WATCH: Hoshana Rabba prayers continue at Hostages Square as freed captives return to Israel

By Jessica Steinberg

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13 October 2025, 10:43 am

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Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center

Hoshana Rabba prayers, with the traditional four species — palm frond, citron, myrtle and willow branches — in hand, continue to take place on the final day of Sukkot, at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, as the worshippers sing the Biblical verse, “And the sons shall return to their borders,” as the hostages make their way home.

Tonight marks the second anniversary, on the Hebrew calendar, of the October 7, 2023, attack in which the hostages were kidnapped, on the holiday of Simchat Torah.