Our journey began in Arad at eight in the morning and we only got to Tzfat around two.... Why did it take so long you might ask?? Because we literally drove from the bottom of the country to the top.... If you think about it, it shows how small Israel is if you can do a trip from the south to the north in six hours.
Once we finally got to Tzfat, we got off the bus decked out in our modern Orthodox chic clothing and were immediately overwhelmed with how beautiful this place really was. The whole city is high up in the mountains and everywhere you turn there is a gorgeous view. As we checked into the hotel (I got to room with four of my closest friends yay!), there was lots of chaos and there were so many people that I needed to meet!!! My friends and I were dying to go exploring before the chag started because I have heard that Tzfat jewelry is like no other. But unfortunately my jewelry shopping will have to wait until my next trip. Our first activity to kick off the trip was a lecture by the Rabbi who is in charge of a program called "Ascent" which is a place to stay and learn in Tzfat for young Jewish travelers. This rabbi was very interesting as he told us that he grew up secular and eventually became orthodox after studying at Cornell University. This Rabbi seamed really cool because he told us about how he went to Woodstock and to be honest how many Rabbis do you know that have done that??? A super awkward encounter that I had with him the next day was when my program and I was about to leave for morning dancing and when the Rabbi and I passed each other, he put his hand up in front of my face. Now, being an American teenager when someone does that it looks like they are suggesting a high five. I of course was NOT thinking and I almost high fixed him when I realized that he was just trying to tell us that we were leaving in five minutes. The Rabbi seemed very offended and informed me that he is a "married man". Now I totally respect "Shomrei Negiah" but it was an honest mistake and obviously I was not trying to offend him. Totally embarrassing but one day I'll look back at it and laugh when I feel less humiliated....
So I got out of order here lets rewind to the first night. After we had the lecture we had time to get ready for the chat and then we all congregated for kiddush (there was so much food that I filled myself up before dinner even came around). After that we had services that had men and women sitting separately of course. Once again, because I am not a regular at temple back home I was pretty lost the whole time. After services was the best part. The whole point of Simchat Torah is to dance with the Torah and to just be happy! So my friends and I danced the night away with the women of Tzfat singing all different kinds of songs in Hebrew and English. Fortunately I was not lost in this part because I knew most of these songs from camp!!!!!! Although it was quite disappointing that we couldn't even see the Torah, I still had lots of fun with all my new and old friends! A woman told me that the reason that the women don't dance with the Torah is because we are at a higher level of spirituality than men and so we don't need to dance with it while the men do. I don't know if I believe that's actually true but I went with it anyway.
Something that is interesting about Simchat Torah is that the whole holiday's purpose is to be happy. Going along with that it is a mitzvah to go to temple and dance and drink the night away. Needless to say I might have taken had wine poured in my glass by a Rabbi..... ;)
The next morning was when we all went Shul hopping to see all the different kinds of customs and traditions that each shul had. We went to a Saphardic shul and an Ashkenazi shul and the differences in the separations between male and female were huge as well as the decorations inside the shul. One of the Shuls we went to didn't have a place for the women to dance we could only go upstairs and watch the men dance from above. Well us being Americans and most of us are not Orthodox, we decided that it wash't for us and we went and danced in the streets instead. A women came out and started yelling at us saying that it's disrespectful to dance in front of the Shul and that we need to go somewhere else. I personally don't think it was disrespectful because we weren't disturbing the men at all and the Rabbis on our program were completely okay with it.... Sometimes people need to be more open minded.....
The rest of my day was filled with services and more food and more wine. I attended a lecture about Kaballah (Kaballah is high in Tzfat due to the fact that Tzfat is a very spiritual city which goes hand in hand with Kaballah), which was super interesting because the extent to how much I knew about it previously was that Madonna was did it.... The lecture taught me all about the origins and teachings of Kaballah and I'm really glad that I went and learned more just so that I can be more informed about the subject.
The last organized part of our program was a tour around the old city of Tzfat. Our tour guide told us that just in the old city alone there are at least twenty shuls!!!!!!! That's crazy!!! It was really perfect that I went to the Kaballah talk right before this tour because a lot of the things that were talked about in the tour were things that were just explained to me.
After we celebrated the end of the chat with a musical havdallah, we all packed up our stuff and headed to this huge town center where there were hundreds of people dancing and celebrating. This was definitely my favorite part of the whole trip because I was dancing with all my friends and these adorable little girls that were mesmerized by the fact that we're American!!!
All in all I had such an amazing time in Tzfat, the whole community was so unified and so happy and I just couldn't help but be happy the whole time. I cannot wait to come back and visit and I got a coupon that granted me a free two night stay at the Ascent house in Tsfat!!!!! Jewelry here I come....... :)))))
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