So Much To Say!
From the perspective of someone writing a Birthright blog, our fourth day in Israel was both a gift and a curse – there’s so much to write about that it’s almost impossible to know where to start, or how to say it all.
We began the day with a short bus ride down from our kibbutz in the Golan Heights to the holy city of Safed, what Israelis call Tzfat.We began our time there learning about Kabbalah, which has found its home in Safed since the 16th century after the Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Kaballah is a mystical school of thought that offers guidance for those asking life’s most fundamental questions – why are we here, what is above us, how should we connect with God and the world around us. The spiritualism that Kaballah inspires infuses the city with a palpable sense of ancient sanctity. We visited a beautiful Sephardic synagogue, which is built so that the community sits centered around a dais, the idea being to encourage a sense of togetherness and communal interaction by having the participants face one another while the rabbi speaks. The emphasis on spiritual community that the synagogue’s architecture exhibits is a fitting symbol for the spirit of Safed, a spirit I think we all felt.
Our group entering the Sephardic synagogue in Safed.
Safed is also famous for its arts, and during our two hours in the city we got a taste of that too. We visited a candle-making shop, filled with beautiful candles and some incredible wax sculptures. Even here, Kaballah makes its presence felt, as the candle making process involves dipping the fledgling candles a ritualistic number of times (six for the star of David, eight for Hanukkah, etc.).
David slaying (and beheading, apparently) Goliath.
After that we listened to a performance of Jewish music by two local musicians, who used instruments I'd never seen before to make some really great music.
Two musicians playing whatchamacallits.
Our stay in Safed, memorable though it was, marked only the beginning of our day. Around noon, we boarded the bus and began the two-hour drive to Tel Aviv. We arrived in Rabin Square, and after a short break for lunch we convened in the square to discuss Yitzhak Rabin’s life and assassination, and the free speech issues his death inspired. Our foray into politics didn’t end there. Right after, we were put into small groups and given a mission to walk along a boulevard and find local Israelis who would be willing to discuss with us their sense of the most pressing issues of contemporary Israel. My group found a bright young woman who had recently finished serving in the IDF and considered herself a centrist who was concerned that Benjamin Netanyahu was consolidating too much power in his own hands. This discussion also gave rise to good debate within our own group about many issues facing Israel, which revealed the diversity of opinion within our own Birthright group and American Jewry in general.
We then made our way to Independence Hall, the site where David Ben-Gurion announced the establishment of the state of Israel. An American employee of the Hall gave us a history of how Tel Aviv was founded, with Independence Hall being one of the original 66 plots of land settled by Zionists homesteading their country-to-be. We then heard the story of the announcement of Independence, a rushed but ebullient day for Jews around the world.
Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, sits watch over the Birthright participants.
After Independence Hall, we went to our hotel, got dinner, and prepared for a night out. We were then treated to a private concert by Israeli rock musician Udi Krauss, who really got the crowd into it. He also spoke of the peace he craves, a desire made especially poignant by the loss of his best friend at the age of 19 during the 2006 war with Lebanon. After Udi’s great show, we had a night on the town in Tel Aviv.
Today, we are beginning the day at the Beach before heading up to Jerusalem. I'm sure it'll be another day filled with too much fun for the next blogger to do justice to. A pity for the blogger, but another amazing day for the rest of us! :)
