Tiyul to Belvoir and Tzfat

by Justin Giberson,     10^th grade,       New Jersey

 

The 12th century Belvoir Crusader fortress in northern Israel

The first part of the tiyul starts with a heartful shout from Evan “If you bring all of your rain gear, then it won’t rain!” The two classes begrudgingly grab their jackets and make their way towards the massive stone crusader castle that lay ahead of us. As we walk towards the ruins of the Belvoir Fortress, we cannot help but take pictures of the breathtaking view. The translation of the castle’s name from French is “beautiful view,” and we could all see why. We could see for miles, from the farms directly below us, to the Jordanian mountains in the distance. The first ruin we stumble upon is the giant moat, a huge pit surrounding the walls of the fortress. At that time (the 12^th century), the Muslims were trying to take back the holy land from the crusaders, who were fortified in various fortresses, such as this one, strewn across the holy land. The second stop at the Belvoir Fortress was a massive wall, whose base was ascending at a sharp angle, then at the top turns vertical. Our teacher Josh explains to us that the wall was used as the first line of defense against the Salaadin’s armies that were sent to expel the crusaders from the holy land. As we walk along the side of the castle, I can’t help but wonder how the crusaders were able to build such an amazing fortress that protected them for so many years. We move onto the next part of the fortress, a zig zagging path that led to the inner wall of the castle. This was meant to make the advance of their enemy harder. The path would only have been big enough for two people to go at a time, making it quite easy for the defenders of the castle to successfully fend off the Muslim armies. We then entered the castle’s dining room, a large chamber with a big hallway. The ceilings that remained were arched in a very cathedral-like way. We took some notes about how the crusades affected Jewish life in Europe, then went off to our next stop on our day long tiyul, Tzfat.

 

arched entrance way to the inner section of the Belvoir fortress

After a decently long bus ride, we arrived in the small Galilee city of Tzfat. Considered one of the four holiest cities in Israel, I was not surprised when I saw the overwhelming amount of orthodox Jews filling up every part of the city. We started our tour of the city by going into the Yosef Karo Synagogue. The entire prayer section of it was painted blue, representative of the hamsa and its power to ward off evil spirits. The synagogue was set up in a Sephardic manner, with seating and chairs set up along the perimeter of the room. On the wall furthest from the entrance there were old books and scrolls, stuffed into a glass case (geniza). Hundreds of prayer books that are almost impossible to read, hundreds of years old, in a small synagogue for anybody to see. The setup looked like it should belong in a national museum, not in the small community shul. This was one of the most impactful things that we saw on the tiyul, tons of Jewish history just stacked up in a few square feet. From the synagogue the group went into the headquarters for another Jewish organization Livnot U’Lehebanot that sets up Israel trips for young adults from all over the world. At this point, what Evan said earlier about having rain gear was definitely holding true, then all hell broke loose (as in heavy rain). We were rushed inside, taken away from our beautiful view of Mount Meiron, where according to tradition Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai wrote the mystical book the Zohar in the second century, which became the foundation of kabbalah.

 

the interior of the Yosef Karo Synagogue in Tzfat

From then on the rain persisted, only occasionally stopping. The group had time to explore the streets of Tzfat and as Evan says, a “shopportunity.” After being soaked and having thoroughly, we looked at most of the shops in the artist quarter and boarded the and head off back for Tzuba.

view of the artists' quarter in Tzfat