Yom Kippur and the start of the weekend

Church of the Beatitudes. We hiked up to it (30 minutes midday heat) on Yom Kippur only to find out this Christian Church was celebrating the day too.

Cave supposedly used during time of Jesus.

George, stray we took in during my second week here, proud father to Frau Roiter's yet to be born pups.

A look at the Galilee.

Sea of Galilee

This last weekend I went back to Jerusalem and then to the only Oktoberfest in the Middle East. I’m going to break this down into many posts because if I said it in one I would ruin it by missing some things and you would think it was longer than War and Peace. So you can either put on a big pot of coffee and call in sick for the day or pick these chapters up each night before you rest your weary body.

Last week Wednesday ML, Thomas, and I drove a departing short-time volunteer to the airport and picked up Fr. Basilius coming in from Germany. We left Tabgha at 7pm (dark out already) and the 2 and a half-hour drive was great. Israel’s northern landscape is hills in the north and you can see all the cities and town lit up in the darkness. On the peak of every hill is a bunch of lights. As you look to the distance and see from left to right, near and far glowing lights you get this tranquil feeling, and it is hard for me to imagine so much violence in this land. Thursday was Yom Kippur, the most sacred holiday in the Jewish religion. At the monastery we do not celebrate German holidays because we are in Israel and we do not celebrate Jewish holidays because they are German Catholics, so Fr. Basilius broke down and gave into some zivi coaxing and we were given the day off. No one does anything on Yom Kippur. No work, no driving, it is meant for repentance. That day in Akko (northwest on the Mediterranean) an Arab man was driving his car and a group of young Jewish men said he was purposely making too much noise. He was assaulted, stoned, and riots broke out in the city. I have not experienced any violence firsthand but one can only avoid this trouble for so long. I am afraid I can do nothing but wait until my time runs out and I am face to face with some religious/cultural confrontation, I only hope both sides keep their cool and it ends positively.