Getting there was an adventure. Luckily, a guy from Birthright was doing the Livnot trip as well. The night before we were supposed to arrive, we haphazardly decided we would meet at 11 am the next morning at the hostel and be on our way. Well. Eleven am came and Brandon was not there. I found out he was still sleeping off the effects of the night before! He woke up in a few minutes, got dressed, and we were on our way. We got to the Tel Aviv bus station and the told us to take the 1:30 bus from Tel Aviv to "Ohimini" and then from there, take a bus to Tzfat. We got on the right bus but could not for the life of us remember the name of the town we were supposed to get off in. I thought it sounded like "Rasputin" or "Rasmeena" or "Ohimini" so we asked people on the bus if they knew what we were talking about. No one did- not even the Israeli soldier who worked in the north! Finally, a girl on the bus said, "I think you want 'Rosh Pina.'" The Israeli soldier's eyes widened and he started laughing. "Rosh PINA! Of COURSE!" We got off the bus and saw a sign that said "Welcome to ROSH PINA" and then we felt dumb at not having been able to remember it. But Hebrew words, when you hear them and can't see them written down, are HARD to remember!
We hailed a taxi to Tzfat, and after lugging our suitcases through the rain, finally found the place we were supposed to be staying at. I immediately felt at ease. The madricha, or leader, gave us hot coffee and tea and warmly asked us how we were doing. We met the 6 other people in our group and I knew it was going to be a good week.
A good week it was. Tzfat is one of the four holy cities in Israel. It is the city of air, or mysticism. Because of this, it is situated in the mountains in the north of the country and when you look up at the mountains, you can see tufts of white clouds around them. You feel kind of light and airy in the town, which reminded me of a medieval Spanish town filled with exclusively Hasidic Jews. There are no bars; no one is on the streets after 10. It is filled with very religious Jews, their families, and...Livnot. Many artists come to the town and open up painting shops, pottery shops, weaving shops. Many eccentric Kabbalah worshippers come to the town to live, as it is the birthplace of the Kabbalah. I met a hippie couple from Berkely who were living in Tzfat for the Kabbalah.
During the week, we did a lot of awesome things.
We volunteered with Ethiopian kids in a school (fun fact: Israel has 100,000 Ethiopian Jews.) They spoke Amharic and Hebrew, I spoke English. Still, we played incessant tag with them, played songs with them on the guitar, and twirled them when they asked. They couldnt pronounce "Andrea" so they called me "injera" which is the name of Ethiopian bread. They also asked three of our girls if BJ was their "boyfriend." They were really into us dating him!
We went on an amazing day-long hike in the Golan Heights. We saw vultures encircling us overhead and visited the lost city of Gamla.
Gamla was an ancient, millenia old Jewish city that was destroyed by the Romans in 68 AD. It remained virtually lost and forgotten about until around 1970. You can still see the ancient walls and the spot where the Romans' battering ram destroyed the city's fortifications.
We also were given ample time to explore the city. We visited a market, where I a new fruit I had never heard of before: a persimmon. (
We became a part of the town for a week, visiting the Yemenite pizza man, the beautiful pottery shops around the village, and getting lost in the city's ancient streets.
Here are some pictures of Tzfat:
One of the most powerful parts of the week was the emphasis on spirtuality. The group was made up of all different types of Jews. We had a Hasidic leader, Eli (whose adorable toddler Zevi was our constant playmate); we had Orthodox madricha; we had conservative, reform, and secular Jews in our mix. It provoked some really thought provoking conversations, such as
-what is the role of Jews in the world?
-will our grandchildren be Jewish?
-how should we treat the Palestinians?
One thing I wanted to address was Israel's culture of denial when it comes to examining human rights abuses in the Occupied Territories. I was always given really brisk responses, such as "if the people in Gaza wanted peace they would get their act together," or "the Israeli military is hated no matter what they do." It frustrated me that there seems to be a very low level of tolerance among many Israelis for people in the Occupied Territories.
Besides that, the trip was a good time. We had the BEST Shabbat I've had in Israel. We went out to the balcony as the sun was setting over the mountains and sang songs and danced together (women with women, men with men). Then, we had a giant feast for Shabbat. Alumni of Livnot (it has been going on since the 70s!) came by for Shabbat so we had a group of about 50. We drank Israeli malt liquor (beer without alcohol, ew!!), ate the food that our group had spent the last DAY making. We had even breaded our own challah for the Shabbat! Everything was delicious, we spent hours talking, and everyone had a good time. During Shabbat, we werent allowed to turn lights on or off, because of a rule that says that you can't "start a fire" on Shabbat. No computers, Skype, lights, cooking, heating up water, nothing. The next day, we ate lunch at different peoples houses. I ate with our leader, Eli, his wife, Shoshi, their two friends, and their little son. Although I didn't know the prayers or the customs, they were so respectful and engaging. That night, we celebrated the end of Shabbat with the Havdallah. We went to a schul (temple) that was divided into the men's side and the women's side. On each side, people were DANCING. I mean mosh pit, all out, dancing. We grabbed each other's hands and spun around and around and around. We twirled and spun and jumped. I felt so united to everyone, so powerful, so proud to be a woman in that moment. We left soaked from sweat but euphoric.
In retrospect, I can't say the trip motivated me to be a religious Jew. It did motivate me to look deeper into what I want for myself, and to talk to people of different faiths with an open mind. I was always under the impression that Orthodox girls got married very early and couldn't work, yet I befriended two smart, funny Orthodox girls and found out that they were just like me. I definately hope to keep in touch with the people I met on the trip. I will always remember our incessant singing of Disney songs, the constant laughter, and the good times we had. Also one of our madricha, who is 20, just got ENGAGED so hopefully, we will all see each other soon.
