Sefat

The ancient biblical city of Sefat is located high up in the mountains of the Gallelee in northern Israel. It is the birth place of the Kabbalah and still boasts of being the place to be for all who wish to study Kabalah. There are many Kabbalah learning centers and scholars who teach this subject who are based in Sefat. The famous American singer, Madonna has visited this beautiful city due to her strong devotion to Kabbalistic beliefs.

The Beautiful Old Hotel Where We Stayed.

Our hotel has been a place of lodging Jewish travelors for more than a thousand years.  It was so cool staying in such an old place, with such an interesting history. I requested our room be in the oldest section of the Inn.

One of the hotel lobbies. Guest would gather here on the Sabbath to light the Shabbat Candles and pray together. There was a table with more than 50 candles for each of the guests to light one. It was very special to us.

Hotel Lobby

Hotel Lobby

 Hotel hallways in the oldest section of the Inn, where our room was located.

 All signs were written in both Hebrew and English.

The gorgous view of the surrounding Mountains from our room's balcony.

View from our balcony.

The beautiful gardens at our hotel.

Time for dinner. We enjoyed eating at this cool looking Pizza Cafe. It was inside of a very old shop in the shopping district of Sefat.

Where ever my son and I went we made lots of friends. My son became friends with a family of four brothers, all under the age of 12.  We enjoyed hanging out in the evenings at this local courtyard, where neighbors came out at night to socialize. There were a couple of outdoor cafes there too.

Boys my son became friends with, playing with one of the many resident dogs.

STROLLING AROUND THE NARROW, WINDING, HILLY STREETS AND LANES OF SCENIC SEFAT

The gardens tucked away in the tiny courtyards, alleyways and where ever space would allow were just beautiful. The variety of flowers, plants and trees I saw was quite spectacular.

Since Sefat is built upon the steep ledges of a mountain, many of it's streets are uniquely connected by actual stairs. There's an abundance of mysterious mazes to navigate and surprises you when exploring this city. It was actually fun to explore "without" a map, finding new adventures, getting a bit lost and finding lots of interesting things to surprise you at each new twist and turn.

On our many exciting walks we always made sure to stop near this one house where this cute dog lived would run over to my son each time, begging for lots of pats, hugs and love. I just had to capture this on film !!!!

The Amazing, Unique, and Extremely Old Architecture and Artistic Flare of Sefat Was Such a Treat For Me !

An old Turkish Palace from the Ottoman Era, now is a community center. Music classes and practicing bands make good use of some of the space inside. My son and I were lucky to stumble across some pretty good free performances here, for we were warmly welcome to stay and enjoy. Where ever our journeys led us, we always found friendly, warm people in Israel. Israelis are a wonderful bunch of folks and we made lots of friends in each place we visited !

Some of the Famous Ancient Synagogues of Sefat

This ancient synagogue was built inside a cave, underneath a small park, near the main street. Thousands of years ago Noah's grandsons establish this congregation and sacred burial place. My son and I literally walked right into a bible scene and it was the most incredible feeling !

Entrance to the Shul's ancient Mikvah.

It was extremely hard finding a time to visit this Shul, since it's door is locked most of the time. It's so small that the men and women take turns praying there. Tours are not allowed during religous services of course, so I needed to make a special appointment to be allowed inside. I knew I didn't want to leave Sefat without visiting this site, for it was on my top list of "things to do" in Israel.  

After our friendly, good hearted tour guide, Moishe finished showing us this amazing place, he invited us to join him in prayer from the Torah, which he lovingly read.  I wanted to show this kindly man my appreciation for his time and effort in showing us his Shul, so since I enjoy singing, I chose to "sing" the prayers from the Torah. That seemed to really make this man's day. He smiled brightly and said, "Toda Raba" which means thank you in Hebrew.

The catacombs/burial chambers of Noah's grandsons. Their skeletal remains were found here, as well as their names engraved in stone.

Moishe explained that when the Roman's ruled Sefat, they wanted to literally leave their mark on many of the important buildings, including synagogues. They would add some sort of artistic rendering to already existing structures. In this case, the decorative brown and grey grouping of flat stones above the doorway was added by Roman artisans. This is also the entrance to the catacombs.

A very interesting, blue painted, bronze Star of David was hanging from the ceiling.

A matching blue painted bronze candelabra , shaped like a boat was hanging from one of the walls.

This is where Moishe placed the torah, from where the 3 of us prayed together after our tour.

The Joseph Caro Synagogue

The women's section is inside that doorway

The beautiful mountain views from the synagogue's windows.

Views from the Synagogue at sunset.

Ancient oil lamps were electrified in recent times. I thought they were quite lovely and added to the beauty of the sanctuary.

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