Miracle of Abuhav Synagogue

The Abuhav Synagogue is known as the "Blue Synagogue" because of it's high blue ceiling. It's a Sephadadic synagogue, and the original Abuhav was built by Rabbi Abuhav in the 1500s. 

The Abuhav Synagogue houses several Torah scrolls, some of which were written hundreds of years ago (one is said to have been written by Rabbi Abuhav 500 years ago).  During the 1837 earthquake, the entire synagogue collapsed, aside from the wall with the Torah Arks, which withstood the earthquake, saving the Torah scrolls.

In the summer of 2006, when Hizbollah fired 500 missiles into Tzfat, one missile landed directly between the Abuhav synagogue and the Alsheich synagogue (Alsheich was the only synagogue which withstood both the 1759 and 1837 earthquakes).  The building, housing a girls' school, was destroyed, but both the Alsheich and Abuhav synagogues sustained no more damange than a few broken windows. 

The Miracle of The Dancing Camels 

R' Yisrael Najara, author of the Sabbath Z'mira Ya Ribon, was well-known singer and songwriter.  He travelled frequently between Damascus and Tzfat.  On one trip, he was captured by a band of Bedouin nomads who planned to kill him. 

Najara asked if he could pray, and when the Bedouin agreed, he took out his flute and began to play and pray.

The soothing sounds of his flute lulled the camels, and they gathered around him, protecting him, and convincing the Bedouin to leave.  Najara thus entered Tzfat, with the dancing camels surrounding him.

In the summer of 2006, a new immigrant from the United States started a micro-brewery.  Inspired by Najara's story, he named his beer The Dancing Camel Brewery.  www.dancingcamel.com

The Miracle of the Avritch (Bat Ayin) Synagogue

The Avritch Synagogue was filled one winter morning in 1837 when the Rabbi of the synagogue, R' Dov of Avritch, called to his followers "whoever wants to live, come stand with me!"

As the men rushed to stand with their Rabbi, the earthquake of 1837 hit the city, crushing the city and burying close to 4000 residents under the rubble.

The men who stood with Rabbi Avritch survived. 

The Miracle of R' Yossi Banai

During the Turkish Rule, one harsh ruler declared that a number of white chickens would have to be brought to him -- if not, the Jews of the city would be forced to pay an enormous fine.  The Jews worried, but Rabbi Yossi Banai assured them that all would be well, and indeed, in the morning when they awoke, all of the chickens of the city had turned white.  

 

The Miracle of Mordichai, the Cemetary Caretaker

In 1972, Mordichai Shababo, a wrestler with the Israeli Olympic team, was preparing to attend the Munich Olympics with the Israeli Olympic team. Shortly before leaving Israel to represent the team abroad, he was visited by a vision in a dream, in which the image  berated him about the horrible condition of the graves in the ancient cemetary.  After several nights of this dream repeating, Mordichai asked the opinion of a Rabbi, who interpreted the dream to mean that Mordichai should NOT go to Munich, but should move to Tzfat to take care of the cemetary.  This convinced Mordichai, who decided to not attend the Olympics  -- the infamous Munich Olympics... where his Israeli teammates were massacred by terrorists. Mordichai became religious and began to devote his life to maintaining the ancient gravestones of Tzfat's cemetary. Mordichai is responsible for painting the gravestones of the great rabbis who are buried in the cemetary blue.

The Miracle of the Victims of the 1837 Earthquake

The year 2007 marked the 170th year of the 1837 earthquake, in which close to 4000 Tzfat residents were killed.  In the aftermath of the quake, the victims were buried in mass graves, but it was done quickly and with no organization, and until 2007, no marker of their resting places had ever been found. 

In January 2007, coinciding with the 170th year of the earthquake, one of the cemetary's caretakers, Eli, was walking through the cemetary with Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Sepharadi Rabbi of Tzfat.  They prayed that they would be able to find some sign of these people, and suddenly, Eli heard a voice in his ear saying "drop down and roll".

Eli did so, and rolled down the hill.  Exactly where he stopped rolling, he and R' Eliyahu found a headstone with an inscription marking one of the mass gravesites of the 1837 earthquake victims. 

 

War of Independence

One of the biggest battles of the Israeli War of Independence was fought in Tzfat.  The residents of the city were largely elderly religious people, and numbered about 1500 Jews and 12,000 Arabs.  When the war broke out, there were 221 Jews of fighting age, with an additional 136 who were brought in to augment their numbers.  10,700 Arab soldiers were deployed to meet them. 

 

The Jewish soldiers were outnumbered in weaponry by over 10 – 1, and were further hampered in their efforts by the activities of the British Army, which turned over all the high points of the City to the Arab forces when they left in April 1948. 

 

It is agreed that the introduction of the Davidka, a Czech artillery piece which made more noise than damage, is given credit for scaring the Arab population and fighters into leaving, as they believed the rumors that the Jews had acquired the Atom Bomb.

 

A tour guide recently described a discussion that he had with another Tzfat Tour Guide many years ago.  Yisrael Shalem, z”l, had been researching how a disinformation campaign about the atom bomb could have caused such panic among Arab civilians and soldiers alike, to the point of convincing them to leave Tzfat entirely in the midst of a battle in which they had the upper hand.

 

Shalem spoke to the old people of Tzfat, who told him that before the riots of 1929, the Jews and Arabs of Tzfat had enjoyed good relations, and had even known each other well through their contacts at the weekly marketplace. 

 

During the war, at the end of each day’s battles, the old ladies of the town, who knew each other from before 1929, would come to “no man’s land” which separated the Jewish and Arab quarters, and call to each other, the Jews in Arabic, and the Arabs in Yiddish!

 

After the Davidka was fired off, the Arab women called to the Jews “vos is dos?” to which one Jewish lady sarcastically replied “we have the atom bomb”.

 

When it rained unexpectedly that night, the Jewish commanders started the rumor that “everyone knows that it always rains after an atom blast” and with that, the Arab forces and civilians fled, and Tzfat was liberated.