The most beautiful places in Safed: a trip to the "Blue City" in the Galilee

The capital of the Galilee, aka Safed, is sanctified for the holidays of Tishrei and especially for Yom Kippur, so get an offer for a tour of the alleys of the Jewish quarter in the city, accompanied by the smells of Jewish cuisine, a Hasidic singer and lots of shofar blowing in preparation for the terrible and holy day

Gil Brenner

03/10/2022

Monday, 03 October 2022, 07:54 Updated: 08:11

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share by email

• Share in general

• Comments

  Comments

Safed at night from a drone (Safed Municipality)

Safed is sanctified for the holidays of Tishrei and the next Yom Kippur.

A tour of the alleys of the Jewish quarter in the city is accompanied by the smells of Jewish cuisine, a Hasidic singer with all his soul and lots of shofar blowing, in preparation for the terrible and holy day.

We will start our tours on Jerusalem Street, we will go down to Bar Yohai Street, we will walk through the cobbled stone alleys, we will look past yards and houses celebrating the Tishrei holidays.

We will pass by the workshop of David Friedman, the "painter of Kabbalah", we will meet with the artist who will tell about his work in the spirit of Kabbalah.

We will tour his special workshop and with David's help we will fall to higher realms where spirituality, practical Kabbalah and art meet.

To coordinate a visit: 04-6972702.

We will go out to the street and there we will see the alley of stairs, probably the narrowest in the world with a width of 1.10 meters.

The alley passes under the balcony of "Grandma Yochaved", who used to bring out every morning a small folding table with a cup of tea and a biscuit on it as a refreshment for the Messiah, who would ascend from Nahal Amud to the Safed alleys.

"Grandma Yochaved" has already passed away and Messiah has not come, but we can still wait for him on his way from Nahal Amud, and read what is written on the explanatory sign.

Safed the Blue (Photo: surfers' photos, Gil Brenner)

An alley near the Abuhav Synagogue in Safed (Photo: Ziv Reinstein, Ziv Reinstein)

It seems to be the narrowest in the world with a width of 1.10 meters.

Messiah Alley (photo: Surfers' Photos, Gil Brenner)

"Grandma Yochaved" would bring out a small table with a cup of tea and a biscuit on it as a refreshment for Christ (photo: Golishim photos, Gil Brenner)

The only synagogue in the world without a mezuzah

We will continue on Bar Yohai Street and reach the Maginim Square, or what was formerly called the "Coal Makers' Square."

Let's take a look at the Terpat Alley, from where the rioters came in the events of 1929 and murdered 17 of the city's Jews in cold blood. We will tell the wonderful story of Seidel ben Shochat, who with great faith in his heart stood alone in April 1948 in front of a mob of armed Arabs, who threatened to break through the Terpat Alley and kill in the Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter.

After that, we will walk to a paved square called "Kaddishin apple field", here in 1569 Rabbi Shlomo Elkabetz HaLevi, a student of the holy Ari, sang the tune "Lacha Dodi" which became the Shabbat tune in every Jewish home. Toward the synagogue of the Ashkenazi Ari. On the side of the stairs is a stone with the names of three benefactors engraved on it, who were involved in renovating the synagogue after the earthquake of 1837. The benefactors are memorialized in the first stone that was placed there, during the renovation work of the synagogue.

We will go down the stairs to the synagogue of the Ari Ashkenazi, stand in front of the door of the only synagogue in the world without a mezuzah and see the sign engraved in stone "How terrible is this place...". We will visit the synagogue of the Ari Ashkenazi, hear the story of Aron The Holy One who carved a bowler from an olive tree for about 14 years and we see Moses who turned into a lion.

The Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue (Photo: Surfers Photos, Gil Brenner)

The stone that was placed during the restoration of the synagogue of the Ari Ashkenazi, after the earthquake of 1837 (Photo: Surfers Photos, Gil Brenner)

Became a Shabbat tune in every Jewish home.

"Lacha Dodi" in the streets of Safed (photo: surfers' photos, Gil Brenner)

Moses turned into a lion.

The Holy Ari's Tomb in Safed (Photo: ShutterStock)

The rabbi who predicted the earthquake

We went down to the synagogue of the Jewish community of Kassov (Kosov) and to the synagogue of Rabbi Dov Bar Mavritch, who foresaw the earthquake in Safed on January 1, 1837, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and thanks to him his students were saved from the disaster and were not injured.

We will continue along the cobbled stone alley on Rabbi Yosef Karo Street, we will pass between Mizfat souvenir shops, in one of them in the 60s of the last century there was the shop of Shalom Moskovitch, the "Zeiger Macher" (watch repairer), a Tsunami watchmaker who painted naive paintings, in which Bible stories.

We will reach the synagogue named after Rabbi Yosef Karo, which according to tradition was the seminary of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of Shulchan Aruch.

In the synagogue there is an ancient book from the 16th century and according to tradition it was the main place for Halacha studies at that time.

Here was Yosef Karo's Beit Midrash, where about 200 scholars studied, dealing with the revealed and hidden Torah.

Below the floor of the synagogue, there is a small courtyard with a residence in one of its rooms is the "Cave of the Magid", where, according to tradition, Caro wrote his books "Shulchan Aruch" and "Magid Mishri" in a small cellar located in the courtyard.

Behind a blue door, Bat Kol would appear to him - this is the Maggid who would appear and teach Torah every night.

Here, behind the blue door, the book "Kitzur Shulchan Aruch" was written for 14 years.

This is the place to tell the miracle of Pech Hashem and Maggid Mzfat.

Thanks to the rabbi of the community, his students were saved from the disaster.

The synagogue of the Jews of Kassov (photo: surfer photos, Gil Brenner)

One of the paintings of the naive Bible stories by the painter Moskovitch (photo: Surfers Photos, Gil Brenner)

An alley leading to Rabbi Yosef Karo's synagogue (Photo: Surfer Photos, Gil Brenner)

The door leading to the Magid Cave.

Rabbi Yosef Karo sat behind this door for 14 years and wrote "Kitzur Shulchan Aruch" (Photo: Surfer Photos, Gil Brenner)

"Owner of complete faith"

We will go down the stairs towards Elsheich Alley and arrive at the synagogue of Rabbi Moshe Elsheich - "The One Who Has the Whole Faith" - where he prayed and studied.

The synagogue keeps a large number of ancient Torah scrolls, some of which are about a thousand years old.

We will continue our march along Elsheich Alley and reach the synagogue of Rabbi Yitzchak Abuav, owner of the Holy Torah Book of Toledo.

This is a book that was written in sanctity and purity by the hands of Rabbi Yitzhak Abuab during the 15th century AD in Toledo, Spain, and arrived in Safed with the deportees from Spain in the 16th century.

The Abuhav Synagogue from the 16th century was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1837. After the renovation in 1838, Abuhav's Sefer Torah was transferred to the synagogue and today there are two ancient and holy Torah scrolls in it.

One was written by Rabbi Yitzchak Abuhav himself and has survived to this day, and the other was written by Rabbi Suleiman Ohana - a resident of the Ari. Both books can be read only three times a year on the sign of Kosher - Kippur, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah - and may be read from them the Torah only married men who were baptized ahead of time.

Abuhav Synagogue in Safed (Photo: ShutterStock)

An alley leading to the Elsheikh Synagogue and to the Abuav Synagogue (photo: Surfers' Photos, Gil Brenner)

Entrance gate to a courtyard in the old Jewish quarter in Safed.

The color blue dominates (photo: surfers' photos, Gil Brenner)

The white righteous man who turned black chickens into white ones

We will walk through the alleys according to the stories of Yehoshua Bar Yosef, we will meet Hasidic wearing black, Kabbalists wearing white and Satmar Hasidic in striped kapotas and streimels.

We will continue to walk in the alleys and we will see followers who are waiting with all their might for the Messiah and a gleam in their eyes.

We will recount the wonders of Abuhab

's Torah book, the story of a righteous white man who turned black chickens into white ones on the eve of Yom Kippur, and the stories of the Jewish Rabbi who climbs the Kabbalah steps and holds conversations with the angels of heaven.

The traditional procession to the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Miron.

The Jewish Quarter in Safed (Photo: ShutterStock)

The Jewish Quarter in Safed (Photo: ShutterStock)

Gil Brenner in Safed (photo: surfers' photos, Gil Brenner)

Gil Brenner is a guide following the stories of Hassidim and the Jewish soul in Safed.

052-2692631.

.

• tourism

• Trips in the country

• Trips in the north

Tags

• Zefat

• apologies

• Yom Kippur