Leaving Jerusalem.
Weather becoming questionable as we head north.
By the time we were nearing Tsfat, this was the extent of visibility through the thick mist and rain, that persisted until nightfall.
Finally at Ascent, I could breath and dry off and gather myself. Having missed the early bus, I was too late for the afternoon activity of the women visiting some of the holy kevers (graves) while the men went to the mikve (ritual baths), and had a couple hours until the next scheduled activity. I dragged my things up the stairs and to my room, which was my lucky number - 23!
View from the 2nd floor of Ascent, where my room was, out over some of Tsfat.
My room, and the balcony just outside of it with the view over the valley, invisible in the mist.
The rest of this entry will be entirely text, as I took no more pictures before sundown, at which point I had a successfully 100% observed Shabbas, using no electronics, following all the rules of the Sabbath. I should reiterate again for those who may not have seen it snuck into the countless blogs I've made about this trip at this point: I am not a religious individual, and do not consider myself to follow any particular religious doctrine. However, as a half-Jew in the holy land, I wanted to immerse myself in as many diverse experiences as possible, and because religion is so tied to Jewish culture and heritage, it's difficult to draw a line, and it wasn't a line I wanted drawn. I went to Tsfat to fully immerse myself in the mystical city, one of the four holiest cities in the holy land, the birthplace of Kaballah and Jewish mysticism, to hear rabbis speak and feel the magical energy in the air and learn and absorb as much Torah and Jewish thought I could. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made, because I will definitely never ever forget my Tsfat experience. Just keep in mind that as I explain my experiences and describe certain activities, I do so to explain why we were doing it according to what I was learning about Jewish law and practice, not necessarily from any firmly held religious belief in the specific activities.
That being said, I can tell you about the rest of the evening. After drying off and changing into appropriate Shabbas attire (long dress and sleeves covering elbows), I went to a lecture on Jewish thought, where I learned some interesting basic tenants of Judaism and Jewish thought on basic fundamental aspects of life such as marriage, intimacy, children, generational relations/interactions, etc. The talk went right up until candlelighting time, so when it ended the women went to light the Shabbas candles. By this point I had learned the appropriate blessing, and was proud that I could do it without someone over my shoulder helping me with the words (for having never spoken Hebrew before this trip, this was an accomplishment).
After a little down time for prayer or any other personal time desired, we went as a group to a nearby schul for Shabbat services. This was a traditional shul in a religious city, so the men all entered the front door where the arc and beautiful decorations were, while the women climbed a flight of stairs on the side of the building to get to the gallery on the second floor, separated from sight by a screen. It was a bit of a drag, especially when the men got very spirited in their song and dance while the women just kind of stood around praying, but I was glad for the experience of what a typical religious Shabbat service in a holy place in Israel was like. (Explanation for the separation, super-shorthand: women as the bearers of life are inherently holy, while men are easily distracted, particularly by women; so men need the more spirited context of worship free of distraction. How this is accomplished is questionable, but the religious reasoning has some beautiful ideas behind it).
While up in the women's gallery, I ran into no less than three people I had met before coming to Tzfat - of all the shuls in the city, of all the cities in Israel, we were all in that one at that time on that Shabbas evening! One was a girl from the parallel Birthright group that had more or less the same itinerary as us, Mayanot 55; the other two were travelers I had met at the Heritage House in Jerusalem - Jazzy and Pauline, an L.A. native and a Frenchwoman who had been traveling holy places around the world together. They're two super rad girls, and I was excited to run into them again.
After services, it was time for us to be lead to our host families for Shabbas dinner. This was the first time we really met everyone participating in the Shabbat program at Ascent that weekend, but I will write about the new friends I made in another post, as we didn't have much interaction at this time. I was placed in the home of Yaacov and Simcha. In order to get to the home we walked quite a ways through the city, including many many stairs. It was worth it when our guide/counselor stopped to show us a beautiful view out over the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), only visible by the outlines of lights around the shores.
It was myself and another guest, Veronica, who were placed in this house for dinner. In addition to the two of us from Ascent, there were also three girls from the local midreshet (women's seminary) for women from non-religious families who wanted to become religious and set up Hasidic Jewish households. The family was comprised of Yaacov and Simcha, the patriarch and matriarch; a son, a pregnant daughter and her husband; a teenage daughter; and two small children. I learned a lot from this family over the course of dinner (which was incredible and delicious and I could not fit nearly as much food into me as I wanted to eat); how none of the children would ever serve in the military because they had religious exemption to study at yeshivas and midreshets (seminaries) after completing high school; about some basic parts of Jewish history Yaacov felt was important to tell the non-religious American guest; about the Hasidic connections between Judaism and music (one of the men at dinner was a composer); about the Messiach movement, of which this family was very actively involved (their English wasn't very strong and my Hebrew was non-existant, but I think they were trying to tell me they invented the flag that is currently the symbol of the movement, which is rooted in Chabad but not widely accepted) and of the belief that the Messiah was coming within the next 100 years or so. I can't even begin to sort out all the topics of conversation, but I tried my best to actively engage, learn Hebrew words, and to learn about their lives. The teenage daughter took a particular interest in talking to me, since our ages were closest but our lives so very different from each other.
The Messiach flag, worn by many ascribers to the movement as lapel pins and house decorations.
After dinner, I was walked back to Ascent by the midreshet girls, and was very actively engaged in conversation with the one that spoke the best English, who was very interested in my life and my journey. I didn't reveal to anyone in Tsfat that my mother wasn't Jewish besides the good friends I made that I will talk about over the next couple entries, but told everyone I met that I was raised without religion and that my Jewish family members had all married Christians and had Christian children and that I was the last one interested in maintaining a strong connection to my Judaism, which is all true. I learned a lot about the midreshet girl's life, including how she was raised in Tel Aviv (the secular center of Israel) and how it was difficult for her to visit home during her monthly weekend away from the seminary, because they did not keep the same level of observance as she did (they'd watch TV on Friday nights, and not keep the same level of Kosher so she couldn't eat anything), and about how long most girls stay in seminary (until marriage - which happened when the girls felt ready to set up their households according to Hasidic laws, and had dates arranged through a third party with men that had the same goal), which could be as little as a month or as much as several years.
Because I had no watch and was using no electronics, I had no idea what time it was until I saw the clock back at Ascent - it was 11:30! We had missed the last class by an hour and a half, having lost track of time at our host families, which was an incredible experience in and of itself. I went to bed that night fully satisfied and excited for the rest of Shabbat in the mystical city.
As always, I do not include all (or even close to all) of my photos
here in my blog. To see all my photos from my post-Birthright travels,
see my Flickr album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtashalocke/sets/72157628990457609/
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