Worshippers pray Hoshana Rabba service at Hostages Square while awaiting release of captives

By Jessica Steinberg

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13 October 2025, 7:51 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

Worshippers conduct a morning prayer service on the holiday of Hoshanna Rabba, the final day of the Sukkot festival, as they await the return of 20 living hostages at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on October 13, 2025 (Lizzy Shaanan/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

A group at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square participates in a Hoshana Rabba service, the morning prayer held on the last day of the Sukkot festival.

The special service involves worshippers holding the traditional four species — the palm frond, citron, myrtle and bundles of willow branches, also sometimes referred to in Hebrew as a “lulav and etrog” — and circling the synagogue’s central platform seven times while chanting litanies called “Hoshanot,” punctuated by the words “Hosha na,” or “please save.”