I should explain, for anyone who has been wondering why I keep making reference to "our soldiers." Every Taglit trip (the umbrella organization for Birthright) has a certain formula: 40 Jews from the diaspora (outside Israel) receiving the gift of the free 10-day trip; Israeli support staff (tour guide, bus driver, security officer, etc.); other support staff (some trips like mine have a rabbi, etc.); and 8 Israeli soldiers for 5 days of the trip.
Every Israeli goes into mandatory army service upon completing high school (with some exemptions for the more religious, citizens living outside Israel, etc.) - men for 3 years, women for 2. That means that except for those who make it a career, soldiers in Israel are the same age as college students in the U.S. Some soldiers who have earned a reward for their performance/behavior in their service get to take a 5-day vacation and accompany a Taglit trip. The idea is for cultural exchange with closely-aged people of the two countries - making friendships, learning about each other, and having fun together.
So, we started day 3 by picking up our 8 soldiers: Tamar, Hadar, Roni, Talia (who joined a little later), Bar, Alon, Assaf, and Ariel. Here is a photo of Bar, the first one to board the bus:
Welcoming Bar on the bus
The first activity of the day, once we had all our soldiers on board, was to hike down Mt. Arbel. This mountain is known for its many cliff dwellings that Jewish rebels used to hide after the fall of the second temple (around 70AD), and for its view over the entire Galilee region. At one point the hike down turns into a steep cliff climb, with handholds and ropes to help you down... our guides forgot to warn us about it though, so there were over 40 kids freaking out in stages as suddenly the path disappeared in front of them. It was a scary but rewarding hike with awesome views.
Nice, gentle, flat pasture lands at the top
View from the peak - the Kinneret is just to the right of this shot
The start to the steeper part of the hike, but still no sign of the unbeknownst cliff we were to climb down.
The cliff - surprise! I'm the one farthest down in the white shirt. Photo courtesy of Rabbi Dov!
Me, Brittany, Jason, Shayna, and our new soldier friend Hadar, all warriors for making it down the cliff! The cliff in the previous picture is the wall on the right side of this photograph - as you can see, it gets better as you round the corner, where our fellow groupmembers are snaking their way down.
You can see some of the hiding caves across the valley in the rock.
Somehow, this is the only photo I have with a view of the Kinneret. It's that blue just around the corner peeking out.
17th century Druze palace built into the cliff
Hamaan, the Bedouin village at the base of Mt. Arbel. Just as we got to the bottom, the call to prayer went off - it was so cool, and helped really make me feel like I was in the Middle East.
After the hike, we were off to the mystical city of Safed. Safed has approximately ten million different spellings (I may be exaggerating, but only a little bit), so be warned, I may not be consistent with how I refer to it in this blog. Some possibilities are: Safed, Zafed, Zefat, Tzfat, Tsfat, Cfat, Sfat.
Zefat is one of the four holy Jewish cities in Israel - as I mentioned in a previous entry, Tiberias represents the element of water. Zefat is built on the top of the third highest mountain in Israel, so naurally, its element is air. Zefat is also the birthplace of Kabbalah, for anyone who has heard of that (Jewish mysticism - Madonna is way into it in that pseudo pop-culture kind of way). Almost everyone who lives there is Hasidic, it is a very holy and religious place, while at the same time being kind of lofty and artsy - there's a thriving artist colony there. The old city was build a few hundred years ago, and the entire vibe is so... fitting of the place, I suppose. Very holy, very mystical, very special.
We had free time for lunch and shopping, and while some of the boys went to the mikvah (ritual bath that makes you feel "reborn" - a regular thing for religious men to do, women typically only do it on big occasions like conversions or weddings... to learn more about this particular mikvah, which is particularly special, click here), Yonit took us through the artists' colony to the candle shop, where we were given a demonstration on how the famous Safed candles are handmade from beeswax. After that, Alex gave the entire group a walking tour, and because he used to live here (including during the Lebanon war), he pointed out many personal landmarks and added insight of what it was like to live here during that contentious time.
Avraham, a Kabbalah artist from Detroit who gave us a talk and showed us some of his art.
My first falafel in the middle east - and it was AMAZING.
The difference between Israeli and Diaspora dreidels - "a great miracle happened there/here"
A small vegetable garden outside the candle shop
Showing us how the infamous Safed candles are made
Candles in the middle of being made
Safed candle shop
Main stairs of Zefat
I don't know who this is, he wasn't with our group, but I thought it was a great shot.
View of the "Ari" mikvah and out across the valley
My favorite shot of Zefat.
Building still bearing bullet holes from the Lebanon war.
The narrow streets of Zefat.
Inside a small Ashkenazy synagogue our guide Alex studied in during his time in Sfat.
Alex telling us about some of the art in the synagogue / schule.
Alex recounting memories of the Lebanon war (the windows overlook the valley)
Sunset over Zefat
Hasidim jamming at sunset.
Iron star of David.
Fitting a group our size through these narrow streets is no easy task.
A schule Alex used to study in - we met the rabbi and he wished us all a wonderful wonderful Channukah.
A street Alex used to live on - isn't Zefat pretty at night?
As you can tell from the gratuitous amount of photos (and as usual, this isn't even all of them!), I absolutely fell in love with Tzfat. I knew I had to go back (which I did, after Birthright, at the verrry end of my trip - so I won't get to writing about that for a while). It is a very magical place.
[As always, I do not put every single picture I take into this blog. To see the entire album of photos I took while on Birthright, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtashalocke /sets/72157628872433827/ When I get to my extended, post-Birthright part of the trip, there will be a new album for those photos as well.]
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