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During the times of the Temple, this ceremony was held once every seven years when all of Israel – men, women, and children – were gathered in Jerusalem for the Sukkot festival.
By Aryeh Savir, TPS
About 50,000 people participated on Wednesday in the traditional Hakhel reenactment and Simchat Beit Hashoevah ceremony at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem, a unique ceremony that takes place during the Sukkot holiday every seven years at the end of the Shemita year.
The ceremony was held in the presence of President Isaac Herzog, whose grandfather Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog revived the ceremony about 80 years ago, the Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi David Lau, the Rabbi of the Kotel and the Holy Places Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Leon, US Ambassador in Israel Thomas Nides, and other public figures.
During the times of the Temple, this ceremony was held once every seven years when all of Israel – men, women, and children – were gathered in Jerusalem for the Sukkot festival.
As a reminder of that special ceremony, three Torah scrolls were placed in the Kotel plaza on Wednesday evening, and President Herzog faced the crowd and read from Psalm 122, which speaks of “Jerusalem built up, a city knit together,” and Isaiah 52, which he read with the traditional cantillation – “Raise a shout together, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord will comfort His people, will redeem Jerusalem.”
Before beginning, Herzog addressed the crowd and said that “as a proud son of the Jewish People and as President of the State of Israel, I am moved to open this important event, founded by my late grandfather Yitzhak Isaac HaLevi Herzog, which all chief rabbis of Israel have had the privilege of observing.”
“My late father Chaim Herzog, Sixth President of the State of Israel, also observed this occasion in 1987. From here I pray that the spirit of this occasion remains before our eyes at all times, as a nation and as a state. May we and the whole House of Israel—together—merit a good and blessed year, and happy holidays,” he said.
This event was one of several held on the Sukkot holiday to celebrate Jerusalem, Israel’s return to its land, historical commemoration, and a yearning to return to the days when a Jewish temple stood on the Temple Mount.
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