The final day of the week-long Feast of Tabernacles is known as Simhat Torah, a joyful celebration of the giving of God’s Word to Israel.

Simhat Torah is marked across the country with great festivity. But typically only by Jews.

So it was a special occurrence indeed when the Christian clergy of the Emmaus Monastery in central Israel joined members of the Birkat Shalom synagogue in Kibbutz Gezer in their Simhat Torah gathering.