Clergy held limited Passover and Easter services in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday amid wartime restrictions that prevented the participation of the tens of thousands of worshippers and pilgrims who generally flock to the holy sites.

The prayers came even as religious leaders appealed to the High Court to relax the limits on public gatherings imposed by the IDF Home Front Command amid persistent Iranian missile fire, citing a court ruling on Saturday that allowed 600 people to take part in an anti-goverment protest in Tel Aviv.

At the Western Wall, up to 50 people were permitted at the traditional priestly blessing ceremony that was held in a covered space, in a wartime departure from the ceremony that normally takes place in the plaza.

Among those who attended in person were Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and Chief Rabbis Kalman Ber and David Yosef. Others others were forced to watch the ceremony via live broadcast.

The ceremony generally sees male descendants of the Kohanim, the Jewish priestly caste, gather to bestow a benediction — known in Hebrew as Birkat Kohanim — raising their hands to perform the blessing while wrapped in prayer shawls. An iconic sight, it usually draws tens of thousands of people.

Minutes before the priestly blessing ceremony was about to begin, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation called for the Home Front Command to ease limits restricting attendance at the Western Wall plaza.

“I find it difficult to understand why the right to protest is perceived as more important or more urgent than the right to pray,” foundation head Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz said.

“The Western Wall is the beating heart of the Jewish people,” he added. “If the security reality permits hundreds of people to gather in public squares for demonstrations, all the more so it should allow Jews to assemble at the Western Wall Plaza.”

At the end of the ceremony, Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef doubled down on his criticism against the High Court, a day after his scathing attack calling Israel’s top tribunal “an enemy of Judaism” for safeguarding the freedom of protest during wartime while the Western Wall was largely closed for security reasons.

“The High Court understands lawlessness in the name of freedom of protest,” he said.

“They call it pikuach nefesh [the principle according to which Jewish law can be broken to save a life], nothing less,” Yosef added.

Yosef endorses the appeal to the Home Front Command by the head of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, to reassess the........

© The Times of Israel