The week-long Passover festival marks the Exodus of the Jewish people from servitude in Egypt
Thousands of Jewish worshippers flocked to the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Monday for a mass priestly blessing during the Passover holiday.
The traditional benediction saw thousands of male descendants of the Jewish Kohanim priestly caste bless tens of thousands of congregations twice during daily morning prayers in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Kohanim, believed to be descendants of priests who served in the ancient Jewish Temple before it was destroyed, perform a mass blessing ceremony of the Jewish people three times a year during the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, himself a descendant of the Kohanim caste, was one of hundreds to give the blessing on Monday.
Jews in Israel and around the world began observing the week-long Passover festival on Friday evening, commemorating the Exodus of the Jewish people from servitude in Egypt.
During the holiday, Jews forgo leavened wheat, oat, barley, rye, or spelt products and eat matzah (unleavened bread) as the fleeing Jews did not have enough time to wait for dough to rise as they embarked on their journey to freedom.
Israeli authorities last week announced a general closure on West Bank border crossings for the duration of the holiday, which will end on Friday April 26.
Such closures are common during Jewish holidays, which are often associated with increased tension and potential for violence, particularly around religious sites which see increased numbers of Jewish visitors arriving to worship.
The Western Wall is a remnant of a supporting wall of the Second Temple complex, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
It is the holiest site to Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.
Above it lies the plaza where the temple once stood and which now houses the Haram al-Sharif compound, the third-holiest site in Islam that includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Jews are allowed to visit but not pray at the Temple Mount compound, but each year a growing religious movement called Return to the Mount (‘Chozrim leHar’) stages missions to bring goat kids to the top of Temple Mount for ritual sacrifice, as practiced thousands of years ago.
Two activists were arrested last week on their way to the holy site to perform the provocative ritual, along with two journalists who were documenting the activists for an independent documentary film.
(i24News)
