Experience Safed
Safed Israel
  • Safed
    • Safed Map
    • Safed FAQs
    • Safed Cemetery >
      • Safed Cemetery Database
  • About Safed
    • History of Safed >
      • Video Lectures About Tzfat History
    • Photos
    • Historical Sites of Safed
    • Traditions of Safed
    • Safed Personalities
    • Stories of Safed
    • Legends of Safed
    • Mikves and Synagogues of Safed
  • Tourist Information
    • How to Organize a Bar Mitzva in Tzfat / Bat Mitzva in Tzfat
    • Food in Safed -- Restaurants, Shabbat Food, Catering
    • How to Travel to Tzfat, in Tzfat and Around Tzfat
    • Safed and Northern Tour Guides
  • Shabbat in Safed
    • Tzfat Shabbat Experience
    • Synagogues in Safed
  • Self-Guided Tours of Safed
    • Yosef Caro Synagogue
    • Ari Ashkanazi synagogue
    • Ari Sepharadi Synagogue of Safed
    • Ari Mikva Selfl-Guided Tour
    • Abuhav Synagogue of Safed
    • Avritch Synagogue Self-Guided Tour
    • Alsheich synagogue
    • Cave of Shem and Ever
    • Yossi Banai -- Hatzaddik Halavan Synagogue
    • Tzfat Cemetery
  • Activities to Do in Tzfat
    • מה לעשות בצפת
  • Kabbalah in Safed
  • Safed Accommodations
    • About Safed Accommodations
    • Myrtle the Turtle Guest House of Safed >
      • Myrtle the Turtle Patio Room
      • Myrtle the Turtle Veranda Room
      • Myrtle the Turtle Garden Room
      • About Myrtle the Turtle Guest House
      • מירטל ד'ה טרטל צימר בצפת
    • Sharon's Guesthouse of Safed
    • Artist Quarter Guesthouse
    • Safed Sugar Suite
    • Off the Square Guesthouses
    • Maim Haim Guesthouse of Safed
    • Kupel House
    • Elements Guest Suite
    • The Spirit of Tzfat Villa
    • Beit Gafni
    • SouzaKohnGalleryTzimmers
    • Reznik Guesthouse
    • Villa Tiferet
    • Sofer Guest House >
      • Sofer Guest House studio 1
      • Sofer Guest House Studio Room 2
    • Givat Shoshana Apartment of Safed
  • Classes and Learning
  • Ladino Festival Tzfat
  • Passover 2023 in Safed
  • Klezmer Festival in Safed
    • Klezmer Stage Map
  • Lag B'Omer in Safed
  • Summer and Ben HaZmanim 2023
  • Welcome Guide
    • Emergency Numbers
    • City and Government Resources
    • Health Care
    • Car Repair, Appliance Repair, Gen'l Repairs
    • Tzfat Transportation
    • Communication in Safed
    • Religious Services
    • Aliyah to Tzfat
    • Real Estate in Safed
    • Translators (volunteer)
    • Education in Tzfat
    • Jobs
    • Gmachs and Food Support
    • Safed's English Library
  • Personal Services/Treatments
  • Safed Artists
    • Samuel Kyeyune Kippas from Uganda
  • Who Are We?
  • Contact Us
  • Tzfat Books
  • Tzfat Herald Newspaper

Why is Safed Important to Judaism?

Tzfat is known as one of the four holy cities of Judaism. It has had almost uninterrupted Jewish presence for over 2000 years and is the center of the study of Kabbalah -- Jewish mysticism. 

Each of the 4 holy cities corresponds to one of the 4 elements of nature.
  • Jerusalem represents Fire because of Temple Sacrifices
  • Hebron represents Earth because that's where the cave of the patriarchs is located
  • Tiberias represents water because it's located next to Lake Kineret 
  • Tzfat represents air because the city is high in the mountains and it is characterized by a  spiritual aura, connected to the Kabalah.
Kabbalah did not originate in Tzfat -- the book of the Zohar, the basic book of Kabblah, was written by R' Shimon Bar Yochai in the 1st century A.D. in the countryside surrounding Tzfat. But over the centuries, kabbalistic scholars settled in Tzfat, teaching and expounding on the Kabbalah 

The greatest of these scholars came to Tzfat in the years following the Spanish Expulsion. R' Yitzhak Luria, R' Yosef Caro, R' Moshe Cordovero, R' Yaakov Berav, R' Shlomo Alkabetz and many others created a community of Torah and Kabbalah scholars in the 15th century that earned the city the name "City of Kabbalah."


A Self-Guided Tour of the History of Tzfat

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