…In the covered area of the Western Wall, an untidily clad Jew is standing and reading liturgical poems with a cracked voice; one moment he is racing along and then he slows down, and then stops, moans, cries, and then sings with flourishes. Behind him stand some 200 worshippers, who constitute one of the largest minyans at the Wall during the nights of the month of Elul.…
Their cantor is Rabbi Yaakov Addas, who has gained the reputation of being a "tzaddik" (righteous man) not only among Jews of Sephardi descent, but also among ultra-Orthodox and knitted skull-capped Jews of Ashkenazi descent.
His father is Rabbi Yehuda Addas, head of a renowned Sephardi yeshiva that has wholeheartedly adopted the Ashkenazi tradition, but he himself has become highly involved in the Kabbalah, the mysteries of which he studied at Yeshivat Hashalom [Nahar Shalom?]. That yeshiva, which is located close to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market, two nights ago held a "tikkun avonot" (amending sins) ceremony for the month of Elul. During the prayer session and ceremony, the participants wound steel wires around their bodies and rubbed their skins with blocks of ice as a purifying act of contrition before the Day of Judgment.
Rabbi Yaakov Addas is known for the ascetic way of life he has adopted year-round. He walks around in torn trousers, his hair is wild, and he wears shoes without laces and socks, while at night he sleeps on the floor.
In the ultra-orthodox Internet forum, "atzor kan hoshvim" ("stop, here people think"), a subversive intellectual stage, a discussion started in recent days about the use being made by rabbis of "fear of retribution" as a means of being strengthened during the days of atonement. One anonymous participant claimed that what is happening in his community in anticipation of the High Holidays is that people are "occupying themselves with a search for momentary experiences, and who knows whether these are not imaginary." And in another discussion, that is a little older, someone wrote: "forgive me, saying slihot is meant for simple people, for those who still have primitive beliefs that such-and-such penitential poems and moans and groans will turn the balance of the scales, so that a good and sweet year will be organized for them." Another participant answered him that "getting up in the morning before the dawn breaks, together with a mass movement in the direction of the synagogue, puts one in the atmosphere of preparation for moral renewal."
But at the Western Wall, it is possible to forget about this kind of learned discussion. The large minyan of Rabbi Addas, with his ascetic appearance and his cracked voice, also attracts a not-insignificant group of ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews, even though according to Ashkenazi tradition the slihot will begin only in a few days' time. "Slihot have turned into a trend," one of them explains, apparently himself part of that trend. And he adds two other reasons: "Rabbi Addas is a truly righteous man, and anyway the slihot of the Sephardi Jews are much more beautiful."…