Jews from all streams streamed to the nation’s synagogues – including the Kotel – on Rosh Hashana to attend the holiday prayers over the long holiday weekend that began Wednesday evening. The holiday passed without any unusual events at the prayer centers, as security forces provided protection for the worshipers.

Numerous events are expected at the Kotel during the next ten days. Slichot prayers will be recited until Yom Kippur, which is the last of the “ten days of teshuva.”

The Military Rabbinate is conducting “slichot tours” for hundreds of soldiers, which pass through various synagogues and end up at the Kotel.

Sunday is the Fast of Gedalyahu, one of the four fasts in the Jewish calendar that are related to the destruction of the Temples. The other three are Tevet 10, Tamuz 17 and the Ninth of Av, or Tisha B’av. These fasts were all instated after the destruction of the First Temple.

The Fast of Gedalyahu marked a dark chapter in Jewish history, when the last Jews who still remained in the Land of Israel following the sacking of the Temple, left the land following the assassination of Gedalyahu Ben Ahikam.