An old trip to Ezfat

Well, the past few weekends I have been so buisy doing things, that I haven't been able to write about them. I will start off with the trip to Ezfat, before I forget the whole trip.

So, after a short bus ride to the north of Israel, up some low mountains and past the Gillilee Lake we arrived in "the mystical city of Ezfat" as the brochure put it. Our whole trip was organized by a private group under the name of the director Jeff Siedel. For a 100 shekels we got to stay in a nice hotel with several wonderful meals. Great deal if I might say.

The first thing we did when we got there was walk up to the hotel. That may seem obvious, but the bus was not allowed to drive up to the hotel, as the street had been closed for Shabbot. Everything is closed for Shabbot. Ezfat is a very religious city, second only to Jerusalem in Israel. We had a barbeque and went to a Klezmer festival. Klezmer music goes hand in hand with the Orthodox community living in Ezfat. The festival brought the peaceful little city alive with singing and dancing adrift in the soundtrack of Fiddler on the Roof.

The next morning we had breakfast which had entirly no breakfast food in it. Well, maybe thats just me, but I pine for pancake and eggs in the mornings betimes. The end of breakfest led us to embark for the hiking trip nearby. Now most of Israel is a dry deserty region, albeit with the amazing irrigation things grow here, but not like this. The area is used as a water supply for the city, but amounts to nothing more than a small creek. The path is lined with trees and plants and fauna of every type. It reminded at times of the south, and Heather at times of her Hong Kong. Quite beautiful place.

The trip ended with a lot of tired but content people, who mostly slept on the way back. After a nap and some time, it became time for the Shabbot service. Now, this is the part of the weekend I understood the least. The city of Ezfat has served as the center point of Jewish mysticism, kaballah and general religious themes. I am still not entirely sure what congregation this service was, or what there denomenation of Judaism they were, but it was impressively different than a visit to Church would be in the US. First, everyone sang, in Hebrew, the welcoming of Shabbot and praise to God, the Creator and sanctuary of the people. Then, the men started dancing ( I don't know about the women, they seperated the sexes from each other for the while) and dancing in circles and pairs all around. I don't think dancing is even allowed in a lot of American Churches, so it is interesting to see the jewish men dancing and singing in a ferver. For they are Zealous.

Now we were all tired, but we couldn't sleep yet for the best part of the trip was to come. The Shabbot Dinner. Now, in the States we aren't to fond of making noise at dinner or in general breaking our silent rules of space and conduct. The jewish people have apparently never had a problem in showing a communal spirit. The night started off with the blessings and the prayers. Then came the food. At first thought, the food didn't seem very impressive in either quality or quantity. Luckily I was proved very wrong, for that was just the first course. So then the food started flowing with the wine and people, it became quite a time. Everyone started singing and banging on the table and eating. There isn't really quite a way to explain the Shabbot dinner. Well, I shan't try too much, for fear of embarrasing myself or the memory of the night.

The next morning was rest. Shabbot is really underappreciated at least for this very point. Sleep. The rest of the day involved more meals (really big 3-4 course meals with drink and merriment). Then free time and more prayers and praises.

Well, there is much more I could write and written more eloquently, but I shall rest here. My friends have some pictures of the weekend that I shall try to post.

Shalom!