Shabbat in Israel

During the Sabbath observant Jews refrain from driving their cars.  It is extremely quiet and void of all the car honking and traffic noise that is normal during any other time of the week.  Some areas in Jerusalem are actually blocked off so that the stray tourist or Arab taxi driver doesn’t wander into a religious community.  Some of the orthodox communities are not blocked and the stray driver risks getting yelled at or having rocks thrown at them.

Tsfat is incredibly quiet on the Sabbath.  This morning after breakfast I sat on the balcony with some coffee and listened to the stillness.  The hotel is actually on a small ridge and his higher than Tsfat itself. I could look down at some of the roads leading into the northern part of town and see a parking lot sometimes used as a waiting are for tourist busses.  Sitting there I only heard the voices of kids playing echo across the canyon and maybe a dog or two barking at something.  It’s hard to imagine that it’s been like this for about 2,000 years in Tsfat.

Willi took me to lunch in the mixed community of Gush Halav where we ate at a Lebanese Maronite restaurant.  We had your typical Middle Eastern stuff like stuffed grape leaves, kufta (spiced meat in small patties smothered in a tahini sauce), falafel balls, hubeza (the mallow plant), pickled vegetables, pita, and hummus.  The owner gave me his cousin’s phone number who lives in Orange County and has a similar restaurant there.

One more stop to see the ancient synagogue at Nevoriah and a couple of old rabbis’ tombs and it was time to head back to Jerusalem.

 I had planned on leaving Tsfat around 4 to take the Jordan Valley through the West Bank again, for a couple reasons. One, It would still be light then and would be no problem driving through. Two, since it’s Shabbat, driving that route would have zero traffic except for tourists and day trippers coming back from the Dead Sea region (opposite the Jordan Valley). Taking the longer route would have way too much traffic because of all the people that go to the beach on Shabbat.  Well....I left around 4:30 and went towards the Sea of Galilee. Actually, I followed Willi because he wanted to do something down there himself.  He wanted me to go down the east side of the Galilee because it would save lots of time to not go through Tiberias. Lo and behold, about 20 minutes down after Willi turned off the road was closed because of a brush fire.... damn.   Now I was worried it would be dark in the West Bank.  So..... I turn around, back track, and end up going through Tiberias which is pretty crowded meanwhile, my gas is running low.  So..... I decide that the sun will be up just long enough and that I can get gas in Bet Shean which is before the security checkpoints.  So.... I get to Bet Shean ok but the gas stations are closed because it's still Shabbat!   I'm driving around town like a mad man looking for a freakin gas station trying to beat the sun from going down.  I found one station that was closed but there was an old man there who fortunately was a German Yekkie (old German immigrants) and spoke German.  He directed me to an open station (run by Arabs) and I got my gas. I leave Bet Shean, driving way below the speed limit, and a cop pulls up next to me with his loudspeaker telling me in Hebrew to pull over.  I slowed down and yelled out the window "I don't speak Hebrew" and the guy says "then just go".  LOL  I have a feeling that someone in Bet Shean called the cops saying there was some foreigner driving all around on Shabbat looking for gas.

Anyways, made it through the West Bank just fine even though it got dark about halfway there! 

Back to work in the clinic tomorrow morning