Item Description:

Running from the Mediterranean eastward to the Kinneret, the Galil (Galilee) with its hills and mountains and valleys is the garden spot of beauty in the Land of Israel. From the earliest Biblical times until today, the Galil has played a vital role in the story of the Jewish people. This series of lectures by Rabbi Berel Wein enlightens the listener as to the importance of the Galil in different periods of Jewish history. It outlines the events that took place and the personalities of some of the great historic figures who lived there and gives us an insight into these environs over the ages.

Individual lectures:

The Period of the Mishnah - Dating back to the breakaway northern kingdom of Judea, Rabbi Wein traces the early history of the Galil both before and after the destruction of the Holy Temple. Because the Galil was the birthplace of the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud, it was a thriving center of Torah life where Jews dwelt in relative peace even in the first few centuries after the exile.

The Time of the Ari z"l - When the Ari z"l and the other giants of Spanish Jewry arrived in the city of Safed, they transformed the city into a center of sacredness and Torah study, benefiting the entire Galil. Concurrent with the sublime innovations of the kabbalah and the Shulchan Aruch was Jewish ingenuity in capitalism. Rabbi Wein examines both sides of Jewish life in the Galil - the spiritual and the economic - and shows how Jews sustained themselves during a period of unparalleled creativity and enlightenment.

The First and the Second Aliyah - In this picture of contrasts, Rabbi Wein describes both the religious aliyos of the Chovevei Tzion and the nationalist aliyos of the secular Zionists. Whether the concern was observance of shemitta or the ideological influence of communism, both sets of pioneers faced challenges and left their mark on the Galil in memorable and characteristic ways.