Anshai Goes to Israel!

Monday started out with our first day in the north. We have made it North! The Ramot Resort welcomed us with a great dinner last night and an even better breakfast this morning. Upon our departure at 8:30am Mother Nature or maybe it was Moses parted the sky and the rain began to fall. 

Side note, while the rain was a minor inconvenience for us, it’s much needed here in Israel. 

We arrived in the very wet, cold and cloud buried city of Safed where we met Avraham. The man formally known as Robert grew up outside of Detroit and was yearning for his calling in life. He found that calling when he read the book “Jewish Meditation” and began to learn and embrace the deeper spiritual meanings behind all of Judaism that we call Kaballah. He moved to Safed 30+ years ago and today is an artist.

Avraham gave us a brief overview of what Kaballah is and how he has incorporated it into his art. After an enthralling half hour, we all had some time to choose what, if anything we wanted to purchase from Avraham’s incredible gallery.  (He made a killing today) 

After leaving the gallery we made a short albeit still very wet walk to the Artist’s colony in Safed where we all had some time to explore the many galleries, have a falafel or Yemenite pancake and even run into a friend from Camp Ramah Darom!! Crazy, right? Only in Israel do these things happen.

After exploring the artist colony our illustrious tour guide Josh took us to the “Otzar HaSTam” Center. It is the largest center in the world engaged in the field of writing Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzahs. After an engaging series of videos around the history of Hebrew letters and the Sofers who write them we each had the chance to try our hand at writing on our own. Let’s just say that some of us did better than others. 

Our afternoon of excursions wrapped up with an unplanned but exciting nonetheless stop at the Hula Nature Reserve. This area which was at one time entirely swamplands is now mostly covered in orchards and fields of various kinds. After the swamps were drained, it was discovered that an entire ecosystem was damaged. The state of Israel therefore decided to reswampafy (technical terminology) a portion of the land to reestablish a place where a variety of wildlife could not only live but thrive. Most notably, the Hula Nature Reserve is a major stopping point for more than a few species of birds as they migrate both north and south during the various seasons. 

The day finally wrapped up with a scrumptious dinner at the Decks Pagoda restaurant where we had a family style dinner full of soups, entrees, and dessert. We even celebrated Rob Velevis’ birthday! Happy Birthday Rob!!

Tomorrow, Jeeps!!