Tsfat and Rosh Pina

A while ago a saw an Israeli film called 'HaSodot' which was rather a disappointment. I mention it now only because it was set in the town of Tsfat and it made it seem like an interesting place to wander about for a day. So, from Haifa, that's what I set out to do.

The bus ride there was twice as long as I expected and I couldn't have been more glad. We obviously took the scenic route, and scenic it was. For nearly two hours the bus wound its way through beautiful valleys with gently undulating hills covered in olive-trees on either side, then up onto the hills themselves, with spectactular views of more hills, valleys and the Sea of Galilee. The whole landscape was made radiant by the sun and, watching the world roll by, I was as happy as I'd been at any point since I'd arrived in Israel.

Tsfat is one of the four holy cities for the Jews in Israel. It is the centre of the Kabbalah and supposedly a deeply mystical place. In recent years it has been completely taken over by the ultra-orthodox. I had booked to stay at the Ascent Institute of Tsfat partly on account of it being very cheap, but also because it offers several classes a day which my guidebook recommended as being an interesting way of getting a sense of the place and meeting new people. More about that in a bit. I should mention that whenever I told any of my secular friends that I was heading to Tsfat, they all gave a concerned look and promptly recommended the nearby Rosh Pina instead.

On arrival in Tsfat I was blown away by the views from the city, in particular from the balcony at Ascent. They made me gasp out loud. I then met Tara (pronounced to rhyme with Sarah), with whom I was sharing a room and we hit it off immediately. She had also come to Israel with a Birthright group, from the States, and was also traveling afterwards. It was soon established that we have almost identical perspectives on religion, Israel and Jewish identity which, needless to say, turned out to be quite at odds with dominant views in Tsfat.

After walking together around Tsfat for an hour or so, I suggested that we check out Rosh Pina, which is just a short bus ride away. Thankfully, she was up for that, so we headed to the town, which is essentially just one street of pretty restored stone houses. There's also a cemetry on the side of the hill which seems to go up indefinitely and offers more spectacular views over the Upper Galilee region. The main attraction of Rosh Pina (at least as far as Tara and I were concerned) is a chocolate restaurant, where we indulged in hot spicy chocolate soup and other goodies before rolling back down the hill. It was dark by then. The sky was full of stars, the air was clean and we were happy.

Back in Tsfat we went to a class at the Ascent Institute which has to be the most bizarre, fascinating and frustrating experience of the trip so far. Also in the class was a very outspoken and enthusiastic man who had been studying Kabbalah for five years, a quieter chap who was something of a drifter and an Israeli guy who said almost nothing at all. The Rabbi tried to engage us in a discussion about what is meant by the words 'God said...' Unfortunately, he and the Kabbalah student, on the one side, and Tara and I on the others, were coming from such different starting points that real discussion was pretty much impossible. The Rabbi, for example, told us that 'The Torah is a guide for how to hang out with God'. He also thought that 'Do you think this chair created itself?' is a self-evident argument in favour of the existence of God. And, best of all, when Tara questioned his sense of what is 'natural', he replied, completely out of nowhere, 'I used to be on mushrooms too'. So, definitely bizarre and frustrating, but also a fascinating glimpse into a belief-system quite different than my own. The experience also made me think about what it means to learn, what constitutes an educational setting, and how, as students, we may or may not take the teachings of our teacher at face-value and what determines whether we do or don't.

The next morning, Tara and I were both heading for Jerusalem and, because there is no public transport in Israel on Shabbat, we needed to leave Tsfat on the 9:30am bus. Since I'd actually seen very little of the town since I arrived, we got up early in the morning to explore. Unfortunately, very little was open, except for a number of bakeries selling fresh-baked challah. It was a lovely walk but, by the time we got on the bus, I was not at all sad to leave.