Background on Tsfat

From the Lonely Planet Travel Guide 2007 edition: “Tsfat was founded sometime in the 2nd century BC as a masu’of (beacon) village—one of a chain of hill-top fire sites stretching to Jerusalem. The beacons were lit to mark the beginning of a new month or holy day…During the 15th and 16th centuries the Jewish community of Safad, or Safat, as it was called, was enlarged by an influx of immigrants fleeing the inquisition and persecution in Spain. Many of the new arrivals were Kabbalists, or mystical truth seekers. The name comes from the Hebraic root kbl, meaning ‘to receive’…In the latter part of the 18th century Tsfat welcomed a further influx of Jewish Hasidism, this time from Russia. From 1951 the former Arab quarter became a flourishing artists’ colony.”