Top Israeli rabbis, and U.S. envoy, pray for Trump recovery

[October 05, 2020]  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's top rabbis prayed for U.S. President Donald Trump to recover from COVID-19 on Monday, invoking his name in a Jewish holiday ceremony at Jerusalem's Western Wall.

Support for Trump, who recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to the city, is strong among Israelis, who mark the Jewish high holidays this year while under a second coronavirus lockdown.

"May He who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon send healing to Donald John, son of Fred," intoned Shmuel Rabinovitch, rabbi of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site.

"May the Holy Blessed One overflow with compassion for him, restore him, cure him, strengthen him, enliven him," he said, reciting the traditional prayer for those in ill health, to amens from Israel's two chief rabbis and U.S. ambassador David Friedman.

They were attending a ceremony, coinciding with the Sukkot festival, in which members of Judaism's priestly caste bless the public in a chant at the Western Wall.

With Israel struggling against a surge in coronavirus cases, attendance was drastically pared down this year.

A Jewish worshipper, wearing a protective face mask, holds the Four Species, used in rituals on the holiday of Sukkot, as he stands in a partitioned area for worshippers to adhere to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, during the priestly blessing at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, amid Israel's second-wave coronavirus lockdown, in Jerusalem's Old City October 5, 2020. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Heading to the event as an invited guest, Friedman tweeted that it was "normally attended by thousands, today just 20".

"I will pray for God's mercy and healing upon all those throughout the world afflicted with Covid-19," he said.

(Writing by Dan Williams, Editing by William Maclean)

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