The Ancient Cemetary Of Safed Covered In Yellow Wild Flowers

The fields of Northern Israel are indeed a world unto their own, and I just love to watch the progressive show as wildflowers and maidenhair fern and thistle, to name a few, each bloom during their own special time slot, only to dry up and be replaced by the next species in line. It really is truly magnificent, and while of course this show has a general theme that is the same year to year, this year I noticed that a particular yellow dasy-like wild flower seems to have really taken over, and the hills are golden and lovely, well at least they were two weeks ago when I took these!

For those of you who don't know what you are looking at, well the mountain is Mount Meron, the second tallest mountain in Israel. The white buildings on the left at the base of the mountain are the gravesite of Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and the site of the Lag B'Omer festivities that took place on Saturday night and Sunday. In the foreground of the photo is portion of the ancient cemetary in the Holy City of Safed (also spelled Tsfat, Tzfat,Tzefat, Zefad because there is no agreement apparently on how to write the hebrew letter tsadi, which is also called sade, tzade…..oh dear!) This cemetary holds the gravesites of many very great figures in Jewish history. Burials took place here thousands of years ago, and there is a new section where burials take place today, well you know what I mean, not today hopefully, but on a given day when some one leaves this world after living a long fulfilling life.

A closer look at the field, with one tombstone painted blue. In the more southern portion of the cemetary which is packed with great souls, the majority of the gravestones are painted blue, signifying that person's greatness. And there are also a number of burial caves marked wtih little domed buildings, whose domes are painted blue as well.

Lovely indeed, and certainly one of the best ways to appreciate where you live is to share it with others and try to see it through their eyes, right?
This path dear readers leads you right to the gravesite of the Ari HaKadosh, The Arizal, Rabbi Isaac Luria, who made the Kabbalah something that could be understood, as the original version brought down by Rebbi Shimon Bar Yochai (mentioned earlier) was just too lofty to be understood by most. Now granted he did this around 1535, so don't expect his version to be something one could just read and understand either!

That is it for my little slice of views in the neighborhood, hope you enjoyed it, and maybe you'll come visit me? Would love to meet you!