{"id":19740,"date":"2025-04-15T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/?p=19740"},"modified":"2025-04-15T11:00:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T08:00:42","slug":"a-dream-realized-as-eliya-cohen-returns-to-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/a-dream-realized-as-eliya-cohen-returns-to-pray\/","title":{"rendered":"A dream realized as Eliya Cohen returns to pray"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As is tradition every year during Passover, the Priestly Blessing ceremony took place today (Tuesday). Among the tens of thousands who filled the Western Wall plaza was freed hostage Eliya Cohen, who arrived with his family. On his personal Instagram account, Eliya posted a photo in front of the Wall and wrote: \u201cA dream to reach this moment. First time at the Kotel since.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On October 7, Eliya went to the Nova music festival in Re\u2019im with his partner, Ziv Abud. When the rocket sirens sounded, they ran to what became known as the \u201cdeath shelter,\u201d from which Eliya was abducted into Hamas captivity. Ziv survived by being buried under the bodies of others, which hid her from the terrorists. Eliya was released at the end of February, along with Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert, after 505 days in captivity.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19743\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19743\" style=\"width: 626px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19743 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kotel2-626x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"626\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kotel2-626x1024.jpg 626w, https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kotel2-184x300.jpg 184w, https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kotel2-768x1255.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reganews.co.il\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/kotel2.jpg 783w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19743\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eliya Cohen at the Priestly Blessing | Photo: Story from Eliya\u2019s Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>This year\u2019s prayer focuses on the fight to free the hostages<\/strong><br \/>\nThe mass Priestly Blessing is taking place this year on two dates: today and this coming Thursday (April 17, the 19th of Nisan). The event is dedicated to the campaign to free the hostages. Participating in the ceremonies are former hostages who were freed from captivity, family members of those still held in Gaza, and wounded IDF soldiers from the Iron Swords War. In addition to the traditional blessing, a special prayer was recited for the safety of the soldiers and the return of the hostages. The events are being broadcast live on the Western Wall Heritage Foundation\u2019s website (Thursday\u2019s broadcast).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watch the prayer held this morning at the Western<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"\u05e4\u05e1\u05d7 2025 - \u05d1\u05e8\u05db\u05ea \u05db\u05d4\u05e0\u05d9\u05dd \u05d1\u05e9\u05d9\u05d3\u05d5\u05e8 \u05d7\u05d9 - \u05d1\u05d9\u05d5\u05dd \u05e9\u05dc\u05d9\u05e9\u05d9, \u05d9&quot;\u05d6 \u05d1\u05e0\u05d9\u05e1\u05df \u05ea\u05e9\u05e4&quot;\u05d4 (15.04.2025)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qHFbo3UmoTI?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/reganews.co.il\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As in every Passover, the Priestly Blessing was held at the Western Wall. This year\u2019s gathering focused on the ongoing struggle to bring the hostages home. Among the worshippers: freed hostage Eliya Cohen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":19742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,129,2276,85,88],"tags":[3207,2631,2442,4216,3584,1828],"class_list":["post-19740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-judaism","category-people","category-positive-moment","category-will-remember","tag-eliya-cohen","tag-hostage-release","tag-iron-swords-war","tag-passover-in-jerusalem","tag-priestly-blessing","tag-western-wall"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.7 (Yoast SEO v24.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A dream realized as Eliya Cohen returns to pray - REGA news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A dream realized as Eliya Cohen returns to pray\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As in every Passover, the Priestly Blessing was held at the Western Wall. This year\u2019s gathering focused on the ongoing struggle to bring the hostages home. 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