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Orthodox Jews perform the rituals to cleanse themselves from sin ahead of Yom Kippur, or "day of atonement," which begins Wednesday (September 15) at sundown.

In Tel Aviv, some Orthodox Jews performed the "Tashlich" ceremony where people empty their pockets into a running source of water, symbolically casting their sins out.

In Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim, people took part in a custom called "Kapparot" by waving a live chicken over their head.

The act is thought to purge the believer of their sins by symbolically passing them onto the animal.