Ashkenazi Jews recited selichot (also pronounced slichos) penitential prayers Saturday night and will continue to do so on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, in the lead-up to Rosh HaShana, the beginning of the New Year.
Sephardic Jews have been reciting the selichot since the beginning of the month, and some Yemenite Jews began reciting them in mid-month.
Yitzchok Russek of Kuvien Images snapped some split-seconds from last night's selichot into Internet eternity.
The people of Israel, like a sea that laps the foot of the Kotel, waiting for its moment...
Taking selichos booklets from the stand.
Touching the stone that our forefathers touched, in repentance and longing.
Praying with an old friend.
Brothers beat their hearts in teshuvah.
Blowing the shofar, a ceremonial ram's horn.
Taking a picture for posterity.
Those are cameras, not tefillin...
Deep in prayer, all men are islands.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the Kotel Rabbi.
This guy didn't make it all the way to the morning.
Plastic chairs and 3,000 year old stones.
A young chassid, clothed in the garb of the European Diaspora.