Jerusalem’s major holy sites are shuttered, and families are dejected and exhausted ahead of Pesach as the Iran war enters its fifth week.
The mood stands in stark contrast to a usual spring, when longer days herald a period of family gatherings and an influx of tourists.
Metal shutters are drawn on nearly all stores in the Old City, home to key holy sites, and only scattered footsteps echo on deserted stone alleyways. Vast plazas are missing the typical throngs of faithful and tourists.
Jerusalem has largely escaped past wars, with Israel’s enemies appearing to be hesitant to launch missiles near the city’s Muslim holy sites. But since Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, Jerusalem has repeatedly come under fire.
From his office overlooking the plaza at the Kosel, now also closed to mispallelim, the Rav of the Kosel, HaRav Shmuel Rabinowitz, lamented the empty plaza.
“The heart aches greatly, it bleeds, seeing the Kosel as it looks now,” he said.
The massive Birchas Kohanim for Pesach, which usually draws tens of thousands, will take place with just 50 mispallelim, the Rav said. That’s the maximum allowed to daven together in the enclosed area by the Kosel under wartime safety guidelines — reminiscent of the restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Cleaning for Pesach, running for the shelter
Israelis have also grown weary after nearly a month of daily sirens, 16 civilian deaths and dozens of people seriously injured.
Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport has been operating on a severely limited basis throughout the war. Many point out the irony that, ahead of Pesach, Israelis are fleeing the country through the land border crossing with Egypt to the Sinai desert, while the holiday commemorates the story of ancient Israelites leaving Egypt via Sinai to Israel.
Observant Jewish families are frantically cleaning for Pesach to remove traces of leavening, which requires “turning the house upside-down in between running for the shelter,” said Jamie Geller, a cookbook author who works in Jerusalem’s Old City.
From her office at Aish, a Jewish educational institute with headquarters next to the Western Wall plaza, Geller can see where shrapnel dented and smashed rooftops, roads and a parking lot in the area.
“It’s shocking,” she said. “The Old City has always been a bit off limits for international terror and war, but not this time.”
(AP & YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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One Response
I think speaking about “heartache” in insensitive when there are real casualties and injuries in the war—that is the true tragedy. Also, there is also no obligation to hold a mass Birchas Kohanim in the first place, so framing this as a major loss may unintentionally diminish the gravity of what others are enduring.