Thursday, July 5, 2012 Mountain /tops 7 Mysticism!

Early breakfast then onto the bus to head for Zfat (Safed) also referred to as “The Mystical City”.  This was a very cool thing to do!  Roots of Kabbalah rituals and home to artists galore are here.  The ancient synagogue we visited actually has a hole ripped into the lecturn area of the Bimah when it was hit with mortar shrapnal during an actual service in session.  I had to make a donation to  them to utilzie a shawl to cover my elbows in order to enter.  It was very tiny…much tinier than I thought it would be.

Just down the alleyway from there was the Zfat Candle Company, filled with amazing candles.  I’m sure everyone who knows me thinks I bought tons of them!  But I was so hot–have I mentioned it’s very hot here in Israel?!!–I did not think candles were something I wanted to add to my already full luggage for take-home and worry about making it alright!  We did shop throughout the narrow courtyards and artists quarter.  And I did manage to spend a little money!!!  We ate there too.  I saw a sign that said “Birthright Special” with a lunch plate special for the students on Birthright trips to Israel!  The do know how to market here!

The alley leading into the artists quarter also had the narrow opening of narrow alley where it is said the Messiah will come upon return.  Of course I had my picture taken there!!!

Zfat was a very cool place and we could have spent much more time there. But then we wouldn’t have gotten to board our Jeeps for a drive along the pre-1967 Syrian strategic front lines overlooking farms and town of Northern Israel in the Golan Hts.  This was awe-inspiring, breath-taking, frightening and exciting all at the same time.  We learned so much from our guide(s) and drove through miles of gardens of tomatoes and pears and pomegranates, and many other fruits and vegetables all managed by a local Kibbutz.  But we also saw the DANGER LAND MINE signs and the reality of the controversial space we were inhabiting did not fail to hit home.  We also realized how important this piece of land is for Israel to keep.  The bus met up with us after our Jeep journey; we continued up north to  the top of Mt. Bental, up so high and filled with the remnants of left-over lava and the formations of rock and what all became of this land.  IT was so high up and we were able to see all of the Golan and the southern areas of Syria and really grasp just how close these borders are and what each does to maintain and protect them.

We went in an actual bunker which decends below ground and learned how a platoon of say 30 men occupy the 10 beds that may be in there by each being on 8 hour shifts of one thing or another so the bed is never empty.

After an incredibly full day we returned to uor hotel at the Kibbutz Nof Genosar, had dinner as a group at the hotel, and then it was time to head to our rooms to pack up for our journey into Jerusalem the next day!

For me, balancing the mysticism with the military and political needs of this fabulous place left my head realing.  There is so much attention to detail and environment in everything that is done; but there is also incredible detail to mange the protection and preservation of this great land.  I hope it never loses its independence as there is so much tolerated diversity here and people, unlike what we may believe at home, really do co-exist here.  Almost all the signs are in Hebrew, English and Arabic.  Customs and religious freedoms are respected and tolerated and treated with care all the way around.