Tag: Jerusalem

The Priestly Blessing (Birkat HaCohanim) at the Western Wall

Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall
Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall

The priestly blessing (birkat hacohanim) has always held a certain fascination for me. Although in Israel, and in all Sephardic communities, it is recited daily in synagogue, in Ashkenazi Diaspora communities like mine it is only recited during festivals, so it became something of a special event. I remember from a young age the priests ascending to the stage at the front of the synagogue, by the ark, in preparation for this ancient ceremony. Those who were sitting in seats that were to the side would get up and move so that they could be in front of the priests in order to receive the blessing. We would stand and my father would take me under his tallit (prayer shawl) and instruct me firmly not to look at the priests while they were blessing us – it is forbidden. This combined with the unique and haunting tune sung during the blessing made it a very special moment.

In 1967, after the Six Day War, Israel took control of the Old City of Jerusalem for the first time, and Jews had unrestricted access to the Western Wall. Those of you who have toured with me will be aware of the various complexities associated with that war and its results, but putting that aside for a moment, this was an event of huge importance. This was the first time in memory that Jews were free to visit and pray at this most holy of sites. Whether religious or secular, the significance was huge.

Those of you who have visited the Wall will be aware that there are normally several services happening there in parallel, but in 1970 a rabbi decided to try and create one large public service which would incorporate the priestly blessing. According to Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, an important commentator and mystic from the middle ages, there is special significance to hearing the blessing from over 300 priests, close to where the temple once stood.

Today, the special unified service takes place twice a year. Once during Pesach (Passover) in the Spring and once during Sukkot (Tabernacles) in the Autumn. These festivals are significant as they are two of the ‘Three Foot Festivals’; festivals on which a pilgrimage to Jerusalem is required, as commanded in the Torah in Deuteronomy 16:16:
Three times a year shall all your people appear before the Lord your God in the place that God will choose [referring presumably to the Temple in Jerusalem], on the festivals of Pesach, Shavuot [Pentecost], and Sukkot. They shall not appear empty handed. Each shall bring his own gift, appropriate to the blessing which the Lord your God has given you

Often when guiding in the vicinity of what used to be the Temple, I try to help people imagine what it would have been like on these occasions – tens of thousands of pilgrims arriving from around the region in order to offer sacrifices and to be part of the service. And one of the only parts of that ceremony that we can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that would have dated back even to the time of the First Temple (from roughly 3000 years ago) is the priestly blessing. In fact, the oldest version of any part of the bible that exists was found inscribed on an amulet from the 6th century – it was the text of the priestly blessing (and in my opinion one of the highlights of the Israel Museum’s collection).

In Hebrew the word for a pilgrim is an oleh l’regel, the literal translation of which is ‘someone who goes up by foot’. One goes up to Jerusalem both physically (it is in the hills) and spiritually. This week I was due to guide a family in the Old City on the day of the priestly blessing during Pesach. As a sat by the Jaffa Gate, waiting for them to arrive, I was struck by the nature of the hordes of Jewish people thronging through the gate on their way to the Wall for this ceremony. The whole of the Jewish people were represented – ultra-orthodox, modern-orthodox, progressive and secular; elderly, middle-aged and child; man and women; Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Yemenite; speaking Hebrew, Yiddish, English, French and Russian; a flurry of different hair styles, head coverings and colours. As I looked upon this mixed multitude moving past me I was transported to the First and Second Temple Periods, 3000 and 2000 years ago, when such scenes would have been a regular occurrence.

As we descended towards the Western Wall, I could hear the beginning of the mussaf service being broadcast over a loudspeaker. The plaza was packed, as were all the viewpoints, not just with the Jewish pilgrims but the large numbers of tourists who had come to see this special occasion.

Eventually, we reached the part of the service where the cohanim gave their blessing. There was complete silence around the plaza as the descendants of the priests of the original Temple raised their prayer shawls over their heads. The way that the blessing is given is that the chazzan (cantor) recites each word of the blessing in turn, and the priests repeat after him. Although the chazzan had a microphone, the priests did not, but even far at the back of the plaza, it was possible to hear the hundreds of cohanim join together to repeat after him in unison – the power of their combined voices reached far and wide.

Participating in this most ancient of ceremonies, right next to where it would have taken place on a regular basis (the blessings would have happened on the Temple Mount – not feasible today for obvious reasons!), was a truly moving experience. It really helped give me a sense of what the ancient pilgrimage festivals would have been like, and was a remarkable connection to my heritage and tradition. From my small synagogue in South London, with a largely homogeneous community of a few hundred people, I was suddenly part of tens of thousands of Jews from a huge variety of backgrounds, sharing in common the blessing that has been passed down to us through the millennia:
May the Lord bless you and protect you;
May the Lord’s face shine light upon you and be gracious unto you;
May the Lord raise His face unto you and give you peace.

If you are planning to come to Israel during Pesach or Sukkot, and would like build this ceremony into a guided tour of Jerusalem, I would love to help you do so! Please do be in touch.

The Road to Jerusalem in 1948

Having concluded our study of Israel’s wars in class, we were now to go out into the field to get a better idea of the story behind the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, the longest and most difficult war that has been fought in Israel’s history, with 1% of the population killed in action. Although we have been touching on the wars in our tours around the country, these two trips are dedicated to two of the most serious fronts of the war: the road to Jerusalem and then the south of the country. Both Jerusalem and the south were cut off from the rest of the country and were effectively put under siege; difficult and costly battles were fought to break through. Today’s tour was dedicated to the road to Jerusalem in 1948; next week we shall explore the Southern Front.

View over the narrow Bab-el-Wad / Shaar Hagay
View over the narrow Bab-el-Wad / Shaar Hagay

We began our day near the small village of Shoresh, just off route 1, in the Masrek Nature Reserve. Hiking along the ridge, we reached a viewpoint over Shaar Hagay, known by many by its Arabic name, Bab-el-Wad. Both translate as ‘the Gate of the Valley’. Here, the road to Jerusalem ascends through a narrow gorge. Our guide explained that the local Arabs soon realised it would be more effective to lay siege to Jewish population areas rather than to attack them outright, with many key roads passing through areas of large Arab population. This area of the Jerusalem road was particularly vulnerable with its steep ascent causing supply lorries to struggle along at around 10km/h, sitting ducks for the assembled forces on the slopes of the valley.

The Israelis tried many different methods to break through – using convoys, then adding primitive armour to their trucks. But they could still not break through. The viewpoint made it clear the huge challenge faced by these convoys. We read some witness accounts from drivers; they were absolutely terrified.

View over the snow-covered Castel
View over the snow-covered Castel

Leaving the viewpoint, we drove slightly further down route one to the Castel. This was the site of the first Arab village conquered by the Israeli forces in the war. It played an important role in the war, in terms of boosting morale, even though the site went on to exchange hands a couple of times before being finally conquered. Here the Israelis killed the commander of the local Arab forces when he was by chance shot by a sentry – another significant morale boost. At close to 800m above sea level, this was an important vantage point on the Jerusalem road.

The site was still covered in a deep blanket of snow from the previous weekend, when Israel had suffered its worst storms in over 100 years. The snow had by now hardened but this was not going to stop Israelis from enjoying its novelty – there were plenty of kids frolicking around and a fair amount of adults also!

Snow-covered Kiriat Anavim Cemetery for the Harel Brigade
Snow-covered Kiriat Anavim Cemetery for the Harel Brigade

Turning back on ourselves, we made a short stop at the Kiriat Anavim cemetery. It seemed that we were the first to visit since the stop and there was still a lot of snow here also. Trees also lay all over the place, blown over by the strong winds. This is the cemetery of the Harel Brigade, part of the Palmach, who were responsible for fighting the battle to open and protect the road to Jerusalem. They suffered the heaviest losses of any part of the nascent IDF in the war; one third of the brigade was killed. We heard the stories of some of their most famous fallen, and reflected on the tragic losses of this period.

Memorial for the Armoured Corps (Yad Lashiryon), Latrun
Memorial for the Armoured Corps (Yad Lashiryon), Latrun

Continuing north, we stopped at the Memorial for the Armoured Corps (Yad Lashiryon) at Latrun. Now also a museum for tanks (which they claim has the biggest variety of tanks of any collection in the world), we learned about the formation of the Israeli armoured corps in order to try to take this hilltop in the 1948 war. Here was a former British fortress, and taking it was essential in order to control the road to Jerusalem. Unfortunately the Arabs had also realised this and from May 1948 the area was swarming with soldiers of the Jordanian Arab Legion, the best trained soldiers in the region. We had a quick tour of some of the tanks and visited the memorial, designed by the famous sculptor Danny Caravan.

View over the area of the Burma Road
View over the area of the Burma Road

The Israelis fought five battles for Latrun, all of them tragic failures. Realising the futility of further attacks, they ingeniously built a by-pass around the area (and also that of the problematic Shaar HaGay). As they copied a technique used by the British in the East, this new route was known as the Burma Road. We relocated to a viewpoint near Neve Shalom whence we could better understand how the battles played out, and also the location of the Burma Road. With the construction of this new route, the siege of Jerusalem was broken, and later a new road was built connecting the area just west of Latrun with the area of Shoresh. With the Latrun and Shaar Hagay area remaining under Jordanian control until 1967, this became the road to Jerusalem in the interim.

The siege of Jerusalem was lifted, and now the forces could focus on the Jewish areas cut off by the Egyptians in the south. More on that to come after our next field trip…