3/20/2011 - Purim in Tsfat

We got up early and had a lovely breakfast prepared by Benay on the courtyard table.  Thick, creamy cottage cheese (Gary is still not convinced), scrambled eggs, cheese, tomatoes, pomegranate juice, coffee, bread, butter and chocolate hamentashen.

Jeff then guided us on a tour through the historical sites of Tsfat.  The galleries are housed in the original Arab section of Tsfat and each building was previously someone's home.  Many of the buildings have courtyards in the center with a cistern in the center.  One gallery owned by Yaakov Hamud had paintings buy a local Tsfat artist, Rolly Schaffer, who recently died.  One of the paintings caught our eyes, but we continued on our tour.  We saw where Avraham Kaplan's studio (the double hey artist), lives but he was not open today so we'll have to go back tomorrow before leaving Tsfat.

We also saw where Daniel, a ceramic artist, works.  He chose to work only in clay because man came from clay.  Throughout the artists' section of Tsfat there are large pieces of ceramic art by a variety of artists.

As we walked along we noticed the manhole covers in Tsfat - quite beautiful and artistic.

Jeff took us by the Abuhav Shul, a Sephardic shul with three arks, one holds a Torah only read three ties a year - Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Shavuot - that is very kosher because as Rabbi Abuhav wrote the Torah when he got to the name of God he would stop and go to the Mikveh, dipping 26 times for the numerical value of yud (10)-hey (5)-vav (6)-hey (5) - normally a full parchment is written leaving the blanks and the sofer (scribe) goes to the Mikveh, dips 26 times and then returns to complete the blanks on this parchment.

Also, those who have opened the Torah aside from the three proscribed days have died soon after.

In regard to the Abuhav Shul, there is a story that there was a storm in Toledo, Spain and the Abuhav Shul came to Tsfat in that storm.  Rabbi Abuhav was from Toledo, Spain.  The Shul is now in Tsfat and there isn't a shul like it in Toledo, Spain.

We walked through the old city and saw many Purim revelers, including a group of Chassidim who took full advantage of the "blessed by Mordechai/cursed be Haman" measure of sobriety.  Even the youngsters in the group appeared to have imbibed.

As we walked through the city we saw examples of the lovely blue color that dominates the city and also carved limestone decorations on the buildings and signs from Tsfat.  In addition we saw examples of what Livot u'Lihibanot had done in Tsfat to rebuild some of the structures throughout the city.