Thousands Attend Passover Priestly Blessing Rite at Western Wall

Image by Getty Images
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Western Wall for the traditional Priestly Blessing.
The worshippers – estimated by the office of the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites in Israel at 50,000 – converged on Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday for the blessing, called Birkat Kohanim in Hebrew, during the second intermediate day of Passover. The mass blessing also is held on Sukkot and Shavuot, the other of the Shalosh Regalim, or pilgrimage festivals, when the Jews would ascend to the Holy Temple. Religiously observant Jews who pray daily in a quorum, or minyan, observe the rite during the services.
Hundreds of Kohanim held up their hands and blessed the worshippers, including many visitors from the Diaspora. The crowd also recited the prayer for the state of Israel, the prayer for the safety of soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and the officers of the Israel Police.

Image by Getty Images
Additional security forces protected the worshippers due to increased tensions at the Temple Mount, located above the Western Wall, and throughout the city
“Today everyone felt a wonderful unity at the Priestly Blessing ceremony, attended by Jews from all over Israel and abroad, regardless of their outlook,” Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the rabbi of the Western Wall, said in a statement.
“The pilgrimage to Jerusalem is an impressive testament to the Jewish People’s attachment to the remnant of our Temple; when the masses of Israel come to touch its stones,” Rabinovich also said in the statement.”This joyous sight of the masses of Israel completely filling the streets is somehow reminiscent of ancient times when crowds of pilgrims would come to see and be seen. More than a commemoration of the Temple’s destruction, it is a commemoration of the Temple itself.”
The chief rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Rabbi David Lau, as well as Rabinovich, greeted visitors to the wall after the services.
On Sunday, the Women of the Wall group held Passover holiday prayers at the Western Wall, but did not hold a priestly blessing ceremony, after being banned by Israel’s attorney general, who ruled that holding a female version of the priestly blessing ceremony violated a law enforcing “local customs” at religious sites in Israel.
Also on Monday morning, police removed two Jewish visitors from the Temple Mount for violating the site’s visitation rules, reportedly by attempting to pray at the site. Jewish prayer is forbidden at the site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims. On Sunday, 13 Jews were removed from the site.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.