Beautiful Mystic Safed

A visit to the beautiful city of Safed (Tsfat) - with its magnificent mountaintop setting and fresh, clean mountain air, is a heavenly experience.




The ancient Galilean city is the highest city in Israel, and commands a breathtaking view of the Galilee in the winter with its green mountains and the white snow-capped peak of Mount Herman



Safed is a picturesque city of spiritual people and artists, wrapped in mysticism and mystery, and steeped in sacred atmosphere. Visitors to Safed sense the city’s warm embrace as they wander through its alleyways past charming stone houses with their artists’ studios and workshops.

Safed is one of the four holy cities in Israel. It has been a spiritual center since the 1600s when it was the center of Kabbala (Jewish mysticism). The Kabbalist mystics lived, studied, taught, and wrote in the city and many of the graves are objects of veneration.



The ancient picturesque alleyways of the Jewish quarter contain hidden niches and beautiful synagogues whose rich past emanates from the high ceilings, colorful decorations, and ancient Torah scrolls.



The artists’ quarter is located in what was previously the Arab quarter of Safed. Artists reside and work in their studios in the ancient and magnificent houses, and their paintings and artifacts fill the display windows and can be viewed while walking through the narrow alleyways.



There are also exciting museums in Sefad that relate the city’s history, luxurious hotels that preserve its antique character, and a huge Crusader fortress. It also hosts numerous festivals that are rich in color and atmosphere.



To visit Safed - with the grapevines growing up the arbors of its stone houses, the decorated iron gates, the beautiful panorama that is visible from the verandas, and the winding cobblestone alleyways, is like strolling through a painting. It is a city for vacationers and tourists, a city of artists and rabbis, history and tradition.

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The Israel Museum

 The Israel Museum is a world-class museum and an outstanding example of modern Israeli architecture.

The most popular part of the Israel Museum is the Shrine of the Book, with its distinctive onion-shaped top. The roof was designed by American architects Kiesler and Bartos to resemble the jar covers in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947. Inside, a long, subtly lit passageway, designed to evoke the environment in which the scrolls were found, has a permanent exhibition on life in Qumran when the scrolls were written.



The main attraction of the Shrine of the Book is, of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves. Directly beneath the dome is an imposing showcase (shaped like a wooden Torah rod) containing a replic of the Great Isaiah Scroll (written c. 100 BC), comprised of 66 chapters on a 7 m (23 ft) long, sewn-together piece of parchment. This find was extremely important, as it is 1,000 years older than the oldest biblical manuscript available before.



Also on display from the Dead Sea find are the Psalms Scroll, the War Scroll, the Temple Scroll, the Manual of Discipline, and the 10th-century Aleppo Codex, which is not one of the Dead Sea Scrolls but the oldest complete Bible in Hebrew.



The lower level of the Shrine of the Book displays letters written by Simon Bar-Kokhba during the Second Jewish revolt and finds from Masada.



The Judaica Wing consists of religious objects from Jewish communities throughout the world, including manuscripts from Iran, Italy, and Poland. In one room, there are dozens of Hanukkah lamps (Hannukkiot), silver Torah ornaments, serving trays, and shofars. Other rooms contain a vast exhibit of costumes worn by Jews in the lands of the Diaspora and ritual articles connected with life events such as birth, circumcision and marriage.



Visitors can also explore a reconstructed 17th-century Italian synagogue as well as a German one from the 18th century. The recently transferred interior of a synagogue from Cochin, India, is one of the museum's newest treasures. The museum shows the work of Israeli contemporaries and also contains period rooms.



The Archeology Wing, the largest section of the museum, contains the world's largest collection of objects found in Israel.



The Bronfman-Bezalel complex, in the main building and adjoining wings, houses a bookstore and gift shop in its lower level, as well as a snack bar and auditorium. Outside, to the right of the stairs, is the museum cafeteria.



Three new pavilions have been added in recent years. One contains a beautifully chosen collection of pre-Colombian Central American art from 2000 BC to 1550 AD; another is a separate building housing ancient glass; and the third is the Walter and Charlotte Floersheimer Pavilion for Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art with works by Corot, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, and others. The new Weisbord Pavilion, just across the walk from the museum's entrance building and gift shop, houses a small collection of Rodin as well as visiting exhibits of modern art.



Another remarkable part of the museum is an archaeological garden between the Shrine of the Book and the Youth Wing complex. It contains classical Greco-Roman sculptures, sarcophagi, and mosaics, most of which were discovered and excavated in Israel.

The Billy Rose Art Garden, on a 20-acre plot, has been impressively landscaped by the renowned Japanese American artist, Isamu Noguchi. In the garden of semicircular earth-and-stone embankments is a 100-piece sculpture collection, which contains both classical and modern European, American, and Israeli works-Rodin, Zorach, Henry Moore, Picasso, Maillol, and Channa Orloff.

The Hurva Synagogue

The Hurva Synagogue, (Hebrew: ‎ בית הכנסת החורבה, translit: Beit ha-Knesset ha-Hurba, lit. "The Ruin Synagogue"), also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid ("Ruin of Rabbi Judah the Pious"), is a historic synagogue located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.




The synagogue was founded in the early 18th century by followers of Judah he-Hasid, but it was destroyed by Muslims a few years later in 1721. The plot lay in ruins for over 140 years and became known as the Ruin, or Hurva. In 1864, the Perushim rebuilt the synagogue, and although officially named the Beis Yaakov Synagogue, it retained its name as the Hurva. It became Jerusalem's main Ashkenazic synagogue, until it too was reduced to rubble by the Arab Legion[5] during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[6]



After the site came under Israeli control in 1967, a number of plans were submitted for the design of a new building. After years of deliberation and indecision, a commemorative arch was erected instead at the site in 1977, itself becoming a prominent landmark of the Jewish Quarter.[3] The plan to rebuild the synagogue in its 19th century style received approval by the Israeli Government in 2000 and the newly rebuilt synagogue was dedicated on March 15, 2010.[7] The company involved with its reconstruction believes that restoring the synagogue to its former glory will once again allow it to serve as a centre for World Jewry.[3]