Safed in Galilee is a very old, very interesting city high on a hill. It is populated mostly by Orthodox Jews, and in fact is also the Israeli home of the Kabbalah studies. I wouldn't recommend looking too far into that - suffice it to say that it is a mystical study of ancient Judaism that involves quite a bit of ... shall we say ... nonsense. The city is also a center for the arts in Israel. Marc Chagall donated several works to the city, as did Nicky Imber - a very famous Israeli artist. Nicky Imber was imprisoned in Dachau during WWII and famously escaped. How, you ask? Being an artist helped - he had studied portraiture and while in the camp he took great notice of his captors. Each day he saved a little of the bread from his meal serving and kept it damp with water. When he finally had enough material saved, he formed it into a mask - a mask that looked exactly like the Nazi commander at Dachau. He was able to steal a Nazi uniform, put the mask on, and walked out a free man. Someone once said, not only did he walk out, he was saluted by all the Nazis as he did so. One of his most famous works was called "Hope" - here is a replica of it on the front of an art store in Safed:
Here also are a few works I found particularly beautiful:
We were also very privileged to walk around the city and actually enter a synagogue. Here are some photos of that.
 |
| Doorways are painted blue to scare away evil spirits. |
 |
| The ark - where the Torah scrolls are kept, was open today! |
 |
| But then the Rabbi closed it. Still beautiful. |
 |
| In all Synagogues, to the right of the Ark is a painting of the Western Wall of the Temple. |
 |
| And to the left of the Ark, a painting of Rachael's tomb - she is waiting for the tribes to gather again. |
Comments
Post a Comment