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Israel Student Blog

Birthright Day 2

Friday, 16 December, 2011 - 8:18 am

Posted by TZFAT

Michael Klein D14 - Day 2 Tzfat

The best word to describe our first full day in Israel is spiritual. We traveled to Tzfat, one of the four holy cities in Israel (along with Jerusalem, Tiberius, and Hebron). This ancient city dates back several thousands of years, and is quite unique. As we learned here, the city was the home of the Kabbalah, and is known for its mystical intrigue. The city and its surroundings are characterized by blue domes marking the burials of influential Rabbis, including Rashbi, the author of the Zohar, the seminal work on Jewish mysticism. The blue, as we learned, is reminiscent of the blue dye that the Shema instructs use to use the tzitzit, and is part of the Tzfat mystic culture. Once in the city, we visited three synagogues which had once been home of the great mystics of Tzfat. It was exciting to learn about the history of the city, and how it fits into the greater context of Jewish history in Israel. One of the most exciting parts of our time in Tzfat was our trip to the mikveh. The guys went with Rabbi Gray to the mikveh at the bottom of the city. This ancient mikveh is situated in a cave, and is supposedly holds a special place in Judaism. The great Rabbi, the Ari-zl, once said that anyone who uses this mikveh will not die without repenting, allowing users to live a more fulfilling life. After the steep hike to get there, we then fully undressed and waited on a line to submerge ourselves. I signed up for Birthright because I expected a great bonding experience, but hadn’t quite envisioned bonding in this way. As I entered the mikveh, I found myself able to take my mind of the freezing temperature and focus to the idea that I was joining my ancestors in this ancient ritual. After submerging myself three times and exiting, I felt not only felt much warmer but also refreshed. The full group then went to visit the kabalist painter Avraham Leventhal. As he spoke about his connection with mysticism and Kabbalah, it was apparent that he was ‘high on Judaism’ and had found something spiritually that was special and life altering that had led him to make aliyah from Michigan. He explained his different works and the symbolism behind them. Avraham also talked about the significance of names and how they shape our destiny. It was clear this his passionate lecture moved students. After a tasty lunch of Falafel and Schwarma, he got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel to get ready for shabbas. Overall a spiritual and enlighting first full day here in Israel.

Comments on: Birthright Day 2
12/17/2011

Cindy wrote...

Incredible description of what must have been an amazing day. Good Shabbos. Thank you.
4/6/2012

Ilan wrote...

There is a great Sgulla connected with Mikvve- if you feel that you are bkleocd, or something goes wrong, or you need a break through, it is important to go to Mikvve, and to get in, then you talk to the Creator, you explain to him your problems, you ask Him for what you need and you immerse in to Mikvve 3 or7 or 10 or 18 or 26 or 40 times depends on time availeble.We don't exactly know how it works , but some ideas are, that the water of Mikve has a spiritual purufing effect on the spiritual body. We know that water contains information, and this information can be persived( there was a special technic in antient times for fortuentelling, japaness sienticts made a strong reseach on the topic of the water being able to hold information). So by praying and saying what you want and what bothers you and what you ask the Creator to correct in you or for you, you actually put information into the water. Now our body and brain actually mainly consist of liqueds so by immersing into informed water (you have to use force for the immersing completely) the informed water puts a pressure on your body on each cell( that is why it is important not to have any rings, or any other Mekhitzot on the body, and immerse completly with all the parts of the body including the hair at one time) and so push out the bkleocd places( negative energy, information), and as the freed place may not stay empty, the water inserts, through all the immersed cells of the body, the information which you have resently put in to the water, and this new information begins to play main role in your motivation. But remember that you should be very careful of what you ask, first think, then ask, then immerse. for the house, because we can't immerse it into the water, another way of substituting information is used- burning candles, if you feel that things are quete difficult or nervous in the surrounding just light a candle or more and ask the Creator to burn away all the negative energy from the house. jewish wemen lighten the candels on Shabboth, and it is so important, that even if a woman isn't at home,her husband should do it. One of the greatest protections from the negativity for each person, for the Israeli people and all the Creation, which as being Human we produce by lashon haRah and anger and so on, we had in the form of Mennora which shined in our Temple, and stood before the Koddesh Koddashim thus protecting our sins coming to the eyes and ears of the Creator, by burning them before they were exposed before the G-d by our friend that looks for fauls with the people. Another way of clearing our souls is through hearing Shoffar, its sounds pushes out all the negativity I have and when the Satan brings my file to the Judge and open it, there is nearly and nothing against me in that file, because by observing the mitzva of listenning to Shoffar all the negativity was cleaned. But the difference between water-Mikve, and fire-candle, and sound- Shoffar is that you may not try to clean yourself by fire, Shoffar isn't available all the year, But Mikve we may use as often as we only can manage. So as we see no mitzva is given to us for the intrest of the Creator, all the mitzvot are given to us for our own good, the fact that we don't know how it all excatly works, shouldn't stop us by observing them, if we want to be a positive part of the Creation and to be listed in the Book of Life. Kttiva veHattima Tova leKullam.
4/6/2012

denno wrote...

There is no way to get Rav Aryeh Kaplan books in Israel, so I had to ask to bring them to me from USA, it was worth asking and hlihgy recomended to read his works, they are very detailed on all the levels of PaRDeS, and a lot of new methods of understanding Torah are presented, I personaly liked very much his detailed explanation of the correlation of the written and oral Torahs, chapter What is Mikvah . One thing that I am not sure that is right to say is When a metal utensil is used for eating, this therefore represents man's highest mental faculties being employed to serve his animal nature. What Torah teaches us is the way of changing the animal nature into a human one and our highest mental faculties are used to make eating, sex, dressing, housing and relationship between the people to be elevated on the spiritual level and being employed to serve the spiritual needs. I was brought an essay called Kabbalah and the age of the Universe and I would say it is an intresting math explanation of 6000 years being able to mean 15 billion years. I was also brought a book To heal a fractured world by rabbi Jonathan Sacks and I think it is hlihgy recomented to read to each of us for the deeper understanding of several Kabbalah concepts, as well as for understanding our responsibilities for each our action done in this world.