Abbaye and Rava
They were one of history’s most famous pairs, noted, of all things, for their intense arguments with one another! Read More
Amuka
The reputed best method nowadays to meet your soul-mate is to visit “Amuka,” an ancient site [Joshua. 19:27] hidden in a wooded valley between Zefat and Chatzor in the Upper Galilee. Read More
Ari’s Mikvah
Brrr! A bit chilly, you say.
Yes, but there must be some reason why this mikveh is so popular that an estimated
500,000 visitors — from Tsfat and from all over the world — come to immerse in its spiritually purifying waters every year. Read More
The Be’er Mayim Chayim
Rabbi Chaim’s love of the Sabbath was so extraordinary that on the red-arrowed-marker pointing to his gravesite in Tsfat’s famous ancient cemetery… Read More
Benaihu ben Yehoyada
In fact, it took no greater of a luminary that the Holy Ari to “sense” that a certain spot where he was hiking with his disciples some 500 years ago on the outskirts of Tsfat, was indeed the resting place of ben Yehoyada. Read More
Benyamin HaTzadik
The tomb of Benyamin HaTzadik is one of Tzfat’s more colorful gravesites. It is also the most homey. Read More
Discoveries of the Holy Ari
I will write about the burial places of the righteous as my master told them to me. As we have said before, he was able to see the souls of righteous people at any time and in any place, and even more so at their burial site, for that is where their Nefesh stands. Read More
Chana and her Seven Sons
For some, it may be viewed as one of the greatest stories of martrydom in Jewish history, perhaps even greater than the famous “Akeida” in which our forefather Avraham was all set to sacrifice his only son, Issac. Read More
Choni HaMagel
A young schoolboy returning from the gravesite of Choni HaMe’agel breathlessly exclaims: “You know what? I stood in the same circle as Choni!” Read More
Meron
MERON is a sleepy mountain village a few miles west of Zefat that once a year undergoes a remarkable transformation. Read More
Nachum Ish-Gamzu
Whether it’s raining or scorching sun, this too is a good time to visit the tombsite of Nachum Ish Gamzu. And not just because the famous Mishnaic sage would always say of everything that befell him: “Gam zu l’tovah” – “this too is for the good.” Read More
Leib Baal Hayisurim
“The Master of Suffering” or “The Afflicted One”– was an outstanding scholar and G-d-fearing man, a major disciple of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the first Rebbe of Chabad. Read More
Pinchas Ben Yair
The resting place of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair, the father-in-law** of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, lays at the entrance of Tsfat’s new cemetery. Yet, it outdates by many centuries, not only the burial sites in the new cemetery, but even those of the luminaries from the “Golden Era”… Read more
Rabbi Tarfon
Rabbi Tarfon, a Mishnaic sage (teacher of the Oral Law), was born in Lud and was a descendent of a family of priests. Read More
Rabbi Yehuda Bar Iloi
Utterly poor in possessions, yet rich in Torah wisdom and sterling character traits, no other Jewish sage has earned quite a prominent position in the Talmud as Rabbi Yehudah Bar Iloi. Read More
Rabbi Yosi Sargosi
It must have been quite a sight — dozens, maybe hundreds, of noisy roosters clucking and plucking their way down the Tsfat-Meron road to the gravesite of Rav Yossi Saragossi. Read More