Kol Rina looks out over the Ari towards Meron

Recently a new structure appeared on the stairs leading down from the Old City to Meor Chaim. It's a new Beit Midrash (house of study). The sign says that on the premises there is Torah learning, an institute for (learning for) bar mitzvah and chazanut (cantorial duties), "shirat habakashot", which I would loosely translate at poetry of supplication, and various study groups of Jewish heritage.






Looking up a bit, you see this open door structure that is labeled "Across from Rashbi Beit Midrash Kol Rina V'yishua". The voice of joy and redemption. It sits a top a hill overlooking the cemetary towards Meron, thus the allusion to Rashbi.
Ah, such a view from the Beit Midrash!

But what's that in the right hand corner of the picture? Garbage?











Alas, as with many construction projects in Tsfat, this one has yet to clean up the resulting pile of rubble, refuse, and general dirt that resulted from the building.

Hopefully they will, so that it looks as lovely from the outside as I'm sure it does to look out from the inside.

Tel Hatzor nearby

On Monday of Chol Hamoed, we went to Tel Hatzor. I've been wanting to go for over a year. There was an article last summer in the Shmurat HaTeva publication "BaShvil HaAretz" about the dig which sounded very interesting. We went on a day when there were guided tours. Definitely made the day. The kids again really enjoyed hearing all about how the Israelites entered the Land, and see signs of our history from then until the times of King Ahab. Quite impressive water works, a palace, and other interesting remains. There was also a mud brick making activity for the kids. Weather was great, with a fierce wind picking up on the late afternoon. I used my Photoshop Elements to try out some panoramic pastes. Since I didn't use a tripod, the fits aren't exact. But you get the "picture" of how lovely the views are.

This is a view from the western prominent citadel north towards part of the "lower city" which has not been much excavated. To the right of the hill is a major "dent" in the slope, part of a temple.





I just had to share this picture of the most amazing looking beetle we saw while there. I took pictures of three bugs while we were there. One is this green and gold cousin of the cockroach. Another was a water beetle we saw on the descent to the water works (9 stories deep in the earth). The other was a nasty spider that the Nature Reserve volunteer said sucked blood and was only mildly poisonous.



This is the view from "area G" when you first go up on the Tel. The view at the left most is looking north and a little west to the Naftali mountains. My the right most, you are looking toward the Golan Heights.

Meiri Musem Safed

On the first day of Chol Hamoed we went to the Meiri Musem for a tour. There was a nice guide who had done a Master's thesis on Tsfat. The museum is full of interesting old Tsfat collectibles, facts, documents, pictures, and more. Highly recommended.

It also fit in the budget really well. 18 NIS per adult and 8 NIS per child. It was a touch rainy, so no major outings seemed appropriate.

Our kids 9 and 11 were the perfect age for the museum. They've had enough history background to enjoy it, and listened carefully to the guide.
















This is a view of a "house for 8" that is made of typical Tsfat houswares of old.







This is a sweet display of wooden walking sticks of "Ziknei Tsfat", the Elders of Tsfat. The hall is dedicated to that mythical creature, the elderly sages of Safed. Only all the biographical material is real.

Cloudy Spring Days over the Galilee

When you look south of Safed, you look out over rolling hills that look like waves in the distance. The clouds add even more of a wave appearance some days. The word "Galilee" is "galil" in Hebrew, and is related to the word "gal", or wave.

Right now the hills are a lovely green, and the cloudy grey skies bring out all the different variations of green.

I took this picture as two pictures and played with the panoramic scene setting in my Photoshop Elements. That was fun! I own Elements because it costs 1/10 of the price of the full Photoshop, and suits my needs for almost everything. It's a lot of fun.