Tsfat

Last night (We left the kibbutz at 9pm Thursday and came back 3:30pm Friday.) we went to the city of Tsfat (or Safed).  It is one of the four holy cities in Judaism and the center for Kabbalah.  They say that for Yom Kippur the two places the really religious go are to Tsfat and Jerusalem.

When we first got to Tsfat we listened to kind of an overview of Tsfat and Kabbalah and the connection with Yom Kippur.  The speaker was so enthusiastic that I didn't hear a lot of what he was saying because I was distracted by him yelling and waving his arms all over the place.   One thing he said that I liked was what a hug symbolizes in Kabbalah.  He said that we present ourselves to the world with our front and that is where we put superficial things that give certain impressions, make up, ties, facial expressions.  When we hug someone we reach around their front to touch their back.  This says to them that you want to know, will accept and embrace all of them...the part that they share with everyone else as well as the parts that they don't, good or bad. 

Alley in Tsfat

Then we walked around the city with a tour guide who told us a lot of stories about Yom Kippur and about Tsfat. As we were walking there was a man selling chickens for Kapparot.  Kapparot is a tradition where a person grabs a chicken in one hand (by the wing or the legs or wherever) and swings the chicken around over their head and say a prayer.  The idea is that you are releasing your sins through the chicken and throwing them away.  Then the chicken is killed and donated to to feed the hungry.  I'm glad I saw it done once, but I never want to see it again.  The chicken screams and you can practically hear it crying as it is swung around.  It was a terrible sound.  Then they bent the head back and touched the neck with a sharp knife to kill it kosherly (not a word I don't think).  I don't usually get too sensitive about animals but this was pretty awful. They say that people don't really do that too much anymore for that reason.

Kapparot

After Tsfat we went to the grave of a famous Rabbi.  There were many people there that were very religious and really deep in prayer, like how people are at the Kotel (Wailing Wall), but then there were people who has commercialized the area and were selling tourist junk.  I completely respect however anyone wants to pray and feel close to G-d, but why were they (there was a lot of people, it was pretty crowded) there at 2:00am?  Why were we there at 2:00am?  Why do they pray to a particular person? I don't think of that as a very "Jewish" thing to do...I thought you only prayed to G-d?

I learned some interesting things and i'm glad we went, but I'm not 100% clear on a lot of what was going on...which just means now i have a lot more questions