תפילת ראש חודש חגיגית בכותל המערבי עם הרב רפי פרץהמטה המשותף לשמירה על קדושת הכותל

In honor of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, hundreds of worshipers arrived Thursday morning for a festive prayer at the Western Wall. The new Minister of Education and Chairman of the Jewish Home, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, joined the worshipers and called for maintaining the sanctity of the Western Wall throughout its length.

After the service, Rabbi Peretz said: "We must remember that we are in the generation of rebirth, meriting to see with our own eyes the return of G-d to Zion. We are making a great ‘tikkun’ [repair] for Tammuz, in which they would cry throughout the world, in which, unfortunately, we always suffered from the disgrace of destruction. Here we repair, pray and know that the Holy One, blessed be He, is returning His ‘Shekhina’ [presence] to Zion. This is how we will hold our heads and this is how we will live, for we are truly in a special generation and we are privileged to experience a great G-dly revelation on His nation Israel, with love.”

Bezalel Zinni, head of the Joint Headquarters for the Preservation of the Sanctity of the Western Wall, said: "It was only recently reported that senior Jewish Federations in the US admit that most of the public in general and in Israel in particular does not understand or support the Reform campaign at the Western Wall, that remnant of our Holy Temple that was erased from its foundation, but to which the people of Israel are still loyal after 2,000 years."

"Again, it has become clear that all the talk of a ‘rift’ with Jews of the Diaspora is an invention disconnected from reality. We congratulate the Minister of Education, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who, as he declared during the elections, arrived today and joined the masses of worshipers to express the widespread and clear public position that the sanctity of the Western Wall must be preserved throughout its length under the authority of the chief rabbinate of Israel only, and we are certain that he will also act to realize his words," Zinni added.