It was back to being a rainy rainy day, and it took a while for me to convince myself to wake up... I was enjoying lying in my bunk, listening to the rain fall over the valley outside. I eventually got up and went out for breakfast/lunch in the old city.
My first stop was the Livnot office/campus - Livnot is a popular Birthright extension program in Tsfat. There is a 4-week option and a 1-week option, and it's highly subsidized (aka very cheap - $100 for an entire week of room, board, and programming). I went in to talk to them about potentially coming back that summer, and seeing if I could get a flight subsidized as well. It doesn't look likely I'll make it back to Israel this summer, but it's looking very likely I'll be back next summer, and this program would be a great one to get me in and out of the country easily (they're much easier on Jews doing Jew things when going through security).
There was a food I'd been wanting to try ever since we'd first encountered his shop on the Birthright afternoon excursion, and it was right across the walkway from Livnot, so after I finished my little meeting I went there. Here is what a travel website has to say about it:
"One of the most well-known food characters in all of Safed is Mr. Lachuch, the Yemenite pancake man of the Old City. Thousands upon thousands of visitors have stumbled across the pancake man on their visits to Safed and enjoying this simple Yemenite delight is a true Safed experience not to be missed."
Definitely click that link, there is a lot of cool stuff to know about Ronan and his little shop. This isn't a food blog so I'll stop writing so much about it, but it was one of my missions for the day to wrap up my Tsfat experience so I felt it was important enough to elaborate.
Ronan frying up some delicious Yemenite lachuch!
This "pancake" is a naan-like outer pancake fried on a skillet, filled with veggies, Yemenite spices, and cheese. Yum!
It was then time for my third mission of the day: find the infamous Tsfat cheese I'd seen signs for and been thinking about ever since my first visit to Tsfat on Birthright (for those who don't know me well, I am a cheese junkie). I'd gotten some in my lachuch, so I'd had a taste, but I still wanted to find this cheese shop. My Birthright group leader Yonit had said it was an adventure trying to find the place, with signs pointing in opposite directions and such, so I was excited to go explore and get a little lost, with the reward of some local cheese at the end.
Pretty Tsfat street in the rain.
One of the sneaky signs that may or may not have been pointing in the right direction, and some blue paint - when it's barely still on the stone, it's the old paint from the 1700's. Most of the buildings in the Old City are from the 1500s. Super cool place to be wandering around.
I actually found it without too much trouble. I kind of stood around awkwardly outside until the owner happened to come around the front from somewhere else and I followed him inside. Before I even bought any cheese, he invited me to sit at the table with his wife and drink some coffee in the loveliest little tea pot. He didn't speak much English, and his wife spoke none at all, but it was a pleasant time sitting there drinking coffee and trying to communicate about our families and lives. The cheese shop had been in the family for seven generations - these people were Tsfat born and bred (unlike a lot of the population of Israel who have come in the last hundred years from the Diaspora).
The outside of the cheese shop!
Delicious array of cheeses and grape leaves - I was very happy with my choices.
After selecting my cheeses, I thanked them for their hospitality and continued on to my last quest of the day: to wander the Tsfat cemetery. It's a very old, ancient cemetery, with graves 2,000 years old or possibly older, and many famous rabbis are buried there. It's considered an incredibly holy place. It was also insanely beautiful, especially with all the bright blue paint (the holy color in Judaism, and the color that sprinkles so much of Tsfat) on the holy kevers and the mist hanging over the valley. We didn't get to go to it while on Birthright, which would have been so much better because our rabbi could have told us about the different graves and stories associated with those great sages, but just feeling the spirituality of the place was a powerful experience in and of itself. I had it almost entirely to myself because of the weather.
Entering the cemetery.
Panorama video of an early vantage point looking out over the cemetery.
Pretty flowers.
I don't know why, I just thought this one was particularly beautiful.
I can't read Hebrew, so I wasn't sure whose tomb was whose, but I liked this one a lot.
Looking down at the Tsfat ancient cemetery, with bright blue paint scattered throughout.
Another big-deal famous kever... but again, I can't read Hebrew so I don't know whose.
Looking up at the mikve and at Tsfat, becoming hidden by mist.
Looking up at Kever Ari (the entire platform) - a very, very important figure, this tomb has an elaborate system of walkways and prayer spaces set up so that more organized prayer can take place.
At that point I was tired of being wet and just tired in general, so I went back to my now-empty room and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, watching videos on YouTube and starting to pack and planning my last day in Israel. At some point I was asked if I wished to attend another class, but I had had enough religion and spirituality packed in me the previous four days to last a century and needed a break so I declined.
I did get hungry though, so I ventured back out into the city at night to get some more shakshuka... it was so cold, shakshuka was the perfect warm dish to make me warm again.
Tsfat at night.
Messiach alley - here's what a nearby sign said: "A steep alley with stairs, the narrowest of all Safed's alleys, that has become famous in the city thanks to Yocheved Rosenthal, whose house stood at the bottom of the stairs. "Grandma Yocheved," as she was known to all, used to sit at the entrance to the alley in anticipation of the Messiah's arrival. The old lady, who outlived her entire family, believed that the Messiah would pass through Safed on his way to Jerusalem, and would surely enter the city via her alley."
Hoping to catch an early bus, I went to bed early - my last night sleeping in Israel! Next is my very last entry about my very last day in the holy land!
My deserted room at Ascent.
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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