Wednesday February 20

Exploring Spirituality, Belonging and our Family story in Tzfat
By Andrea Shapiro

Today approximate 35 women got on a bus together and traveled a windy mountain road to go on an adventure to the mystical city of Tzfat. Tzfat or צפת is the highest city in the Galilee. To get there from Haifa took a little over an hour with a few stops in between. One of the things I have been reminded of in these last 2 days is that the Israeli educators we are connected with are warm, welcoming and always have food at the ready. On the way to the city, we stopped at a rest stop-more like a dirt parking lot, next to Meron mountain, where we officially introduced ourselves and had some tea with nana and cookies, and cakes, and fruits and so many other things.

Getting to know each other over coffee and cake near Meron mountain.

Elana baked Ethiopian bread for us!

Brigitte baked something yummy for us!

When arriving in Tzfat we met our tour guide David, an incredibly enthusiastic man who wanted to share all about his city of Tzfat. About two thirds of the way through the tour I found out we were on a “singing tour” of Tzfat-which explained all the random stops for songs.

One of my two favorite parts of visiting this incredibly old city was when we got to go into the Ashkenazi Ari Synagogue which was built by Sephardic immigrants from Greece in the mid 16th century. The story we heard was that a rabbi used to pray in the shul on the sabbath eve and then go with his followers to a nearby field to welcome in the Shabbat bride. Two very well known Shabbat songs “L’cha Dodi” and “Shalom Aleichem” were written in Tzfat. We sat inside and outside the shul today and sang these songs arm in arm with our Israeli colleagues. David told us that every person who visits Tzfat leaves the city and is followed by two angels. I got goosebumps and had this warm feeling like I would be leaving the city with something special. While inside the synagogue we were shown Elijah's chair, a special place of honor to sit. He invited all the single women to sit in the chair, and said that anyone who sits in the chair will find a new husband within a year...we will check back then!

Singing Lecha Dodi and other songs written in Tzfat.

My other favorite part was walking around the city and seeing all the blue doors. Tzfat is known for their doors and every single one is different. They each have their own character and defining look. Every alley you turned down, every set of stairs we walked up there there was another door to greet us. This was a day where I learned more about Israel, more about myself and more about my chaverim.