66 Torah scrolls for 66 fallen soldiers – at Jerusalem’s Western Wall

One of the most iconic photos of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors shows the chief military rabbi blowing a ram’s horn (shofar) at the newly recaptured Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

 

This week, that 1967 scene will be re-enacted by the heads of the Israeli military in a tribute to the 66 soldiers killed in Israel’s war with Gaza in summer 2014.

 

Wednesday’s ceremony will include 65 additional Torah scrolls from around the world, the Ynet web site reported.

 

The famous 1967 scroll was donated to the Israel Defense Forces at the time by the family of Baruch Shapira, who was killed in the 1948 War of Independence. When Rabbi Shlomo Goren retired as chief IDF rabbi, he took the scroll with him. After a lengthy dispute involving the Shapira and Goren families, the book was returned to the IDF.

 

The re-enactment will be attended by President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, bereaved families and the Shapira family.

 

After the ceremony, the scrolls will be transferred to memorial sites and IDF bases across the country.

 

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