Written by Paul Finkelstein '13
Greetings from the holy city of Tzfat! Tzfat is the burial place of Ha’Ari, or Rabbi Isaac Luria who founded contemporary Kabbalah, making it one of four holy cities in Israel (the others being Jerusalm, Hevron, and Tiberias where we were two night ago).
We have been told since we began our journey in Israel that rain is considered a blessing in this part of the world. If that is the case, then today was the most blessed day of my life. After about an hour of driving through the rain, Shimshon, our amazing bus driver, deftly maneuvered our bus up a mountain to the city of Tzfat.
We began our day at the art gallery of Avraham Loewenthal. Avraham was originally Robert from Detroit, but made Aliyah to Israel after becoming infatuated with Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. He spoke to us about the Kabbalah for about 20 minutes. Kabbalists believe this life is temporary and tries to explain man’s urge in the finite world to experience as much enjoyment as possible. Avraham spoke of his spiritual journey to discover the “bliss” of Kabbalah. According to him, we cannot even begin to understand the miracles that we experience on a daily basis. Our journey through Israel is just one of those miracles. Avaraham’s artwork was beautiful and each piece has some significance to Kaballah. I am sure many of you will have the opportunity to view his art in person as many of us patronized Avaraham’s gallery.
By foot, we wove through the old cobblestone streets of Tzfat, which were quickly becoming more like waterways than roads as the rain continued to pound us. We made our way to two synagogues where we listened to Rabbi Gray speak about Kabbalah and its relevance in the intellectual Chabad movement and the broader world of Chasidism. In addition to having a chance to dry off and enjoy stories from Rabbi Gray and our tour guide Daniel, we also got to see some of the beautiful architecture in these old synagogues. The color blue was featured prominently throughout, as it is the unofficial color of Tzfat.
Our next stop was Safed Candles, where we learned about how to make candles and the significance of the different numbers of braids in each candle. Once again, many of us will be bringing home candles and will be able to explain their respective meanings to you (Hi, mom!).
We then split up the males and females for our final major event in Tzfat concerning mikvahs, or ritual baths. The girls went to a museum featuring a 500 year old mikvah and had a discussion about their purpose and merits. The boys went to the working mikvah, which was only allowed to be used by males. We climbed down the stairs of Tzfat to the mikvah, which was the same one used by Ha’Ari. By this point we were already soaked from the rain as our jackets and umbrellas were futile, but the final 60 stairs or so had completely flooded. We were no longer walking to the mikvah, but rather wading through a raging river.
Many of us were hesitant to use the mikvah, but in the end 12 of us decided to take part. This particular mikvah was a cave carved into the hills of Tzfat. We each gave a 10 shekel donation and received a towel. We entered the first room, which was a locker room of sorts. We all disrobed down to our birthday suits and continued to the next room which is where the actual bath was located. Carved into the ground, it was just about the size of a Jacuzzi. One of the locals coached us through the process. One-by-one, we entered and dunked our heads below the water seven times. As I waited, the anticipation grew. When my time came to step in, the water was startlingly cold as I watched it flow in from an underground spring. I took a big breath and plunged my head below the water. It was so cold that I found it extremely difficult to breathe every time I surfaced and I nearly lost count as I attempted to count to seven in Hebrew.
It is said that men are to partake in mikvahs to regain spiritual purity or to achieve rebirth. As we dried off in the “locker room,” redressed, and then went outside to drink hot tea, the surreality of the situation hit me. We looked out over the valley below us with rainwater streaming down from almost every direction. There were miracles all around us and this holy city, the home of Kabbalah, opened my eyes to appreciate that. I look forward to our coming days in Israel, but this one will be hard to top.