I imagined Tsefat, the center of Jewish mysticism in the Galilee, as a picturesque, quiet small town, perhaps with a center square like that of Sonoma, with art galleries and pretty synagogues, and so on. I was a little bit off the mark. Tsefat has grown into a sprawling hillside city with high-rise apartment buildings, much like any other town. The historical center was still small and picturesque, but, of course, being in the Galilee, it was built into a hillside. A veritable maze of narrow alleyways and steps up, steps down. Stone walls, some painted in an incredible hue of light blue. Lots of small art shops, some with good, interesting pieces, and some not. Lots of the same stuff you see with street vendors everywhere. Food, at least what we saw, mostly your run-of-the-mill fast food, and not very good at that. I would imagine that to feel spiritual there you would have to spend some time to get to know the place. Two hours did not do it.
Our first stop was at the gallery of a Kabbalah student and artist from Michigan who talked to us about his path to spiritualism and his art. We also visited two small synagogues, very lovely in detail, 
but you also needed to see through a surface layer of tour groups and white plastic chairs. This one is the Abuhava Synagogue, whose architecture is full of symbolism. A Jewish trivia quiz on numbers 1 to 13.
In the afternoon we visited a kibbutz in Malkiyah ("God is my king"). Our guide was Eitan, the security chief and, if I remember correctly, the head of agriculture as well. He took us to meet with some soldiers and then guided us to the Lebanese border. A few feet from the border fence we picked an almost-ripe nectarine, chanted Shehecheyanu really, really loudly, and then the blessing for eating fruit. That nectarine tasted better than any ripe fruit from Berkeley Bowl. I will remember that taste every time I eat a nectarine from now on.
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