Tzfat צפת
The kabbalists' city in the Galilee hills, where the Shulchan Aruch, «Lecha Dodi» and Lurianic kabbalah were born.
After the expulsion from Spain some refugees reached the Land of Israel, and in the first half of the sixteenth century an extraordinary concentration of talent gathered in Tzfat, a small hill town living from wool. Rabbi Yaakov Beirav tried to restore semicha; Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote the Beit Yosef and the Shulchan Aruch here; Rabbi Moshe Cordovero built the first systematic kabbalistic philosophy; Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz composed «Lecha Dodi», sung ever since in every synagogue.
In 5330 Yitzchak Luria — the Arizal — arrives. He teaches for barely two years and writes almost nothing, but his system of tzimtzum, shattering and repair transforms Jewish thought: exile becomes cosmic and every mitzva a mending of the world. His teaching was recorded by Rabbi Chaim Vital.
The custom of going out to greet the Sabbath in the fields is also from Tzfat.