Giving the horse a rest

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A horse!   Still with sweat signs from a saddle.
First time for me to meet a horse down in the open lands next to my town.
But then I heard voices from the Meitar Forest picnic grove and realized the young Bedouins sitting there must be the owners.

You often see young Bedouin men riding horses in the fields down here in the Negev desert.
They own many camels but I myself have never seen a Bedouin on a camel.
Well, except for movies like Lawrence of Arabia.  :)

The only people you see on camels anymore are the tourists.
In this post -- an incredible FOUR kids on one camel, on the Mount of Olives.
And here a tourist camel working at Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Independence Hall, Tel Aviv

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Dizengoff,  Tel Aviv's first mayor,  loved to ride his horse down the local streets in the 1920s and 30s.

Next to the new (2009) statue on Rothschild Boulevard is the former house of Meir and Zina Dizengoff.
Today it is a museum commemorating the place where David Ben-Gurion signed the Declaration of Independence and declared Israel a State on May 14, 1948.
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Beep beep! Honk!

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OK, today is Ride to Work Day, but this is ridiculous!
A guy was riding a horse, without a saddle, in the middle of one of Jerusalem's noisiest and most congested intersections, during evening rush hour!

Actually the annual Ride to Work Day was started by some Americans and refers to motorcycles, not equines.

I have done four motorcycle posts in my four years of blogging.
I love both motorcycles and horses, but riding either on Israeli streets these days is too foolhardy for me.
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(Hoping this quick look at the corner of Agron and King David Streets will qualify as a tour for Our World Tuesday.)
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Horsefeathers!

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Two police horses were a bit spooked for a second here, near the Citadel.
The horses do well in disturbances on the ground, but I think here they were distracted by the unusual movement above them.
City workers on moving cranes and tall ladders were putting up big decorations for the upcoming Light Festival.

Hey, Camera-Critter folks, what's with the long hair on these horses' fetlocks and lower legs?
I thought only draft horses have such "feather." No?
Please click on the photo to get a closer view.

The horses peacefully passed the old gate of the Tower of David and just beyond, walked through the gate of the old Kishle police station.
Just about everything is old in the wonderful Old City.
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UPDATE Jan. 4, 2014:  Willow solves the mystery and tells us these are Friesian horses!  See her comment below.  Thanks Willow.
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Of harps and horses

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For Robert's 33rd PsalmChallenge at Daily Athens, here is Psalm 33.

1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. 2 Praise the LORD with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the LORD is upright; and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

13 The LORD looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men; 14 from where he sits enthroned he looks forth on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.
16 A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17 The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.

18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death, and keep them alive in famine. 20 Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and shield. 21 Yea, our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. 22 Let thy steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in thee. .
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Today I used the RSV, but the Hebrew with old English translation is at Mechon Mamre.
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Photos:
Window of Ps. 33 at the Great Synagogue, Jerusalem.
"David's Harp" by Shaul Baz, was at Mamilla mall exhibit.
"The creation of Man--sound of silence" by Betty Wachsstock Schonfeld, was as Mamilla. It is worthwhile enlarging this photo to see how Adam is stepping out of a block.
Ottoman Turkish soldier on horseback, Museum of Islamic Art Jerusalem.
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To seek forgiveness

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PsalmChallenge is hosted by Robert of Daily Athens.

Psalm 32

1 A Psalm of David. A Maskil.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. [Selah]
5 I acknowledged my sin to thee, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"; then thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. [Selah]

6 Therefore let every one who is godly offer prayer to thee; at a time of distress, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
7 Thou art a hiding place for me, thou preservest me from trouble; thou dost encompass me with deliverance. [Selah]

8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.


9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you.

10 Many are the pangs of the wicked; but steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the LORD.
11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
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Revised Standard Version translation. For Hebrew-English see Mechon Mamre. For Rabbi Segal's translation and commentary see A New Psalm.
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Photos:
Ceremonial horse trappings. Brass with turquoise and coral inlay. Bukhara, 19th century. At the Museum of Islamic Art, Jerusalem.
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Confession booth, St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia.
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As a Jew, I sometimes wonder what it is like to make confession to a priest. But I do like how the Catholic church now seems to call it the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

For the early Church, Psalm 32 was considered one of a group of seven Psalms of Atonement.
In Jewish tradition, it is the Psalm recited on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
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Invisible tether to mother

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I heard the clip-clop of hoofs today and ran out of the house to see!
This is only the second time in the three years that I have lived in this moshav (village) to see horses in my street.

A colt was running after its mama.
I wanted to run after them and beg for a few minutes' ride.
I wonder where they came from.
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But at least I finally found some nice animals to contribute to Camera Critter Sunday.

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"Alte Sachen," Tel Aviv style

"Alte Sachen!"--the familiar recording was coming out of a loudspeaker. Old stuff, junk, furniture, appliances--anything you want to get out of the house--that's what the alte Sachen men cruise the neighborhoods looking for.
I turned and looked for an old pick-up truck as the noise got closer. What?? A horse and wagon?! Still, in 2009? In the middle of Tel Aviv? On Ben-Gurion Boulevard?
I was delighted! You don't see that much anymore.
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Back when I made aliyah to Israel in 1968, you could still see a horse and cart used for deliveries in Tel Aviv, or the neft (kerosene) man ringing a bell from his wagon, or Arab kids coming past your door selling their wagonful of watermelons. In the Old City of Jerusalem, Arab men would still ride donkeys down the narrow lanes or lead them as pack animals.
Even camels worked when the first houses of Tel Aviv began to be built exactly 100 years ago.
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The Camera-Critters meme is celebrating its first anniversary today. We bloggers have been sharing our animal pics every weekend for a whole year now. Come on over.

Horses at the Old City wall

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A horse standing alone in a trailer next to the Citadel of Jerusalem?!

Na . . . not a real live horse. But a bit of a mystery.
I was with a fast-paced guided tour group and could not go over to investigate.
Four hours later it was gone.

Maybe he came to visit his brother, the statue just outside the Tower of David Museum of Jerusalem History.

Here Richard the Lionhearted faces Saladin!
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More about Crusaders in the Holy Land in yesterday's post.

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To see bloggers' live animal photos you can visit Camera-Critters meme.

Howdy, stranger

Who SAYS my village is just a one horse town?! (The American idiom is defined here.) This morning, in the quiet of Shabbat in our hill-top moshav, I was surprised to hear a clip-clop of hoofs. I ran outside and saw four strangers riding down our street!

The mysterious strangers smiled and the beautiful horses walked on by. Sigh . . .
I love horses almost as much as I love donkeys.
And today is International Day of the Donkey. Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary (where I volunteered and lived a month in Australia) had a big field day today.
My other T shirt, "Donkey Warhol," is from Safe Haven for Donkeys in the Holy Land. Heehaw!

Take a look at other animals today on blogs all over the world at Camera-Critters.

Knitting peace

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Thanks to Kris McCracken and wife Jen, I heard of World Wide Knit in Public Day.
In the normal world it happened this year on June 14, I believe.
But because that was a Saturday, and Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath, and knitting is considered work, and work is not done on Shabbat, Israeli knitters sat outside together and created on Sunday instead.

Imagine my delight a few days ago to discover the fruit of their labor in downtown Jerusalem, on the bronze Mare of Peace!

The plaque says the "Cavalla della Pace" was created and donated in celebration of the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem.

Interesting things about this horse can be read here.
And more about the park, Gan HaSus, here. 
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