Wonders of Creation
What if......
As long as religion has existed, there have been believers and skeptics. This has never been more obvious than present-day Tzfat, where fervent believers expound the precepts of the Torah and its teachings, often quite loudly and publically, while non-believers tend to regard their believing brethren with amusement and good-natured indulgence.
The Azamra "Jewish House," a comfortable rest stop of books, music and discussion in Tzfat's Old Jewish Quarter, has embarked on an ambitious project. They have created a compelling exhibit which may not prove that the Torah is God's Word, but creates enough material for an open-minded visitor to at least give the matter some thought.
The exhibition is located at the Azamra Center on Alkabetz Street, near the ARI Ashkanazi synagogue. The food court and lounge is on street level. Downstairs, however, is a below-ground room which was a Jewish home hundreds of years ago, and now, after successive earthquakes, sits below the present-day city.
Food for Thought
The exhibition posters give an overview of a number of occurrences which most people never think twice about. But as the exhibition shows, there is plenty to consider.
For instance, there is the Jewish practice of laying tefillin (phylacteries). Kabbalists teach that when tefillin is tightened around the bicep of the left arm , pointing towards the heart , and on the " entrance " to the head - "the place where the head of the infant is soft " ( in the word of the Talmud ) - a unique spiritual energy is channeled into the human soul.
In a recent experiment, researchers asked a group of men who do not regularly put tefillin on to do so. After these men put the tefillin on, their photos were taken with special kirilian camera which captures a high energy ultra-violet energy field light in its images. The images shown by this camera demonstrated conclusively that an "aura" appears when the men put the tefillin on, at exactly the points where the tefillin lay on their head and hand, which are exactly the points where the Kabbalists speak of a spiritual energy being channeled.
Even more interesting is the point that these are the acupressure and acupuncture points that for thousands of years the Chinese have been teaching correspond to increasing spirituality.
A second subject in the exhibition deals with the Biblical commandment to circumcise Jewish boys on the eighth day after birth. The Torah is explicit..... " And on the eighth day , the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised ." Why the eighth day?
While one can never be certain of the "reasons" for God's commandments, it is interesting to note that recent physiological discoveries have shown that the liver of a newborn slowly develops until on the eighth day it is mature enough to fulfill its role to create the clots necessary to stop bleeding. In addition, as the exhibition notes, after the 8th day, the blood-clotting material decreases, so only on the 8th day of life is this blood-clotting material at its zenith.
The exhibition looks at many fascinating subjects, including gravity, meteorites, stars, and even water reservoirs in space, among others. It is a wonderful way for children and adults alike to look at the ancient Jewish teachings in a new way, and think about the incredible traditions and knowledge of the Jewish people.
The Azamra Center is located on Rehov Alkabetz, next to the Fig Tree Courtyard, across from the Tourist Information Center.
