Tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers gathered at the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, to attend the annual ‘Priestly Blessing’ service during the holiday of Sukkot, Hebrew for the Feast of Tabernacles.
Holding prayer shawls above their heads and covering their faces, the priests, known as “Kohanim” in Hebrew, began chanting the prayer, which begins with: “The Lord blesses you and keeps you.” Rabbi Avraham Levy, who arrived in Jerusalem to attend the Priestly Blessing, told Reuters that “Many many Tzadikim, many righteous people coming here and blessing all the people and everybody has very strong mind to be blessed and to bless, I’m sure it’s going to work so that’s why thousands (of) people come.”
He added that in ancient times, the blessing was conducted within both Biblical Temple. Since their destruction and until another has been reconstructed, Jewish worshippers are forced to perform the blessing at alternative locations, such as small synagogues. “But here today,” said Rabbi Levy, “we have like the feeling of the actual experience just as we once had at the Beit HaMikdash Holy Temples,” adding, hopefully, “soon to come.”