Tens of thousands gathered at the Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem Wednesday morning for the annual Priestly Blessing ceremony.

The tradition of holding the ceremony at the holy sight was started 52 years ago by Menachem Mendel Gaffner and is organized by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation during the intermediate days of Sukkot and Passover. During the ceremony, hundreds of priests (Kohanim) bless the crowd with the ancient blessing that is written in the Torah.

The ceremony’s schedule: Morning prayer (Shacharit) at 8:45, Shacharit priestly blessing at 9:30, Mussaf Prayer at 10:15, and Mussaf priestly blessing at 10:30.

Later in the day, three Torah scrolls will be dedicated and a celebratory ceremony commemorating the “Hakhel” ceremony, which takes place once in seven years, will take place.

The ceremony which is mentioned in the Torah, takes place at the end of the sabbatical (Shmitta) year, during the time of the temple the king of Israel would read from the Torah in the temple courtyard.

The ceremony will begin at 6:00 PM and will be attended by the president of Israel, the chief rabbis, the rabbi of the Western Wall, and other Torah giants

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