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Rosh Pina and the ark of Noah

leaving Haifa, via inward towards the Galilee, Israel's green lung, historically the first and moshav agricultural kibboutz for a people who, having never been able to own land in the host countries, had never been a farmer. The earth is thirsty, a few green fields and lots of parched red soil, it does not rain here for several months, is a real and dramatic water emergency. The Israelis had become specialists in the bombing of the clouds and I'm not sure what to make them rain, but how do you do when even the shade of clouds? But you can never say, these parts are in "area miracles." In the distance Lake Tiberias increasingly poor water, the city of the same name, Mount of Beatitudes, Capharneum.

Gaston argues that you should never return to the places that you are loved and that we have a good memory, and perhaps he is right, review Safed (Zefat, Tzfat, discrediting) ten years later was disappointing. The highest mountain village, perched at 800 meters in the Upper Galilee, with the sight and thought that go out of its maze of stone alleys, the old scribes who, in their banquets on the verges of the road painted the letters of 'ancient Hebrew alphabet seeking the hidden meanings, the bohemian artists that modern reinterpretation of the sacred with the inspiration of the magical silence of the place, of that certain something mystical that hovered in the air, I did not find the flavor.

Sure, it's always very religious town, the blacks turn caftans in abundance, preposterous hats in the windows of Queen Elizabeth for the brides that practitioners must never appear at the head found in public, but unfortunately also an endless row of modern shops, business at the exhibition of the sacred. The Kabbalah, the mystical interpretation of Judaism is at home here, here in the '400 and '500 have come great masters and scholars fleeing persecution by the Inquisition in Spain and in the 700 and then another large influx of men from Russia. Many people, especially Americans, hungry for spirituality, they started studying the Kabbalah, but this leaves me puzzled. It 's like if I wanted to climb Everest without a sudden I've ever coached, Kabbalistic studies should eventually be a point of arrival and departure, to be tackled only after years and years devoted to the knowledge of the foundations of religion. In the famous quarter of those we visit ancient synagogues of Joseph Caro was born in Spain and Isaac Lourie, called Ha'ri, one of the greatest Masters, born in Jerusalem, both of Sixteenth century.

A magnificent carved olive wood tabernacle containing the sacred scrolls of the Torah, the window-glass representation of the Sephiroth, the ten emanations through which the Transcendent is manifested.

The sun sets very early, at four o'clock, we put ourselves in the car with the last rays of sunset because we are afraid to face the dark roads that we do not know, but all right, Rosh Pina to sleep at night is a few kilometers. I did not know the charm of this rural village founded by Romania at the end of '800, the first colony Jews in Galilee, but is a tip of my cousin and he Eldad they will be. A Rosh Pina hotels out there, but much better Zimmer, the rooms, so here they call them, the German way, coveted by the Israelis for the weekend in these parts is synonymous with mountain chalets, bungalows and very comfortable and trendy (We even have a room in a bath tub jacuzzi like an idiot not to use all those buttons disorient us). La Villa Tehila, recommended by the guide, as a farm in the forest Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is full of corners, crevices, courtyards, halls, lounges, rooms at all heights and never ceases to amaze with the tide of disparate objects, even a Sicilian cart, transships everywhere.

But above all we seem to embark in Noah's ark. Dozens of animals peacefully together in pens in common: parrots, a variety of birds, rabbits, raccoons, chinchillas, toponyms unidentified rates, a llama, chickens, guinea fowl, geese, two horses and so on.

owners fit perfectly into the landscape, they sound like prophets of '68, a past almost Archaeological idealism, pioneering, pacifism, spinels and guitar, long white hair with a ponytail (her husband) and last but significant detail, their dog, a mutt that is very petulant named Aaron, as the brother of Moses.

The country is tiny and beautiful, tranquil, there is almost nothing but room for the imagination, the old stone houses partially restored the rough country roads , luck still plays for real. There is an old synagogue, the old photos that show the history of the place and the early pioneers in selling some handicraft, honey, of cinnamon and homemade liqueurs limoncello.

To Nimrod: the end of the country, bumpy road and uncultivated land abandonment check suddenly the whole wall in a pitch well placed. Nimrod is written on a sign. A gentleman of a certain age tills, hoe, system, clean all around. I play from that point you should see Nimrod, the ruins of the fortified citadel in the direction of Mount Hermon and request confirmation to the ladies. No, Nimrod was his only child, a beautiful boy of 35 years died last war in Lebanon. To remember, to work and do not think he made this observation point over the valley. To Nimrod

Rosh Pina, a wonderful surprise, the Golan Heights in the distance.

Denise Milani Nippels

Haifa between mountain and sea

Wow that dreamscape the Bahai Temple and its gardens all illuminated under the night sky that run along the western flank of Mount Caramel ! Stuff to Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights, even in Walt Disney's most successful films would know them better. I do not know the effect on electricity costs, but it is great and in fact the UNESCO World Heritage site. Once again, Gaston has done his duty, that brought luck, because this is the view from the window of our room, a modest guest house stumbled upon the last time that behind closed shutters hid no other than this view. (By the way, the Guesthouse Hadadi we got to experience the fantasy Levantine, say Naples is not enough, the owner Andrew: Instead of just admitting he had not foreseen light near the bedside, in fact there was no outlet, with a scripted textbook opened all the rooms on the ground supporting he did not understand, things of this world, had stolen all the light bulbs at night. We laughed out loud).

to visit the Bahai gardens, wide open for the faithful, but only partially accessible to tourists and tour for free, of course, we devoted an entire half day. Appointment collective atop Nof Yafei being on top to 45 and then down, down you go walk to the Mausoleum. We never miss anything, the view from above in Haifa, care, precision and accuracy of every nook and cranny,

formal gardens with flower beds that can not be pruned more perfectly, seems to work on it one hundred gardeners, cherubs, statues, golden eagles, vases, fountains, fountains, gurgling water, lights galore and even a like the Parthenon, a library and study and documentation center and two other buildings, an administration office and others, The Universal House of Justice, the supreme body of government of the Bahai faith.

The central temple is the hub of the site, the Shrine of the Bab , considered the precursor. If I am not Wrong Bahai religion is the most recent in time, founded in the mid-nineteenth century, first preached equality and justice, humanity as a whole to evolve collective ideals of peace, harmony and unity. With rich syncretic fusion of the eight million Muslims in the Bahai world (two million in India alone) recognize and believe in Abraham, the Sakyamuni Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, Jesus, the prophets of the various religious path of history, Muhammad Ali in 1844 Iran has declared to be the 'Chosen and Bab, which is the Porta messenger of the prophecies and Baha'ullah, his prophet. The writings of the Bab, in fact, introduce the idea of \u200b\u200ba messianic figure, which will be embodied in 1866 by Mizra Husayn Ali, Baha'ullah . As history teaches us, the preachers of peace and noble values \u200b\u200bdo not really know because they are always socially dangerous and should be eliminated, so the faithful were tortured in the Bab, the Bab himself publicly executed in Tabriz in 1850, and Baha'ullah, the founder of the religion, had the divine inspiration in the Black Pit of Tehran, sadly known prison. After the exile in various places (Baghdad, Constantinople, Adrianople) in his last prison Acre Baha'ullah systematized and consolidating the new religion in his main text, the Kitab-Aqdas .

The Shrine of the Bab (his remains were brought from Iran to the Holy Land) Bahai gardens and off in a valley by the German Colony neighborhood with the way Ben Gurion, its main thoroughfare in the center, and this is another very interesting story that, in my opinion, deserves to be told: in the middle 800 in Germany, an organization of fundamentalist Christians, Lutherans founded a "Society for the gathering of God's people in Jerusalem." Are called Deutscher Templer , but they are the modern Knights Templar, a group small but determined not to be confused with the medieval knights of the Crusades, which in this case has nothing to do anything. Come to Palestine to live according to the Apostolic Messianic vision and thus speed the second coming of Christ on earth. To begin purchasing land in Haifa, where at the foot of Mount Caramel form their first community in the Holy Land. Streets and roads cut with a ruler, stone houses neat and clean, geraniums on the balconies, roofs, red as in the Bavarian Alps, nothing to do with the local architecture.

industrious and enterprising, are used in the construction of Jewish settlements and become most expert in the vines, in the oil and soap and then exported with great success throughout the world. Coexist peacefully with Arabs and Jews, but by good Teutonic fundamentalists and nationalists loyal to the motherland, when the time will not make any distinction between his love for Christ and that the Fuehrer, will love both. In 1942, it is expelled from Palestine by order of the British government representative and moved to Australia until 1947. Interestingly, if the so-called German Colony neighborhood of Haifa is inhabited mostly by Palestinians and Maronites total tourist vocation, the consideration of the district of German Templars in Tel Aviv called Sarona and, irony of fate, in the years of underground struggle for the independence of Israel became the headquarters of the Haganah, the military defense of the Yishuv, the community Jews in Palestine.

The fact is that under the houses and bucolic green, deep in the earth, there is a labyrinth of cellars very confident that at the time had served to age Templars of good wine. Yes, a simple change of use! All around the old town of Sarona that now wants to preserve, (you are restoring some of the 41 houses of the original core housing) rise skyscrapers, is the Kyria, a complex of government buildings, bases, Israeli Defense Command.

Lying like a mantle between the sea and Mount Caramel, Haifa seems to welcome the peaceful days that pass, far from the vortex of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for all eternity you questions. Live and work here I can see why many Israeli writers, views quiet space away.