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.

Haifa, Akko, and the border of Lebanon

A few years ago, we watched the sunset in India, while sitting on the sand dunes.  We did not know that we were sitting on the Pakistan/India border -- until we were already there and our guide “mentioned” it.  Today, we walked through the grottoes in Rosh Hanikra.  We parked the car at the barbed-wire gates of the Lebanon/Israeli border.  We watched the water splashing against the rocks with a military vessel at anchor nearby.  (More about this site later.)

On the way to Haifa our first stop was Caesarea National Park.  This included several wrong way, dead-end drives to find the entrance – easily marked – in Hebrew.  The park extends from a Roman theatre to a Crusader city. It includes a Byzantine square, a Herodian amphitheatre, promontory palace, bathhouse and a network of streets.  The theatre is the most ancient found in Israel with two seating areas.  There was an excellent introductory film (which we usually do not enjoy), which allowed us to zoom through the site.

Then a lovely drive up a one lane-road to the pinnacle of a hill brought us to Ein Hod, a colony of painters, sculptors and other artists.  It is an idyllic setting with stone houses built on the hillside along a winding street and sweeping views of the Mediterranean in the distance.  It felt like walking in an outdoor sculpture garden throughout.  We stopped in a few studios and watched and talked with the artists.  This small village of 135 families has a wonderful Argentinean restaurant where we chose one of several different rib dishes from the slow grill.

When we arrived in Haifa we stopped at the top of Mt. Carmel and took photos of the Baha’i Shrine gardens : nineteen landscaped, circular terraces that fill the slope from the top to the bottom of the hill.  The shrine is a brilliantly gilded dome and is the world center for the Baha’i faith (its central belief is the unity of mankind).   Because of construction, gardening and their single tour each day, we were not able to see the little peek you are allowed inside.

The next day our guide took us first to the old city of Akko, a mix of mosques, markets and the hugest, vaulted Crusader ruins (many of them underground).  The El-Jazzar Mosque is one of the most magnificent in Israel.  Ahmed el-Jazzar was allegedly so cruel, he was called “the Butcher.”  One of the museums we toured here was the Museum of the Underground Prisoners.  The prison was later used by the British to imprison the top members of the Jewish resistance in 1947.  A prison breakout was later a dramatic moment in Leon Uris’s novel Exodus. There is also an amazing Templar Crusader Tunnel, an underground passageway that connected the port to the palace.  (As often happens, this extraordinary site was found by accident after a local woman complained about a blocked sewer.)  Stories abound.

Well, back to the Grottoes.  Not that we drove back, this is the site we started with in our blog today.

Rosh Hanikra is a beautiful demonstration of the strength of the sea as it sculpts the mountains.  They are breathtaking beautiful.  We descended the mountain in a cable car.  (They said it was the steepest cable car ride in the world.)  The cliffs are all white except for black spots throughout:  flint stones formed from seaweed and sea creatures that are discharged from the sea and then consolidate to form the flint stones. 

Within the sculpted grottoes, there is a huge opening where the British (with help from workers from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa) built a track for a rail line between Haifa, Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon.  In only one year, they bore the tunnels into the rock, and suspended 15 bridges, over 650 feet.  Between 1943 to 1948, the railway served the British military needs.  In 1944, Jewish refugees from the concentration camps were also brought to Israel on the train.  (They were exchanged for German citizens living in Israel.)  However, to prevent the passage of Lebanese weapons and soldiers, Israeli fighters blew up the bridge and sealed the doorway to Israel in 1948.  It is now also sealed on the Lebanese side to allow tourists to safely view the grottoes from either side.

The gates above are now the place for entrance into Lebanon and the site where soldiers, dead and alive, are exchanged.  These are the reminders of the conflict here.  Otherwise, among the people living and working, you see Arabs and Israelis working, living and playing and eating together. 

Tel Aviv 2

The next two days in Tel Aviv we walked and took the bus everywhere.  We crisscrossed the city several times.  Besides the city bus, there is also the Sherut.  This is a van that only stops when it has to pick a person up or drop them off – rather than at every bus stop along a route.  Very comfortable, very fun and very affordable ($1.20).  Even the bus is only a few dollars, which saved us from $10-$15 taxi rides across town.  (FYI – one taxi driver quoted us $70 to go one-way to Jerusalem!)

The Diaspora Museum is most interesting telling the 2,500 year story of the dispersal of the Jews outside the land of Israel, beginning with the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem to events including the exile to Babylon and the expulsion from Spain in 1492.  From 135 onward, for almost 2000 years, the Jews have lived as a distinctive minority among other nations.  In different times and places there have been periods of persecution, but they also highlighted the times of peace, prosperity and cultural achievement.  One of our favorite rooms was a replica collection of synagogues throughout the world, both those destroyed and those still functioning.

Nearby, the Eretz Israel Museum, resembling a park, is a dozen pavilions, each a museum dealing with a different aspect of Israeli archeology and culture:  archeology, folklore, traditional crafts, decorative arts, cultural history and more.   There was a postal history museum with stamps (we walked through quickly), a ceramics museum, a glass pavilion (including beautiful modern installations) and an excavation site.  Mike loved the antique fire truck housed in its own glass pavilion.

We visited the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Opera House.  We took photos of the Azreli Towers, an office complex and mall consisting of three buildings:  one triangular, one circular and one square.  We also walked around the Yitzhak Rabin memorial.

We ended our Tel Aviv trip with another in the evening visit to the Clock Tower Square in Jaffa with Old Jaffa on one side and the Jaffa flea market on the other.  The old buildings have been renovated keeping their ornate facades.  The stained glass windows in the old tower depict events in Jaffa’s history.  Jaffa is one of the oldest ports in the world.  The Bible says the cedars used in the construction of the Temple passed through Jaffa on their way to Jerusalem; the prophet Jonah set off from Jaffa before being swallowed by the whale; and St. Peter raised Tabitha from the dead here.  The walls have been torn down by many including Napoleon.  Today, Jaffa is a mosaic of Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Now for a section for Justin – the revival of Hebrew.  For the last couple of thousand years, Hebrew was only used in the Bible, holy texts and in synagogues – not in conversation.  (Similar to speaking Latin in Rome, today.)  In the 19^th century, when Jewish people began to return to Israel, they spoke different languages or dialects.  Eliezer Ben Yehuda, a Lithuanian Jew born in 1858, took on the task of making this biblical language a tool that would enable all the Jewish people to communicate with each other.  He updated the language while simultaneously spreading it among his peers.  Today, there are approximately seven million Hebrew speakers worldwide.

Tomorrow we leave for a week in the north.  Shalom.