This time of year, during the holiday season, the sounds and sights on the Jerusalem streets are unique.
Selihot at the Kotel, Western Wall, was huge many nights before Yom Kippur; more than once this year, the entrance was closed to avoid overcrowding, as seen HERE in 2017.
Beit Hanasi, the Israeli President’s official residence, has a small synagogue.
I started going to Beit Hanasi when President Rivlin began hosting a selihot service.
I enjoyed listening to various Israeli singers over the years, including those of 5779.
Early on, President Rivlin had Yitzhak Meir lead the service inside the synagogue.
This year, the pre-selihot songs were arranged by 929, the Bible study program under Rav Benny Lau.
The synagogue was not used, President Herzog spoke outside to begin the program.
What was interesting to me was his mention of the Torah dedication that had taken place only a few hours earlier by the Hoffman family in memory of their fallen son, Yitzhar.
Rav Benny Lau also spoke at the program, which 929 has organized for President Herzog.
The crowd extended as in past years to the back of the garden area near the synagogue.
A yellow chair was placed front and center, as all wait anxiously for the hostages to return.
Yagel Haroush and Ensemble were back again this year.
Watch this short video for an example of their unique performance.
The President and Michal Herzog stayed for a short time to speak with participants.
No IDF uniforms were seen in the audience as in past years.
It was before Yom Kippur, and the Presidential sukkah was already under construction. This year, the theme is sports-related, not the usual agriculture. The Beit Hanasi gates are to be open to the public on Sunday, October 12, 2025, from 10 am to 4:00 pm.
This time of year, it is not unusual to see palm branches for the top of a sukkah on top of a car.
I like to look up to see the flowers along the Jerusalem streets.
But now, if you look up, you will also see the Sukkot popping up on balconies.
From the top of apartment buildings, sukkot large and small.
Preparations were well underway for the start of the holiday of Sukkot to begin at sunset on Monday.
Colorful lights appear along some Jerusalem streets.
Our sukkah, be it ever so humble, is ready to decorate.
The Jerusalem March is to be on Thursday, October 9, with a big celebration in Gan Sacher, Sacher Park.
Thousands of visitors are arriving for the holidays.
If not this year, next year in Jerusalem, come for the unique sights and sounds.
A crowd with tens of thousands of people packed into the Kotel Plaza on Wednesday morning.
But to get to the Kotel this year was really aliyah l’regel. With streets in the Old City closed to cars and the shuttle from First Station only starting at 10:00 am – it was walk up or go home.
So people walked up the mountain path toward Zion Gate.
The view was quite impressive, the sky was bright blue, and it was a lovely time to walk in Jerusalem.
On the way, you pass a memorial stone for fallen soldier Shlomo Cohen.
Families were walking together, as were these two young women carrying lulavim.
One man was walking alone talking on his phone. So many people were coming and going on a road usually full of cars to the Old City.
And a few people stopped to rest along the way.
How do they count so many people walking in and out of the Old City?
It had been a few years since I was at the Kotel for Sukkot Birkat Kohanim.
But I wasn’t going to miss a chance to watch from the roof of the Aish HaTorah building.
People stood at every vantage point above the Kotel Plaza.
It was nice to see from above and not be packed into the crowd below.
Some people decided to listen from a shady location just outside the entrance and not come and stand in the sun-filled crowded Plaza.
What a crowd, so many people wanting to be in a small space!
Of course from my vantage point on the rooftop location, I took zoom shots.
‘Selfies’- on the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background.
A group of Jewish tourists walked above as the prayers were said below.
Sukkot prayer in front of a model of the Jewish Temple on the Aish roof.
A woman above on a roof in the Old City unfurled an Israeli flag.
Everywhere, all around, people and sukkot!
And at night the Kotel Plaza was packed again with tens of thousands for the Remember Hakel event, to mark the special Torah reading once every seven years at the end of the Shemita cycle.
Sukkot in Jerusalem was such a colorful time again this year in 5783.
The Israeli President’s Residence reception on Sukkot to the public had some colorful moments, but more on that later. Off now to more events before the holiday week is over, which I plan to share next time.
My video from the Birkat Kohanim on Wednesday.
What a colorful week, with so much happening on the Jerusalem streets!
Jerusalem, Israel was the destination for millions of visitors for the autumn holiday season. The streets were filled with rental cars and excited tourists.
This year due to the coronavirus restrictions, the Kotel, Western Wall Plaza is mostly deserted, day and night time.
The area inside the Wilson’s Arch is closed again.
For Yom Kippur most synagogues were closed.
Some synagogues made use of their outdoor spaces with tents.
Pop-up street services were held by small groups of neighbors coming together. Doing the best they could manage with cars, cyclists, children on noisy scooters, and dog walkers coming through the random plastic chairs spread around.
The sounds of prayers filled the Jerusalem streets.
In spite of COVID-19 restrictions, hundreds of cars noisily made their way to Jerusalem and to the Knesset after Yom Kippur.
After months of loud late night disturbances in Jerusalem, the black shirts were again on their way in the morning to the Knesset.
Loud, some profane, some with young children, they paraded and screamed in the midday sun. The over the top display could still be heard when after midnight the Knesset voted to limit the protesters numbers and locations to one kilometer from home. Rules the rest of the country we’re supposed to follow.
The protesters are getting more than their share of headlines and filling news feeds. COVID-19 pandemic is a global problem, the deaths tragic.
I have decided to share good things happening you might have missed.
2. The weather has cooled, colorful clouds cover the Knesset at sunset.
That bit of red is a postal truck, nice to know the mail has not stopped moving during the latest set of lockdown restrictions.
The big crane on the left is for the new National Library under construction.
3. Building has continued all these months of pandemic.
I am fascinated by the work on the library roof structure. One day in the future I will share the progress with you.
4. The Harvest Moon was shining bright.
Mars was too far away to get a good photo of both together. However, a Blue Moon is due to appear the end of the month. Another chance.
Photo credit: GIRO PR
5. Israeli Start-Up Nation was on the front line of the Girod’Italia.
In the international bike race, Maglia Azzurra, King of the Mountains, was Rick Zabel representing Israel in the blue uniform.
6. There are quiet spots to meet andkeep your distance in Jerusalem.
Hotels are closed again with the new COVID-19 restrictions. A few had opened partially over the summer for Israeli guests.
Photo credit: United Hatzalah spokesperson
7. Lights were visible at night at the Crowne Plaza.
The hotel had been dark every night, closed since March. Presently, United Hatzalah workers are based in the conveniently located hotel.
8. Mayor Moshe Lion said keeping Jerusalem clean is a priority.
The Jerusalem Municipality clean up trucks have become a regular sight on the Jerusalem streets. The days of furnishing your apartment with cast-offs off the street are over unless you are very quick before a truck arrives.
Photo Credit: Jerusalem Mayor Spokesperson
9. Three Machane Yehudah Market, shuk, streets got names and signs, “Ha-Tut” or “Strawberry” Street was one.
Photo credit: Jerusalem Mayor Spokesperson
Another was “Arbaat Haminim” or “Four Species” Street. The sign over a nearly deserted street which would have been packed with shoppers any other year before the Sukkot holiday.
Thousands of careful shoppers would have come to select their etrog and luluv and greens for their four-holiday species as in this old photo. This year the small kiosks on Jerusalem streets in various neighborhoods filled the void.
The Kotel, Western Wall would be packed with tens of thousands of people for the Sukkot holiday in the past.
Not this year. Numbers are extremely limited and distanced.
The huge Birkat Kohanim – Priestly Blessing did not happen this year.
A lone kohen did the blessing on the second day of Sukkot.
On Monday, October 5, the corona style Birkat Kohanim was recorded and put on YouTube for all to have a front-row view. HERE
10. With the impending corona restrictions, many sukkot were put up early, before Yom Kippur instead of after or last minute.
On roof tops,
and on porches,
and even our open-air sukkah for two instead of twenty was ready early.
11. Imagine, a sukkah in Dubai ready for kosher meals!
12. A sign of normal in crazy times! Cut palm branches tied to top of a car to take home for the sukkah.
This will be the year a small porch sukkah is “in” in Jerusalem.
With fabric walls up on a porch,
or tucked away in the garden.
Last year President Rivlin was surrounded by crowds of visitors for the annual Open Sukkah at Beit Hanasi, the Israeli President’s Residence.
Two years ago he invited the public to the presidential sukkah that had a health theme at a press conference before Sukkot.
13. President Rivlin’s last open house as President will be virtual.
