Friday-Shabbat 30-31 May 2003

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For my free weekend, I travelled to Tzfat for Shabbat. There is a private company that runs buses from Jerusalem to Tzfat, which was very convenient (although I had to stand part of the way going there because the bus was so full). It was an interesting mix of people on the bus, all religious but a split between haredim and more modern Jews. I made some calls while I was on the bus and found a place to stay at a hostel near the community center.

I got to Tzfat in the middle of the afternoon, and almost everything was closed. There were a few galleries in the Artists' Colony open, but other than that it really felt like the city was preparing for Shabbat. I took a walk all over the city when I got there, and then went back to the hostel to shower and change. I walked into the old city figuring I would find a place to daven. There was a man in the street calling for a minyan for mincha, so I went there (it was a small Sephardic shul). I didn't get an invitation for dinner afterwards, so I went back to the hostel to read. I fell asleep on the couch in the common room, and woke up when a couple also staying there came back. They had brought food to prepare dinner with them, and invited me to join them. They were a middle-aged couple from Tel Aviv, and we had a very pleasant evening together.

In the morning, I planned to walk down to the old city to find a place to daven as I had in the evening. As I was going past the community center, a man there invited me to join their minyan. It turns out that there is a shul there, and I really enjoyed going there. There were about 15-20 men davenning, and a number of women and children who I saw at the kiddush afterwards. I then went back to the hostel and had lunch with the same couple I'd eaten with the night before before having my Shabbat nap. I took a walk in the afternoon and did some reading before going back to the shul in the community center for mincha, shalos seudos, and maariv. I then got on the bus back to Jerusalem.

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