Tens of thousands of worshippers gathered overnight Saturday at the Western Wall for the final Selichot service before Yom Kippur, marking the culmination of the month of Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. According to the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also took part in the prayers alongside Israel’s chief rabbis, Rabbi David Yosef and Rabbi Kalman Ber.
The event opened with the traditional annulment of vows ceremony. During the mass prayer service, cantors and liturgical singers led the crowd in hymns, prayers and the recitation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which according to Jewish tradition were invoked by Moses as an appeal for forgiveness for the people of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf.
Selichot at the Western Wall just hours before the start of Yom Kippur
(Video: Western Wall Heritage Foundation)
During the Selichot service, Netanyahu recited a prayer for the well-being of IDF soldiers and later told the crowd: “May you be sealed for a good year. Happy New Year.”
According to Sephardi custom, Selichot prayers begin on the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, while according to Ashkenazi custom they begin on the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. In most communities, the prayers are recited after midnight or early in the morning, times that Kabbalistic tradition regards as an “auspicious hour” when prayers are especially likely to be accepted.
Nearly 20 mass Selichot events were held at the Western Wall, with the final service on the eve of Yom Kippur the largest of them. President Isaac Herzog and other public figures also attended Selichot services there.
Former hostages, whose return had been the focus of prayers during Selichot over the past two years, also attended the special services this year. Among them were Noa Argamani, Itay Regev, Omer Shem Tov, Bar Kupershtein, Eliya Cohen and his new wife, Ziv.
During Selichot events in recent days, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and the cantors offered prayers for the safety of IDF soldiers and security forces, for national unity and for Israel’s peace and security.
At the Selichot service held overnight Thursday into Friday, Rabinowitz offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the return of the hostages.
Blowing shofar near the Western Wall
(Photo: Shilo Shalom)
He told the tens of thousands gathered: “Tonight, from the Western Wall and Hostages Square, I want to say to You, Master of the Universe: Look down from heaven and see how, in our most difficult hour, we stood together. We did not always agree on the path, but we all shared the concern, the prayer and the hope.
“For such a long time, all our hearts were held captive — until the last hostage returned. In the merit of this sanctification of God’s name, the solidarity and courage of the hostages, who sanctified God’s name in the darkest places and continue to do so even now — open the gates of heaven for us and send us a good and blessed year.”