Prayer at the Kotel
Prayer at the KotelIsrael news photo:(file)

A group of top rabbis have put out a call for an urgent session of prayer and selichot (penitential prayers) Sunday evening for the deliverance of Israel from its current perilous state.

The Egged bus company announced that it will beef up the bus service to and from the Kotel and that buses will continue to leave after 1:00 am.

The advertisement announcing the prayer session says it is necessary in view of Israel's dire predicament:

"In view of the terrible danger which is coming upon us some of the Torah's greatest ministers, the rabbis of Israel, have convened an order to call for a large public prayer at the spot of the remnant of our beloved Temple, in the plaza of the Western Wall. On the day upon which the creation of the heavens and the earth began… Elul 25, there will be a prayer of the Assembly of Israel for the fixing of the foundations of the universe, which has latched on to evil and tangled itself in it in order to destroy the people of Israel.

"The evil of the nations is bursting forth visibly everywhere on Earth and in its institutions, like the United Nations, the Court in Hague and the evil use of international law to uproot Israel in every place that Israel resides – in the countries of the West and East, the North and the South; England, France, the United States, the Scandinavian countries, Spain and Portugal, South America, Russia and all of Eastern Europe.

'Like fish caught in a net'
"All this is nothing compared to the physical threats upon Israelites living in the Land of Israel and the threats of annihilation by the religions that oppose the Nation of Israel, which is like fish that have been caught in a net and all that they do to save themselves, even in crafty methods, still cannot remove the lust of the world's mighty men, evil men…

"We have all blundered; each of us has turned to his own path. Neither horse nor carriage will save us. We are like a dove caught in the talons of the hawk and like the Sons of Israel before the parting of the Red Sea.

"Therefore awake, O rabbis whose hearts have been touched by the plight of Israel, and cover yourselves in sackcloth, and cry in bitterness for a unified prayer by the Nation of Israel, from the babies to the old sages, to put an end to the bad decrees and to turn the hearts of the rulers in favor of the Jews. And let the prayer not be lighter than the prayer of the people of Nineveh, whose cry HaShem heard and whose suffering he removed." 

The prayers will also be dedicated to the health of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.

The rabbis who signed the call for the prayer session for Israel are Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Rabbi Yehudah Ben David, Rabbi Yehushua Ben Shushan, Rabbi Azariah Basis, Rabbi Shimon Baadani, Rabbi David Batzri, Rabbi Shimon Dahan, Rabbi Yosef Deutsch, Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, Rabbi Nisim Moyal, Rabbi Ben-Tzion Mutzafi, Rabbi Daniel Stavsky, Rabbi Yaakov Adas, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Rabbi Moshe Tzedaka, Rabbi Shlomo Korach, Rabbi Yitzchak Ratzabi, Rabbi Bnayahu Shmueli and Rabbi Yosef Shriki.