Zefat

There is a small grove of ancient olive trees outside of Zefat.  It is about a fifteen-minute walk from my house, after two or three hairpin turns on the dirt road that goes down to Wadi Amud.  I used to like to sit in this grove surrounded by these ancient trees and meditate or study Kabbalah.  These trees were certainly here when Rabbi Isaac Luria was in Zefat in the 16th Century, and maybe he sat and taught his students under these very same trees.
 
I took several photographs of this grove and its trees and made several paintings from the photographs.  For this picture I… more

The Abuhav Synagogue is one of the most beautiful synagogues in Safed. Rabbi Yitzchak Abuhav was a leader of the Spanish Jewish community expelled from Spain in 1492.  He died on his way to the Holy Land.  The synagogue was built by his students to house his personal Torah scroll which is still read three times a year.

A legend claims that this synagogue was actually built in Spain before the Expulsion and then magically transported to Safed.

I painted this picture from two photographs I took many years ago, one with the camera pointing upward; and one with the camera… more