The Great Beit Midrash of the Ari stands just south of the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue, at the edge of Chakal Tapuchin Kadishin, the “field of holy apples” where, by Tzfat tradition, the Ari welcomed Shabbat with his students. The tablet over the door opens with “How awesome is this place” and calls it the great beit midrash of our teacher, the holy Ari. It gives the founding year as 5333 (1572–73) and a repair in 5697 (1936–37).

A plaque beside the door remembers Rabbi Shmuel Heller (1803–1884), the rabbi of the city, who led Tzfat’s Ashkenazi community for more than forty years. His life was saved on the threshold of this beit midrash in the great earthquake of 1837.

Historically it served as the synagogue of Tzfat’s Ashkenazi chief rabbis, and it is still an active house of prayer and study with daily minyans. The note on the door gives Shacharit at 6:30am.