Israel’s Corona Cabinet has decided that this year, 5782, attendance at the Western Wall during the Sukkot holiday would be possible for the entire public from around the country without a green tag. And so on Thursday morning our Jewish brothers and sisters have arrived from everywhere to pack the Kotel Plaza and receive the special Birkat Cohanim-priestly blessing carried out by hundreds of Cohanim.
The idea for the mass ceremony of the Birkat Cohanim at the Western Wall came from the late Rabbi Elazar Geffner in the summer of 1970, following difficult security incidents in Israel. He sought and received the consent of his Rabbi, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe Rabbi Chaim Meir Hager, the Gerer Rebbe Rabbi Israel Alter, and Rabbi Yaakov Israel Kanievsky.
In attendance during the Thursday prayer were the Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places Shmuel Rabinovitch, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.