The Sephardic Synagogue of the Ari

The Sephardic Synagogue of the Ari is Safed's oldest house of prayer, built almost 300 years before the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria) came to Safed in the sixteenth century.

Tradition says that the Ari himself prayed here. Its interior blue accents are said to go back to the Jewish experience in Moorish Spain. True to Sephardic style, the synagogue has two focal points: the southern wall closest to Jerusalem for the Holy Ark (in this case, three arks), and the central, raised stage.

Photographer: By Roy lindman. File:RoyLindmanAriAshkenaziSynagogue (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.