Safed · Kabbalah in the Hill Town

Safed is a hill town that became the centre of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah, in the sixteenth century; the rabbis here wrote works on creation, the soul and the letters.

The town has an old cemetery, said to hold masters such as Isaac Luria. Local tradition runs that recitation is heard in the cemetery at night, and that one should not answer it.

The lanes of the old town are narrow, blue-painted walls and archways one behind another. The man at the gate offers only one instruction: duck your head as you enter the synagogue.

Occult Chronicles / Safed · Israel / 16th century