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Tens of Thousands Open Elul Selichot Season at the Western Wall

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Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of worshippers overlooking a densely filled Western Wall plaza at night, with the illuminated Kotel wall in the distance.

Tens of thousands of worshippers filled the Western Wall plaza on Motzei Shabbat for the first central Selichot gathering of Elul 5786. It opened 19 central gatherings the Western Wall Heritage Foundation is holding through Elul and the Ten Days of Repentance. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rav of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, prayed for the unity of the people of Israel, for IDF soldiers and the security forces, and for the peace and security of the State of Israel; shofar blasts sounded across the plaza. The Foundation prepared for hundreds of thousands of worshippers over the season, with cantors, amplification systems, giant screens, and live streams of every gathering.

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