The Beauty of the Numbers
The mystics found inspiration in the mountaintop view from Tsfat. Tsfat is the home of Kabbalah, but it is also the home of Jewish Law. Both Rabbi Isaac Luria, one of the early teachers of Kabbalah, and Rabbi Yosef Caro, editor of the Shulhan Arukh, a major Jewish legal tome, lived and worked in Tsfat. Even today, the hillside neighborhoods of Tsfat inspire spirituality and creativity and our travelers enjoyed their visit there today immensely. http://www.safed.co.il/
The ancient synagogues of Tsfat have blue-painted ceilings, as if to bring the sky indoors. Throughout the city, bright blue paint evokes a sense of heaven on earth. In the modern era, artists have flocked to Tsfat. For our group, this meant two important opportunities: visits to the shops and galleries in the narrow streets and a meeting with one of Tsfat's reknowned artists.
David Friedman (http://www.kosmic-kabbalah.com/pages/artist_kabbalah_art.htm) brings the spiritual and the earthly together in Tsfat through his artwork. Our travelers were thrilled to meet him and hear about the inspiration in his artwork. There is much math and geometry in the constructs that he uses. In the question and answer session, one participant was heard to remark, "That's 2 to the 50th power!" While his comment left many of our staff in the dark, Friedman's face lit up and confirmed the accuracy of the remark.
Our travelers are still marveling at the delicious and abundant food, but they are doing much more than eating. Today they examined a Sephardi Torah, noting that it stands vertically on the table in a circular case, unlike the flat-lying Torah to which we are all accustomed. Each morning, as part of Shaharit (the morning service), participants learn a bit more about the Jewish concept of prayer and the words we use as a community to communicate with God.
This evening, our soldiers provided the group with a taste of basic training, teaching them how to march and to line up in formation. Although the challenge of learning these new skills brought a smile to everyone's lips, the group was equally interested in hearing about their new friends' day to day lives in the army and getting a sense of what it means to be a young adult in Israel.
Tonight they are snugly settled into the guest houses at Nofei Gonen (http://www.zimmer.co.il/galil_lang.asp?Site_ID=1652&lang=1&page_id=8450), where they can see out over the Galilee.
Though there are showers as they sleep, tomorrow promises to be another dry and pleasant day, with temperatures in the low 60s. They spend the day exploring nature and politics and will surely have many stories to tell.
Wishing you a pleasant evening.
Rabbi Elyse Winick
