The ceremony performed at the Western Wall in 2001 was led by the President of Israel, Moshe Katzav.
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Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, urged Jews everywhere to conduct large and small Hakhel gatherings in synagogues and private homes to foster greater unity and increase Torah learning, mitzvah observance, and the giving of charity.
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When Rabbi Shmuel Salant was Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, he would gather all the Talmud Torah students in front of the Western Wall on the first day of Chol HaMoed Sukkot and read to them the same passages that the king would read at Hakhel.
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In the twentieth century, however, it was revived by the government of Israel and by groups of Jews in other places on a symbolic basis.
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The term Hakhel (Hebrew הקהל) refers to a custom based on the mandated practice in the Hebrew Bible of assembling all Jewish men, women and children to hear the reading of the Torah by the king of Israel once every seven years.
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The king began the reading with the same blessings over the Torah that are recited before every Aliyah La-Torah in synagogues today.