Day 2: Tzfat & Kineret

The next morning, we were given a little bit of time to sleep in. When I woke up, I wandered over to the Kineret in the daylight. It was even more beautiful than I could have imagined in the dark the night before. When then drove up to Mount Meron. We were supposed to hike, but we ended up being driven most of the way and we hiked the last ten or so minutes. I was a little disappointed by the lack of hike, but it was fun and very cool to see the view emerge nonetheless. Up there, we talked about the Israel National Trail, which runs from north to south, along with the special prophetical story of Mount Meron. I didn’t really understand it in the moment, and I certainly don’t remember it now, but it’s something I’m sure you can look up easily. We then went to the “magical” city of Tzfat (צפת), which is one of the four holy cities, representing the element of air. The first thing we did there was walk down a limestone street and observe an alleyway. This alley is, according to myth, the location where The Messiah will eventually come. Apparently, in the 1800s, there was a lady who would sit in that alley every day with one glass of coffee and one glass of tea. When asked as to why, she said that she wasn’t sure which the Messiah would prefer, so she’d let him make the choice in the moment. We were supposed to take this as a moral—that we should not close options off until the means to make them have come to us. As we were having that story described to us, a guy came through with a bike and loud music. We all found it funny, and when we asked what he was up to, Omer said that he’s just there to lighten the mood of the streets!

Right across from this alleyway was the studio of the Kabala artist David Friedman. He explained to us the art and ideas of Kabala: the mystical branch of Judaism concerned with numerologies and hidden meanings. He began the speech with a painting of a tree with incomplete rings around its roots. He asked us whether the rings are connected or complete, to which our answers were no. He then asked us to focus on the negative space, and if we see complete and connected rings. The answer was naturally yes, and much of the audience was amazed (though I saw that coming from the previous question). He continued his talk mostly on the letters of א ,מ, and ש. The מ, standing for מאים, water, the ש for אש, fire, and the א standing for אויר, air. He instructed us to meditate, yada yada yada. Then showed us some of his art and explained to us the meaning behind it. How one of his pieces of Jewish art actually contained, by accident as he claims, elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and as some Muslim tourist pointed out, the Arabic word for Allah sideways in the יהוה, the focus of the painting. Then he went to explain numerology to us, which got the crowd excited in the moment, but looking back, he really had us in the palm of his hand. Just get ready for this explanation… Hebrew letters all have numbers associated with them, mostly based on their position of the alphabet. The ones that are necessary for this explanation are א‎ = 1, ה = 5, ו‎ = 6, י‎ = 10, מ‎ = 40, and ש = 300. When you take the name of G-d, יהוה, and add its numbers up, you get 10 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 26. If you consider these randomly chosen מאים, אש, and אויר, which were so perfectly represented by the letters מ ,ש, and א, and add up their numerical values, you get 400 + 30 + 1 = 431. Now, these numbers may appear completely different, BUT, if you add up the digits in each one, you get 8. 2 + 6 = 8 and 4 + 3 + 1 = 8. Because that makes sense… Honestly I’m struggling to see anything that would make both of these numbers summing up to 8 in this weird way meaningful or valuable, and I don’t think he ever really gave a clear answer to that either. But, hey, when you turn an 8 on its side, you get an infinity! Too bad that the Arabic numerals have only been around since the 800s CE at the earliest, and the infinity sign has only been around since the 1600s CE! But the real kicker, the real moment that made the whole audience gasp, was when he said arrange the numbers in 431 and add a decimal point. What do you get? Nothing but the first three digits of pi! 3.14! WOW! AMAZING! (forget about the fact how he used the second letter for fire and the first for the other two. That’s not relevant). It’s almost like if you change things into what you want them to be, they’ll be it! Anyways, we all walked out amazed and willing to buy some of his artwork. I happened to cave because I wanted something for my wall and I thought this would be a simultaneously funny and meaningful thing to get.

We were then walked through the city and set free for lunch. As we were walking around, we

came across a guy who said that he went on Birthright seven years ago, and never came back. When I got home, my parents said they were worried I’d do the same… I went with Solomon, this new friend Kevin, and two girls, Liv and Meghan. We became fast friends. The only downside was that they all go to IU, so they’ll all be able to see each other again, and I will not. But we enjoyed getting our delicious pomegranate juice and eating our first falafel together. We had a nice conversation, lamenting our woes and sharing our feelings, which we then dubbed “Feelings with Falafel.” This was the first of many lunches we shared together. Meghan is not an archeology student, but she spent this summer SCUBA diving around Greece, and is really knowledgeable and passionate about archeology and the ancient Mediterranean. Her input was often very much appreciated throughout the trip.

As we were eating, a rabbi came up to us and offered to offer us a small amount of d’var torah. We didn’t have much time, but we decided to hear it anyways. He described the miracle that we were all here together, and though we had just met each other, that it was amazing how close we already seemed and felt. He described that it was a miracle for us to be in Israel with such close friends, and a miracle that this experience has made its way into our lives. The message touched all of us, and served as a theme throughout the trip.

For the rest of our time in Tzfat, we walked through the artists’ market. I came into the trip really wanting to buy myself a chai necklace, and I was told by our leader from U-M, Allison, that Tzfat was the place to do it. Tzfat is the most artistic city we’d visit, and it is still one of the four holy cities of Judaism. As we entered the artist market, one shop towards the front really caught my eye. I went in, and the lady in there was overly helpful in helping me find the right chai for me. There were real big ones that were blobby, small ones that were crusted with jewels, and everything in between. We settled, after long deliberation, on one that was of medium size, and is filled partially by little circles attached to stems. Where there aren’t circles, it is empty. When I saw this one for the first time, I immediately took note, but continued to see all of them until I finally decided that this was the one I loved the most. The woman then found me an appropriate necklace to put it on, and she told me that it would cost ₪250, about $70, because it was Hanukkah. I’m not sure what an appropriate price would have been, but I was more than happy with it. I’ve worn the necklace every day since, and I plan to for a long time. We got a picture at the end because I wanted to thank and remember her for her help and generosity.

As we were leaving Tzfat, it started to pour. Like torrential rain. The bus had stopped about a 10-minute walk away from the end of the market, so we were all soaked by time we made it back to the bus.

From there we drove to this winery, as we were told. They are actually not a traditional winery, rather make a wide variety of fruit liqueurs. The first one they made was by accident, as they fermented their excess kiwi by keeping it stored for too long in the right conditions. It went on, after a few deliberate tries, to win kiwi wine competitions in New Zealand. At that point, they realized they had a business. The area is very fertile and can grow many kinds of fruits. The first two “wines” we tried were lychee and blackberry. The lychee was delicious and tasted like liquified lychee right off a tree. The blackberry was also good. The final one they gave us was from one of their only imported sources: dark chocolate. It was real creamy and thick, and I did not like it as much as the other two. They let us, of course, have the chance to buy more afterwards. I figure that this winery makes its business nowadays almost solely on Birthright participants, as Justin (the IU leader) said that this was his third time he’s been to this exact place, and there was another group coming in right as we were leaving. In addition to a bottle of cherry liqueur—I couldn’t not try it, being a Michigander—I bought a children’s book, telling a cute story about niqud, נקוד, the system of vowels that Hebrew uses to teach learners and kids. I’d been fascinated ever since I got to Israel with this topic, because I felt I had been lied to. I was told in Hebrew school that Hebrew doesn’t write vowels. But it totally does! Just not all the time. The word נקוד itself is an excellent example. We get the ו, telling us that there is indeed a “u” sound in that spot (though it could also be seen by a beginner as an “o”). Often a י is also added in a spot where there is an “i” sound to clarify, though the word נקוד doesn’t do that. I felt like if I had this book, I could try to understand better how the vowels work, just through observation; the whole book is written with niqud, and maybe I’d be able to latch onto some patterns if I spend some time just reading through it.

The evening was spent back at the hotel. We lit the chanukiot again in the hotel lobby. This time, we lit the large one, which was fun. We then had dinner. I had learned from the last night what to and what not to eat at this hotel, so I enjoyed dinner much more tonight. I had a few pieces of chicken schnitzel, the delicious baked potatoes, some green beans, and rice. And of course, for dessert, a (dry) sufganiyah.

After dinner, we had the first of a two-part series with Eyal Dror, a geopolitics expert and former high-ranking member of the IDF. He explained to us the complicated system between Israel and Palestine, and claimed to present us with the facts. Though I felt that he made his biases as pro-Israel obvious, he did a great job supporting his reasoning, and though I have always been pro-Israel and in support in the full extent of its borders, I now feel some power and logic behind that decision. I now feel that I’m in a point where I could support my beliefs in an argument. We covered a significant amount of history, which is pretty standard and I won’t go over. The first piece of new information that I learned about was the creation of areas A, B, and C. Area A is governed and controlled militarily by the Palestinian authority. These are the most populated areas of the West Bank, including the largest cities. Area B is less densely populated and is controlled politically by the Palestinians yet are protected militarily by the Israelis. Area C is mostly unpopulated desert, and is controlled completely by Israel. He then went on to talk about what this complicated joint-custody ensues in. Essentially, Israel sees all citizens of the West Bank as people they shall take care of, in a humanitarian way, not a political way. If a Palestinian is injured or is sick and needs medical care, they can make their way to an Israeli hospital—assuming, of course, the urgency of their condition allows it—to be treated with the same high-quality care and attention that a normal Israeli would receive. If a car accident happens in the West Bank close to the Israeli border, Israel will send a police force and EMTs to the site as well as the Palestinians, and whichever force arrives first will take charge of the situation until the other arrives. Then the situation can be further assessed. What I see here is that humanitarian, “good mensch” side of Israel that many people in the states willingly ignore. And I saw it as Eyal was talking, and he did even mention it himself later, that there is 100% an aspect of “we’re better than them” in this behavior. It’s certainly motivated by their desire to stand out among the Middle East as a beacon of modern civilization and technology in an otherwise “backward” area. A society that values human life and morals over jihad and violence. Something that I came to notice too, in these first few days, is the abundance of Arabic all over. It’s on street signs, busses, the no swimming sign outside our hotel, and in books and stores. I asked as to why, whether it was there for refugees or tourists, and he answered simply that it’s there because Arabic is a co-official language of Israel. It has to be there. That then raised the question of who is that co-official status meant to benefit, to which he had no good answer. That’s still something that I’m going to have to seek out. He began to tell us about his largest and proudest undertaking, operation Good Neighbor, but that is best saved to tell in tomorrow’s entry. We spent the night trying my cherry and Solomon’s strawberry liqueurs, with some of the Israelis around as well.