(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

President Reuven Rivlin hosted 500 guests who took part in slichos, an annual event in the President’s Residence.

President Rivlin explained “We are all looking for the best for the people, for the sake of the State of Israel, but we have bitter disagreements and fierce arguments about the correct direction we should go – saying Slichos gives us an opportunity to recalculate the path, not look for the guilty, to let go of the past, for all of us to accept public responsibility for everything we do and look ahead. What is important is not how we got here, but how we get out of here.”

Slichos were held on Wednesday night the eve of 4 Tishrei, the fifth year of this relatively new tradition. Slichos were accompanied by the cantor Moshe Locke and the singer David Daor who sang “Shir Lema’alos”, “Avinu Malkeinu” and other niggunim during the evening. Some 500 guests participated in the event, among them mispallalim from the neighborhood near the Residence, pre-army preparatory cadets and soldiers from the IDF.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit: קובי גדעון/ לע”מ via חדשות רוטר)