“This is the spot where Rav Yitzchak Luria first sang the famous nigun for L’cha Dodi on Friday night,” a tour guide for a Birthright group shared as he recounted history and miraculous stories that took place in Tzfat.
This writer had the privilege of visiting Tzfat this past week and learning about the incredible miracles Hashem performed in this holy, ancient city.
I was seated just a few feet away from the tour guide mentioned above, so I was able to hear three miracle stories that he shared.
The first miracle occurred in 1948, when Arab enemies attacked the Jews. The Jews in Tzfat crowded into the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue, hoping to be protected from enemy fire. There were so many people packed inside that the door wouldn’t close. The enemy fired a mortar shell that landed directly in front of the shul. Shrapnel from the blast flew inside, but the sh’liach tzibur, who was bowing during Sh’moneh Esrei, was spared as the shrapnel sailed over his head, harming no one.
The second miracle was a personal story that the Birthright leader had heard firsthand from the man it happened to. A policeman once invited him to join his family for a Friday night meal in Tzfat. Expecting a secular host, the Birthright leader was surprised to find the policeman to be religious, with a long beard. During the meal, the policeman shared how that came to be.
At age 26, he had been an Olympic athlete. He was scheduled to serve as a coach for the Israeli Olympic team and had a plane ticket and hotel reservation in Munich with the delegation. The night before his departure, he dreamed that Rav Yitzchak Luria appeared and told him not to go to the Olympic Games. Shaken, he confided in friends, who dismissed his fears and urged him to travel: “You already have a ticket and a hotel reservation.” But the dream was too vivid. He decided not to go.
It was 1972, the year of the Munich Olympics massacre. The PLO attacked the Israeli team. The first hotel room they entered had an empty bed – the bed that would have been his. After this miraculous escape, he began learning Torah and eventually became frum.
The third story took place just last year in Tzfat. Hezbollah was firing missiles, and people were evacuating. One family of eight had not yet left their home. At last, the parents and six children piled into their car. Moments after they drove off, a missile struck and destroyed their house. Baruch Hashem, they were saved.
After hearing these remarkable stories, I thanked the Birthright guide. My husband and I then headed to the Abuhav Synagogue, an ornately designed synagogue painted blue, with elegant Torah-themed artwork. The shul is named after Rav Yitzchak Abuhav, who lived in 14th-century Toledo, Spain, where he built the original shul.
There is a miraculous tradition that after Rav Abuhav’s passing, he appeared in a dream to Rabbi Moshe Ohana, a Tzfat kabbalist, instructing him to transport the shul to Israel to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Rabbi Ohana, using prayer and incantations, brought it to Tzfat. Another tradition teaches that Rav Abuhav’s students constructed the Tzfat shul according to his specifications. Originally located near the cemetery, it was later moved uphill as the Jewish community expanded.
A Torah scroll written by Rav Abuhav is preserved in one of the four aronos in the shul. It is the oldest Torah scroll still in use and is brought out on Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Shavuos.
The shul has withstood two major earthquakes: one in 1759 and another in 1837. In both disasters, the building collapsed; but miraculously, the wall housing the Torah scrolls remained intact.
A special kisei shel Eliyahu – a three-hundred-year-old chair – also stands in the shul. A plaque above it proclaims that heartfelt t’filos recited while seated there are answered.
I had the privilege to daven Minchah in this magnificent shul. The sanctuary filled with worshippers, including many women on the balcony.
It is miraculous that this shul, along with the other ancient synagogues in Tzfat, is still active today. Considering all the hardships the Jewish people have endured – the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, pogroms, and now ongoing wars – it is a miracle that we remain here, clinging steadfastly to our emunah in Hashem.
Before Minchah, a guided tour group arrived, seemingly composed of non-Jews or non-observant visitors. Their tour guide strummed a guitar and sang as he led them around.
In the courtyard outside the Abuhav Synagogue, I also saw a group of little Breslov boys sitting with rapt attention at a table, listening as their rebbi taught them.
Tzfat is the only city in Israel with continuous Jewish presence since the time of the Maccabees. The Jerusalem Talmud records that in Tzfat, beacons were lit during the Second Temple era to announce Rosh Chodesh.
A marriage ketubah dating back to 1023 was found, naming a couple: Natan HaKohen, son of Shlomo and Rachel of Tzfat.
We ended the day by watching a breathtaking sunset behind the mountains. Tzfat has a unique beauty, and as one of my daughters once said, “You can feel the spirituality in the air.”
Perhaps it is that very spirituality that makes us sense the Divine here, reminding us that every single day we are alive is a miraculous gift from Hashem.
By Susie Garber