A sample of
Dreaming of Safed
Angelina Muniz-Huberman
I want to head for Safed. I know that many Spanish Jews live there. Like me, they chose to return to our homeland. My father used to speak about a doctor, a school friend of his, who left for Safed at a young age, but from whom he never received any news. His name was Lázaro ben Israel. I’ll go looking for him.
Between one thing and another, we keep traveling. When we see the first small houses in Safed, our hearts break out in smiles. Gleaming white houses. Miriam thinks that she will soon have her own house. Her eyes sparkle. She’s relaxed. She pictures herself as a housewife. She will plant flowers and take care of a small vegetable garden. She will have a few hens. She will draw water from the well. She sighs. She comes close to me and kisses me on the cheek. I begin to feel what it means to be happy, these white houses, Miriam smiling, no fear. It’s all so simple.
I ask for Lázaro ben Israel and we find his house. When I tell them that I’ve come from Spain, they usher me in and immediately call Lázaro. He’s a tall man, dignified looking, with white hair, well-proportioned features, a profound and kind look that penetrates deeply, difficult to avoid, easy to accept. He leads me into his library. When I tell him my name, he gives me a long warm embrace and his eyes begin to tear.
“I loved your father like a brother. I tried to convince him up to the last moment to accompany me. And now it’s his son who has come to look for me. Tell me, what has become of him?”
“The Inquisition. They burned him and my mother.”
Lázaro ben Israel falls speechless. He can’t imagine their death. His emotion revives mine. The images of terror come back to me. The expression on my father’s face. My mother’s face. My grandfather wandering through the streets. And everything is erased. It’s hard to evoke their features. Everything will be forgotten. Everything will disintegrate into smoke. Smoke among the clouds.
“But you’ve been saved and you’ll have children, and your children will have children. You will be the seed that is planted in the earth.”
Yes, that’s the only consolation. It’s life that moves ahead in spite of death. It’s time that keeps flowing.
Lázaro ben Israel takes me under his protection. He explains to me how the Spanish families in Safed have created a flourishing craft, spinning and dyeing wool. He takes me to them and I start to learn the trade. Then I meet a Spanish rabbi and with him I study Torah and Kabbalah. Miriam has a house and all day long, she cleans and polishes and puts everything in place. She sings and her voice is refreshing crystalline water.
We sit in front of our house and watch the camels pass by laden with the most beautiful fabrics woven by us and they leave for other lands where the merchants wait impatiently for their arrival. So highly do they esteem them. And all of us in Safed are pleased with our craft. And all of us in Safed work. The rabbis and the studious scholars also have their trade, some are tanners, some are shoemakers, some are farmers. And we all sing and laugh.
The children are Safed’s happiness.
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ISBN 978-1-935604-61-7 (Paperback)
$18.00 130 pages
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