Amid the ongoing security situation that has forced many synagogues to close, megillah readings for Purim were held in shelters and protected spaces across Israel.
Despite missile and drone fire from Iran and Home Front Command restrictions on public gatherings, communities nationwide gathered in bomb shelters, underground parking garages and reinforced rooms to fulfill the commandment of reading the Book of Esther.
8 View gallery
Women participate in a megillah reading in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Erik Marmor/ Getty Images)
In Tel Aviv, participants in costume read the megillah in an underground parking lot and at the Dizengoff Center. In Ramat Gan, Purim prayers were held in a shelter at a light rail underground station. In Kiryat Shmona and Lod, residents assembled in protected spaces to mark the holiday.
At the conclusion of the reading, worshippers recited the traditional blessing, which many said carried particular resonance this year:
“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who pleads our cause, judges our claim, avenges our wrongs, repays all the enemies of our soul, and exacts retribution from our foes.”
Ynet broadcast live the megillah readings organized by the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, held Sunday night in a shelter in Shoham and Monday morning in a protected space in Rishon Lezion.
At the Bnei Akiva Segula girls’ ulpana in Kiryat Motzkin, dozens of young Jewish men and women from France who had arrived in Israel through the Masa program were hosted after finding themselves without proper shelter in their housing in Haifa.
8 View gallery
Megillah reading at Segula Ulpana in Kiryat Motzkin with participants from the Masa program
(Photo: Segula Ulpana)
8 View gallery
Women participate in a megillah reading in the Dizengoff Center parking garage in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Erik Marmor / Getty Images)
8 View gallery
Purim in a shelter at an underground light rail station in Ramat Gan
(Photo: Oded Balilty)
The students were invited to the school, where they were welcomed and joined in the megillah reading.
“In the month of Adar, we increase in joy, and this year we see more than ever how joy is built through kindness and mutual responsibility,” said Elchanan Gelt, CEO of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivot and Ulpanot Center.
“The shared megillah reading at Segula, together with the young men and women who came from France, is a living picture of one people, in Israel and in the Diaspora. Especially in challenging days, we choose to connect, strengthen one another and remember that we are all responsible for each other.”
Due to Home Front Command guidelines and limits on gatherings, traditional megillah readings at the Western Wall in Jerusalem will not take place this year on Shushan Purim.