My week in Tzfat

I decided to do a one week program in Tzfat through Livnot u'lhibanot - which means to build and to be rebuilt. The program concentrates on volunteering, learning about Judaism and doing some hiking. The group consisted of me, a bunch of Americans and a Jew from Glasgow, Scotland. My volunteering time was spent laying floor tiles in a bomb shelter, and helping out in an Etheopian absorpotion center - helping the kids with computers and playing soccer with them. The first day I got there on the Sunday was Holocaust Memorial Day, which always falls one week before Yom Hazikaron - Memorial Day for the IDF and those hwo have been killed defending Israel, and 8 days before Yom Ha'atzmaut - Independence Day. We attended a service set up by the community, which was very nice. It's a good thing I understand Hebrew otherwise it would have been lights out immediately for me.

One of the evenings we went into an old water cistern which was completely pitch black and had an awesome echo. We set up a bonfire and had a very awesome jam session which included a guitar, drum and violin.

We did 2 organized hikes with the group - one through nachal Amud and the second was to Bar Yochai. Both were very nice and very green. On Friday before shabbat, we head free time and I decided to go on a hike in the forests just south of Tzfat. The hike was nice, none of us had done the hike before so it was a nice adventure. We saw a bunch of cows, goats a turtle and even a funny looking something-or-other with a long tail (he was too fast for me to snap a picture of it. Once we finished the hike I decdied to continue on my way down into the nachal that we had hiked a few days earlier. I hiked the nachal for a few kilometers before I had to get back to Tzfat in time for shabbat.

The entire stay in the old city of Tzfat was quite unique and even moreso to be there for shabbat. Before heading back to Jerusalem on Sunday morning I booked my flight for a 12 day vacation in Italy in which I was to leave on the Thursday and have to be at the airport by Wednesday night - in 3.5 days!