Even though there was a sadness as we drove past the Old City for the last time, I knew we were off to new adventures as we traveled north along the Jordan Valley towards the very top of Israel. We crossed the Green Line into the West Bank as we headed towards the Dead Sea and turned left and headed north. When we had traveled this way before, some of our younger travelers requested we ride a camel, so Zvi worked is magic and took us to a place where we all could ride and take a picture with Shushee, the camel. Cross another item off of our bucket lists!
Ok... I'll show you the picture of me on the camel...
Now, don't you wish you were here riding camels with us?????
After we all had a good laugh at each of us on top of a camel, we headed north towards the Galilee. It was really neat to be so close to Jordan, so close it was almost as if we could reach out and touch it. As our eyes first gazed upon the Kinneret, sometimes known as the Sea of Galilee (although it is a freshwater lake) we stopped at a beautiful small cemetery in Kibbutz Kinneret. The Kinneret Cemetary is the final resting place for some of our earliest young Zionist pioneers, people we need to understand in order to truly appreciate the history is Israel.
Zvi taught us about the dreams of these pioneers and the challenges and obstacles they faced as they began the dream that would become Israel. They had a sense of "we" instead of "I" that continues to be inspiring to us today. Zvi posed the question about how they would feel if they were alive today to see Israel in her present state. Certainly their dream of a jewish state where people had pride and spoke hebrew was realized. But do we still have their vision? This cemetary is also the final resting place for Naomi Shemer. She is probably the most famous Israeli songwriter. Zvi put it best when he said if Israel were a musical, Naomi Shemer wrote the score. I was overcome to see her marker and think of her music that has influenced every Israeli.
We also saw the final resting place for the famous poet from the Second Aliyah, Rachel. Zvi shared with us some of her words, and it was as if she was reading them to us herself. We were taken with the fact that her life had a sad ending to it. She had left the Kinneret to go to Russia to help children and she became ill and was never able to return to the Kinneret, as was her dream.
"Perhaps these things never happened
Perhaps I never rose at dawn to go to the garden
To work in it by the sweat of my brow
On the long, long burning days of the harvest,
Did I never raise my voice in song
From the top of a wagon loaded with sheaves?
Did I never purify myself in the quiet blueness
Of my Kinneret?
Oh, my Kinneret!
Did you truly exist,
Or did I only dream?"
When we arrived at Rachel's grave there was a couple sitting on the bench next to it reading her poetry to each other. Zvi shared that many Israelis do this (he did this on his first date with his wife).
There was a beauty and peacefulness to this place. Having visited Yad Vashem the day before and focusing on the individual story rather than the total number, it was easier for us to focus on the individual stories found in each of these markers, and I am in awe of all these early Zionist pioneers did to build Israel in the face of unthinkable challenge.
After leaving this place and stopping for lunch we made our way around the Kinneret and up the hills to Tzfat, a center of Jewish mysticism for hundreds of years and a contemporary artists' colony. Zvi introduced us to Jewish mysticism and some of the important people who had a hand in its development. We saw the mountain where the Zohar was written.
We visited the Abuhav Synagogue and saw the beauty of the Sephardic kehila, I even snuck a view at the Ashkenazic Ari Synagogue.
For me, the highlight was our singing L'cha Dodi in the very town that Shlomo Alkabetz composed the text, overlooking the mountain where mysticism was born. The wind was blowing fiercely as we sang, as if our words were ascending towards the top of the mountain. It was a special moment. We also visited a candle shop and had a brief education on how to make candles and we had some time to wander the shops. Tzfat was a wonderful place!
By the way, the gentleman in the striped shirt is Benny, our bus driver.
After leaving and heading down the mountain, we drove towards our final destination, Kibbutz Kfar Blum located in the Upper Galilee. We changed into our bathing suits and river rafted down the Jordan River. What a great time we had splashing in the water and getting each other soaked as we floated down the river. It was fantastic! I wish I could have brought my camera to share pictures with you... After we finished we waked the short distance to our hotel, Pastoral Kfar Blum, located on the Kibbutz. It is a beautiful hotel and I look forward to exploring the grounds.
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