By Aviva Symons
To begin wrapping-up our time in Tzfat, we experienced a different aspect of Tzfat than I have ever experienced before: Har Meron. When I think of Tzfat, I first think of the Abuhav Shul and Safed Candles, but on this Shabbaton I experienced something different. I was able to take a step back to see Tzfat from a different perspective: one that soared above all the rest. After a short bus ride, we found ourselves standing at the foot of Har Meron, the tallest mountain in Israel until the ’67 War.
We hiked up Har Meron for about two hours, watching the flowers bloom around us with each passing step. Each of us followed the steps of the person in front of us, creating our own distinguished path as a group, like Nachshon would have done. Throughout the incline, we were able to experience the State of Israel: to feel its core beneath our feet and birds’ chirping in our ears. As a future educator, I appreciated how we were able to experience Tzfat with each of our five senses throughout the Shabbaton, and that we were able to feel Eretz Yisrael with our feet before wrapping our T’fillan one more time and heading home to Jerusalem.
