But it's for everyone? Yes!

I'm not chastising her, I'm giving her a boost.

Everyone helps

Clockwise from middle top: Hebrew, Arabic, English, German

A look at Tabgha from the hike last week on Yom Kippur

Another look at Tabgha

Working together to get palm branches for the sukkah.

I do not know if you can see how sharp these branches are but they pierce the skin with no effort.

A start to the sukkah

Inside the sukkah looking out

The crowds gathering to watch and take pictures

On Monday we had both a Jewish group and a Moslem group arrive. Both groups were comprised of mentally handicapped people ages 14 to 50-plus. In Israel mental disabilities are very poorly understood and therefore those who have them are very poorly treated, especially with the Arabic population. I have heard horror stories of children living in the same confines as pigs, dogs, and other animals. Those who come to Tabgha with their groups are just some of the fortunate ones whose parents did not shun them. Along with a couple of the monks here, we all constructed together a sukkah. A sukkah is a prayer hut constructed for the Jewish Biblical pilgrimage festival Sukkot. The younger Jewish men will sleep in it for 8 nights in succession along with daily prayer. It should be made from things you find from the land, preferably tree branches; we made ours from palm branches. We made a frame from metal and then attached the palm branches to it. The only problem with this project is that the palm branches are razor sharp. As I was stepping over a pile of fallen branches I accidentally kicked this lone branch that was just hiding there waiting for me. I hit it with the side of my foot and felt an immediate twinge of pain. I looked down and nothing appeared wrong with my foot but I still felt the pain. So I started to take off my shoe and it got “knee shakingly” painful. Get ready. The left side of my sock was bloody from the middle toe back to the heel. I could see this little sliver sticking out of my sock (less than a centimeter showing) and figured I found the culprit, so I grabbed on and tugged. As I ensued to pull the lance out of my foot (it was just over an inch long, I measured), I saw my life pass before my eyes: there was me crying in kindergarten, then me crying in 4th grade, me crying in 10th grade, me crying going off to college, me crying last year (you get the picture). You are probably asking why we made the sukkah out of these sword-like branches if we wanted to encourage peace between faiths. Only near the ends where they connect to the tree are they sharp, otherwise like a regular pedal. The sukkah was constructed in front of our church so it naturally drew a lot of attention from the tourists entering and leaving. One of the tourists stopped me and asked me what it was and as I tried to explain to the best of my ability that it was a project with Jewish origin that became non-denominational for our purpose to create a peaceful project between all faiths she made a coarse sound, said something sharply in Italian (which I can only assume negative from the following actions), gave me a malicious look, abruptly turned, and left quickly; so much for encouraging an interfaith concord huh Br. Paul?