Taking a break

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Tsfat

We arrived in Tzfat, parked (which was a miracle to find a spot) and immediately looked for clues so we could find our car after strolling through another village, on a hill (3000 feet above sea level – Israel’s highest city), with winding streets throughout, and not even street signs (which would be in Hebrew).  Plus most of the buildings and houses look alike (all through Israel), if you didn’t look for the smallest of individual details marking one’s home.  They are mostly made from the native rock.

Safed was founded in the 2^nd century BCE as a lookout village – one of a chain of hilltop sites.  This was for protection, but they also lit fires to mark the beginning of a new month or holy day.

Tsfat is a city built on a foundation of Kaballah.  Some people say this early form of Jewish mysticism was developed by a religious group who were also interested in science and medicine.  It has also been suggested that it was further developed by the Jews, expelled from Spain in 1492 for no apparent reason, to understand or explain why this terrible thing happened to them.   Here in Tzfat Rabbi Isaac Luria , called Ari (th holy lion) expanded this old form of mysticism to provide answers to these spiritual questions.  He was also adept at taking ideas and making them easier for everyone to understand.

It is also another artists’ quarter, on a labyrinth of cobbled streets, crumbling stone houses with the heavy hamas, a hand-shaped amulet featuring the evil eye, hanging on or near their doorways.  There is also a mezuzah next to every doorway (also on every Jewish home, shop or restaurant, throughout all of Israel).

Safed is on Israel’s third highest peak and, again, has splendid views.  We surprisingly found our way into the artist colony for lunch and a tour of several studios and shops.  Each artist has a spiritual and or family story to tell as inspiration for their work: a young man had taken up his grandfather’s silver work and added his own perception of spirituality; a woman, whose art was motivated by her studies of Judaism; and others, including one artist who moved to Tsfat from Denver to be close to the source of her religion.

We spent our second morning with a lovely woman who has lived here for 40 years.  She introduced us to Judaic history as we viewed four medieval synagogues.  It is a devout place with Hasidic Jews mixed with Kaballistic seekers (some view with raised eyebrows).  In fact, when we mentioned our studies to one friend, he poo-pooed it as my own ancestors did when I was young.  There are so many reactive responses we have stopped mentioning it.  She also shared how she had to leave Tzfat for 5 weeks one of the times that there were missiles lobbed from Lebanon.  We’ve heard several similar stories and seen bullet riddled walls everywhere.

From Sfat (Are you noticing the variety of ways to spell?  Every street or city has several ways to spell it – probably because of the problems with transliteration.  Fun for driving or searching for sites, specific shops or restaurants!), we visited the Hula Valley and Lake Agamon where cranes of all kinds, plus other water birds, stop during their migration to Africa.  We spent the late afternoon under clouds of birds while traveling the 9k trail around the Marshland and plowed fields.  There were diving birds, swimming birds and the cranes by the hundreds.  There was a tremendous pandemonium of sound.   At first sight of a large muskrat we took photo after photo.  Then, after seeing dozens of these large swimming rodents, we learned to limit our picture taking.  The drive over the narrow mountain roads in this area, and in the dark, was enough to suggest that we limit this kind of driving.

I (Jaye) just like being in Zefad.  It just feels good.  Actually, I feel comfortable everywhere we’ve been in Israel.  I’d like to say I feel at home, but that would be a terrible exaggeration of how I feel being Jewish.  Especially, since I’ve only been involved tangentially, since I was 14 years old.  I don’t think celebrating Passover, and Chanukah, each once a year, counts.  However, as soon as we sang the Kiddush over the wine on Shabbot at Ruthie and Hagai’s home, I knew all the words.

What is my connection to being Jewish?  Why am I studying Kabbalah (I’ve been in a class for the past year and wondering about my draw to it “all” the time.)?   My mother was brought up in a fairly strict Orthodox home.  What do I mean by that?  I didn’t understand it at that time, but my grandparents celebrated the Sabbath traditionally.  All I saw, and no one explained very much, was that they left a few lights on and left the oven on before sundown, so they wouldn’t “work” turning on the electricity.  All of our meals, dinner from one day to dinner the next, were cooked before sundown on Friday.  We walked to a nearby shul (synagogue) on Saturday mornings.  And they kept kosher (followed rules around for food, e.g. not eating milk based foods with meat based foods at the same meal or on the same dishes or with the same silverware).  They couldn’t go out to eat in other people’s homes, unless they were kosher places, too).  Since I saw the people around us asking “non Jewish people” to do some work for them, my “perfectionism” got in the way – I saw this as a way of “cheating” and, if it was so important, why ask someone else to break the Sabbath – even if it wasn’t their Sabbath?

I think I missed seeing how they may have used it as a day of self-reflection and, if anyone did say something about that, I didn’t understand it at that time.  At home, I am reading a book, The Sabbath, admiring and respecting the underlying meaning and more of an understanding of being with who I am, where I am and why I am here – at least one full day every week.

And, even though I went to Sunday school (on Saturdays) through eighth grade, I only remember studying holiday after holiday and what, as a child (even though at 14 I knew everything), hearing about the persecution of the Jews by this group and then that group, the destruction of our Temples and fighting for their belief in one

G-d and only one G-d, which I have always embraced.  And, that we are still waiting for the Messiah (and even at 14 thinking that this should hardly be a reason to be so divisive between Jews, Christians and Muslims).  We did not live near any other Jewish families until I was in third grade, and, even then, they moved to the “wrong” neighborhood so there were few other Jewish children until I was in high school.  Even though I went to “Sunday” school, these kids did not live nearby.  So, in school, I felt a little different and “left out.”   Even if our schools are secular, it is amazing how Christianity is always there, e.g. Easter and Christmas.  Feeling left out has always been with me.  In my own head, but I didn’t understand that this was a false belief, and stifling me from being connected to others.

Oh, well, and here I am now.  I can do something about all of these false notions and embrace what is true for me.   It is hard not to look at all this while in here in Tzfat.