Thousands congregate for Priestly Blessing at Western Wall

Date: 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

BY: Jeremy Sharon on jpost.com 

Tens of thousands of men and women visited the Western Wall on Thursday morning for the mass Priestly Blessing (Birkat Kohanim) ceremony, which takes place each year during the intermediate days of both Passover and Succot.

Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef was in attendance. The prayer area for women at the Western Wall has been expanded to include a roofed section, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation announced on Wednesday.

Two new spaces have been created inside the women’s section providing for a covered prayer space for the first time. Halls at the northern end of the current Western Wall plaza have been available for men for many years. The current roofed spaces for women are temporary arrangements but will be made into permanent structures in the future, the foundation said.