can wake up in time to go to Haifa tomorrow! Can't wait!
Photo Credits: Header Image-@ronnncohen, Image 1-@weichfield, Image 2-@ryankaplan1
