YK Tzeirei HaShluchim 5774: Yashar Yashar Ad HaKikar

Gazing in awe at the wonder which is Glass Blowing

Today we hiked down to the Old City of צפת for a grand afternoon of glass blowing, candle making, and good old fashion touring.

Before we even recovered from שבת ירושלים it was time to ready the waterpaks and prepare for another trip: The Old City. This trip definitely came as a big surprise to all of us, apart from the fact that we just got back from ירושלים, we are also in the 9 days. No one was really expecting to go on any trips this week, let alone a full-on trip with hiking, candles, and pizza.

The first stop of the trip was to a glass blowing workshop just to the right of the kikar (L'Oilam you should know that everything is just to the right of the kikar). It was here where we all gained a tremendous appreciation of the surprisingly divine art which is commonly referred to as glass blowing. Who would have thought that these workshops would be the epicenter of modern day divine revelations? The on-site artisan was not only equipped with the unique skill of glass blowing, she also had a special way of connecting glass to the Jewish people as a whole and each individual soul בפרט. It was fascinating to watch the glass master mold and form the glass into beautiful (and as we later found out expensive) masterpieces. From there we hiked up to the candle factory.

The candle making process is not nearly as elaborate as glass blowing, but it is interesting nonetheless. You never really think about where your candles come from (probably some factory in China), which makes it kinda cool to see the whole process explained from the harvesting to the melting to the dying. After experiencing the artistic side of צפת it was time to tour the historical side of the city.

We were led around the historic old city by (not Gili, but) Maidad. Apparently he has a philosophy that in order to properly give over information from thousands of years ago it is necessary to dress the part of a poverty stricken shepherd from the times of The Avos (he fit right into צפת) . We were led around tiny alleyways and plentiful arches, down tremendous staircases and up mysterious corridors until we finally arrived at the highlight: The Arizal Shul.

The architecture was magnificent and the feeling of holiness permeated the entire shul. We had about 10 minutes to walk around and explore the shul, and we were even given some food for thought: Why isn't there a mezuza? From the shul we walked to the Art District for some shopping, ice cream and those awesome necklaces with bullets attached (as if that is gonna stop a real bad guy or something). They delivered pizza to this ancient cool looking outdoor amphitheater where we all enjoyed a delicious meal to top off another hectic day in ישיבת קיץ צפת. Have a great night or day and enjoy the pictures.