The holy city of Tzfas holds many secrets, and it takes a determined enthusiast to ferret them all out. Rabbi Yisroel Rottenberg — tour guide, storyteller and well-known Tzfas rav and former rebbi — has made it his business to discover the secrets hidden within his city’s ancient stones.
After living in Tzfas for fourteen years I thought I knew pretty much all the stories about the city. Therefore when Rabbi Yisroel Rottenberg a well-known and respected Tzfas rabbi suggested a tour for Mishpacha I was skeptical whether he could tell me anything new. But I hadn’t reckoned on Rabbi Rottenberg.
Originally from London after making aliyah he became a much-loved rebbi in the Old City. Later he was responsible for a number of Tzfas’s educational and chessd institutions. How did he make the leap from chinuch and chesed to being a font of fascinating information about Tzfas and a popular tour guide?
“I was having a hard time making a living from chinuch so I started giving tours” he explains. “I met all these people visiting Tzfas and they had so many questions about its history. I therefore began to ask around and talk to people.”
The result is that Rabbi Rottenberg has discovered stories that neither I nor our Tzfas-born-and-bred photographer Eliyahu Cobin had ever heard. And perhaps there will be a few stories that are new to you too.
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