Playful puppies at President Peres' place

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Animal pictures for Camera-Critters were the last thing I expected to capture at the Sukkot public reception at the President's house.
But there they were, three dogs.
When they saw each other, they started straining at the leash and finally jumped all over one another in joy.

They will have to learn to be more restrained.
Their jackets say they are "guide dog puppies in training."
And the young man's shirt says "Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind."

Many university students volunteer to be foster parents for the puppies' initial socialization.

Please see an earlier post where I described the breeding and training of these Hebrew-"speaking" guide dogs (bless their heart).
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This post's title will be good for ABC Wednesday's P day.
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Waiting to shoot

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There is one photo I forgot to show you from the open house at the President's residence.

Everyone was waiting for the music and dancing and speech-making to start on the stage in the big garden.
The sun was getting hot.
The official photographers were smoking and waiting and getting bored.
Or maybe I just thought so.
Please, enlarge the picture and tell me what impression you get from their faces and body language.
Anyway, it made me glad to have the freedom of being just an amateur photographer.
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Protest popping up everywhere

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Before we leave the on-going blog topic of the Oct. 17 open house/open sukkah at the Presidential Residence, I want to show you these pretty Ethiopian girls waiting to go on stage and do their dance.
They were one of several folk dance troupes.

President Shimon Peres (in the upper left) was enjoying some of the entertainment before giving a nice speech.
His speech was interrupted by four protesters who suddenly stood up shouting and unfurling small cloth banners demanding affordable housing for the people of Israel.
I was happy that our President listened and relied to them that the government is working on the problem; and he asked the security men to be gentle when escorting the protesters out.
I got a picture of that moment but I don't feel like publishing it, somehow.

The Israeli Andalusian Orchestra, founded in 1994 and based in Ashdod, played.
Wiki says the 50 musicians and lyricists are of Russian or Moroccan origin.
They combine the oud and drum with European classical instruments.
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A few weeks ago , Wiki says, the orchestra bowed to pressure from religious subscribers and removed a concert from its subscription series featuring female singer Francoise Atlan. According to Haaretz, some concertgoers threatened to cancel their subscriptions if the concert was not removed from the series.
Strange, the Haaretz article is no longer to be found where it was footnoted.

However, you can go to Huffington Post to read about the curious halacha "kol isha" that says men should not listen to the voice of a singing woman.
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A house like a museum

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I want to share with you more of our once-a-year chance to see inside the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem.
Click on the photos to have an up-close look at the art.

Reuven Rubin created the stained glass triptych.
It shows Jacob wrestling with the angel, David entering Jerusalem, and Elijah ascending to heaven.
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For the Sukkot open house an exhibit was set up, with art made by special needs people.
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The 64 square ceiling panels by Naphtali Bezem tell the story of the return to the Land of Israel.
Just recently they were carefully taken to the Israel Museum to be cleaned of the dust, grime, and smoke that had accumulated since 1971.


Elijah in his chariot of fire pulled by red horses is fabulous!

On another wall of the reception hall is a massive relief that looks like the Western Wall.
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Jerusalem-born artist Moshe Castel died in 1991 and the New York Times wrote this about him:

From the 1950's on, he produced relief paintings, inspired by what he called "ancient predecessors of the Hebrew civilization." A visit to the ruins of an ancient synagogue in Galilee, consisting of basalt blocks into which images and ornaments were cut, led him to use ground basalt, molded into shapes, as his basic material. He embellished the basalt with archaic forms, derived from ancient script, symbolism and mythological signs from Hebrew and Sumerian culture.

Hope you enjoyed your tour for Our World Tuesday. More posts about President Peres' official residence are here.

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The bounty of our land inside the sukkah

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On Monday morning some 10,000 people accepted the once-a-year invitation to see the President's Residence, the sukkah, and President Peres himself.
(My previous reports are here.)
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The sukkah was so beautiful!
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development designed the natural decorations.
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You might want to enlarge these photos to see the artistic details.

A pomegrante "tree."

"String beans" takes on a new meaning!

Vegetables, fruits, and flowers were grouped according to color: orange, green, white, purple, red.

Busy bees were making honeycomb.

Honey in an important symbolic food at the start of the Jewish new year.
We dip apple slices in honey and say the blessing to ask for "a sweet new year."
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Rocket, robot, satellite

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OK, so as I started to tell you in Monday's post, thousands of people lined up to get through the tight security check and into our President's annual Sukkot open house and open sukkah.

Here is a 3-ton Shavit rocket (22 tons when loaded) pointing toward the sky.
The exhibits this years were on Israeli advances in science, agriculture, and the environment.
The Israel Aerospace Industries rocket was mounted on a simulated launcher.

The clouds made the day a perfect temperature and nice for SkyWatch Friday.

A pretty satellite with blue panels unfolded, compliments of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

The performing robot was a big hit.
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Come back again soon to see the art works and archaeology inside the President's Residence and the amazing hanging flowers, fruit and vegetable displays in the sukkah.
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Our President opens his doors to the people

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Today I accepted President Shimon Peres' invitation and came to his house, Beit HaNassi.
Well, I together with ten thousand curious Israelis and some tourists.
The official Presidential Residence is open to the people but once a year, for Sukkot.

I'll show you more of the festivities soon, but first let me post some presidential doors for the Monday Doorways meme before Monday is over.
And for Our World Tuesday too.

I was trying to snap the tall bronze doors when a strawberry woman suddenly walked through.
(Many of the exhibits today were about Israeli agriculture and science.)
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The guidebook calls them "Italian-style" doors.
You can see some of the 63 painted squares which decorate the ceiling of the reception hall, which is used for formal ceremonies.

The inside of the tall doors is of wood.

The guards let us peek through the door of a more cozy meeting room where the President talks with his VIP guests.

Not exactly a door but this is the entrance to the beautifully decorated sukkah, which is what our festival of Sukkot is all about.
The Hebrew above is from the Bible. God is saying "Then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit."

Let it be so.
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