With the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, many prominent rabbis found their way to Safed (in Hebrew, Tzfat), among them the Kabbalists Isaac Luria and Moshe Kordovero; Joseph Caro, the author of the Shulchan Aruch and Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, composer of the Sabbath hymn Lecha Dodi. They are buried in the cemetery, their graves traditionally painted sky-blue, at the foot of the mountain south of the city.

Safed came to be regarded as one of the four holy cities along with Jerusalem, Hebron and Tiberias. Safed is associated with the element of air, a reference to the mystical/spiritual branch of Judaism, Kabbalah that flourished there.

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The technical details – the photo was taken with a Nikon D90 digital camera in May (ISO 3200, 29mm, F13 at 1/800 sec).

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