President Shimon Peres held the "Blessing of the Trees" today (Wednesday). He offered the blessing in the President's House Garden, at the foot of the blooming orange tree, together with the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, the Rishon LeZion, the Hetgon Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, and the Western Wall Rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz.<\/p>\r\n
\u00a0At the end of the prayer, the President spoke and wished a happy holiday to all the House of Israel: "Passover is a great holiday on a global scale because the exodus from Egypt has not yet ended. There is still slavery in the world. Among us there are women who are discriminated against, and there are children who are disadvantaged. I wish all the people of Israel a year of liberation from slavery to freedom, a year of equality and unity, and I want to express my hope that peace will come to the State of Israel, which is so dear to us.".<\/p>\r\n
The Rishon LeZion said at the end of the prayer: "The month of spring, which brings with it blossoming and prosperity, symbolizes the departure from slavery to freedom, and the prayer we offered here contains hope for blossoming and prosperity in the month of Nissan and then a harvest and fruit in the month of Sivan in preparation for the holiday of Shavuot. I would like to wish all the people of Israel a kosher and happy Passover.".<\/p>\r\n
\u00a0Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef presented the President with 'Yalkut Yosef', a collection of books comprising 40 volumes, which Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef wrote over a period of 47 years. The unique collection, which has already been translated into ten languages, including Braille for use by the blind, was presented by Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef to President Peres in accordance with the will of his late father, the late Rabbi Yosef, who asked his son to present the collection to President Peres before his death. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef spoke about the memories from his father's house, when he would watch President Peres arrive at his house to study Gemara in a habvrata.<\/p>\r\n
\u00a0What is interesting is that the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Rabbi David Lau, was not invited to the event, and in his place another Ashkenazi rabbinical representative was invited, the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Peres' longtime good friend.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Shimon Peres performed the 'Blessing of the Trees' in the President's Garden, at the foot of the orange tree. \u2022 And why did the First of Zion give the President the 'Yalkut Yosef'?","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[850,849,848,32339,847],"class_list":["post-3406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-93","tag-850","tag-849","tag-848","tag-32339","tag-847"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n