For Sigalit Cohen, mother of former hostage Eliya Cohen, attending the Birkat Cohanim (Priestly Blessing) ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tuesday felt like coming full circle.

“Twice over the past year, we stood here while Eliya was still trapped in a tunnel,” she told The Times of Israel. “Today, he’s here, reciting the priestly blessing and bestowing it upon the entire people. It’s the most moving experience imaginable. I’ve waited so long for this moment.”

Sigalit spoke to the Times of Israel on the rooftop of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation’s building as Eliya took part in the ceremony in the plaza below, surrounded by a sea of worshippers.

“May God bless you and keep you; may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord lift up His face to you and give you peace,” Eliya chanted, standing next to his father Maimon, his voice joining that of hundreds of fellow male descendants of the ancient priestly line.

Wrapped in white prayer shawls, the Cohanim (priests in Hebrew) blessed the people of Israel with the same words God commanded the first priests to use according to the Bible (Numbers, 6:22–26).

According to Jewish tradition, the priesthood was granted by God to Moses’ brother Aaron and his sons after the Exodus from Egypt. To this day, thousands of Jewish families across the world are believed to be their descendants, and the men are invited to recite the priestly blessing as part of the liturgy for holidays or Shabbat prayers. Often, their family names hint at this heritage.

Before the Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023, Sigalit said, her family rarely joined the collective ceremony at the Western Wall, which was introduced in the 1970s and has become a beloved tradition of the holidays of Passover and Sukkot.

“We felt deeply connected to it, but since it was always very crowded, it was difficult for us to attend,” Sigalit recalled. “Since Eliya........

© The Times of Israel