| Western Wall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Alternate name | Wailing Wall / The Buraq Wall |
| Location | Jerusalem |
| Coordinates | 31.7767°N 35.2345°ECoordinates: 31.7767°N 35.2345°E |
| Height | exposed: 62 feet (19 m) |
| History | |
| Builder | Herod the Great |
| Material | Limestone |
| Founded | 19 BCE – mid 1st century CE |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | preserved |
-Aerial-Jerusalem-Temple_Mount-Temple_Mount_(south_exposure).jpg)
The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel (Hebrew: 
הַכֹּתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי (help·info), translit.: HaKotel HaMa'aravi;Ashkenazic pronunciation: Kosel; Arabic: حائط البراق, translit.: Ḥā'iṭ Al-Burāq, translat.: The Buraq Wall) is located in theOld City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small western segment of the walls surrounding the area called the Temple Mount (or Har Habayit) by Jews, Christians and most Western sources, and known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary (Al-Haram ash-Sharīf).
הַכֹּתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי (help·info), translit.: HaKotel HaMa'aravi;Ashkenazic pronunciation: Kosel; Arabic: حائط البراق, translit.: Ḥā'iṭ Al-Burāq, translat.: The Buraq Wall) is located in theOld City of Jerusalem. It is a relatively small western segment of the walls surrounding the area called the Temple Mount (or Har Habayit) by Jews, Christians and most Western sources, and known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary (Al-Haram ash-Sharīf).
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and is the place to which Jews turn during prayer. The original, natural and irregular-shaped Temple Mount was gradually extended to allow for an ever larger Temple compound to be built at its top. This process was finalised by Herod the Great, who created an enclosing, almost rectangular set of retaining walls, which supported extensive substructures and earth fills, then hidden under a vast paved platform. Of the four retaining walls, the western one is considered to be closest to the former Temple, which makes it the most sacred site recognized by Judaism outside the Temple Mount itself. Just over half the wall's total height, including its 17 courseslocated below street level, dates from the end of the Second Temple period, and is commonly believed to have been built around 19 BCE by Herod the Great, although recent excavations indicate that the work was not finished during Herod's lifetime. The very large stone blocks of the lower courses are Herodian, the courses of medium-sized stones above them were added during the Umayyad era, while the small stones of the uppermost courses are of more recent date, especially from the Ottoman Period.
The term Western Wall with its variations is mostly used in a narrow sense for the section traditionally used by Jews for prayer and also known, mainly in the past, as the "Wailing Wall", but in a larger sense it refers to the entire 488 meter-long retaining wall on the western side of the Temple Mount. The classic portion is now facing a large plaza in the Jewish Quarter, near the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount, while the rest of the wall is concealed behind structures in the Muslim Quarter, with the small exception of a 25 ft (8 m) section, the so-called Little Western Wall.
The wall has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries; the earliest source mentioning Jewish attachment to the site dates back to the 4th century. From the mid-19th century onwards, attempts to purchase rights to the wall and its immediate area were made by various Jews, but none was successful. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th century, the wall became a source of friction between the Jewish and Muslim communities, the latter being worried that the wall was being used to further Jewish nationalistic claims to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. Outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace and an international commission was convened in 1930 to determine the rights and claims of Muslims and Jews in connection with the wall. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the wall came under Jordanian control and Jews were barred from the site for 19 years until Israel captured the Old City in 1967 and three days later bulldozed the adjacent 770-year old Moroccan Quarter.[1]
Contents
[hide]- 1 Etymology
- 2 Location and dimensions
- 3 History
- 4 Theology and ritual
- 5 Views
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 External links
Etymology[edit]
Jews may often be seen sitting for hours at the Wailing-place bent in sorrowful meditation over the history of their race, and repeating often times the words of the Seventy-ninth Psalm. On Fridays especially, Jews of both genders, of all ages, and from all countries, assemble in large numbers to kiss the sacred stones and weep outside the precincts they may not enter.
Charles Wilson, 1881. (Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p. 41).[2]
Early Jewish texts referred to a “western wall of the Temple”,[3] but there is doubt whether the texts were referring to today’s Western Wall or to another wall which stood within the Temple complex. The earliest clear Jewish use of the term Western Wall as referring to the wall visible today was by the 11th-century Ahimaaz ben Paltiel. The name “Wailing Wall”, and descriptions such as "wailing place" appeared regularly in English literature during the 19th century.[4][5][6] The name Mur des Lamentations was used in French and Klagemauer in German. This term itself was a translation of the Arabic el-Mabka, or "Place of Weeping," the traditional Arabic term for the wall.[7] This description stemmed from the Jewish practice of coming to the site to mourn and bemoan the destruction of the Temple.
At some time in the 19th century or earlier, the Arabs began referring to the wall as al-Buraq. This was based on the tradition that inside the wall was the place where Muhammad tethered his miraculous winged steed, Buraq.
Theology and ritual[edit]
Judaism[edit]
In Judaism, the Western Wall is venerated as the sole remnant of the Holy Temple. It has become a place of pilgrimage for Jews, as it is the closest permitted accessible site to the holiest spot in Judaism, namely the Even ha-shetiya or Foundation Stone, which lies on the Temple Mount. According to one rabbinic opinion, Jews may not set foot upon the Temple Mount and doing so is a sin punishable by Kareth. While almost all historians and archaeologists and some rabbinical authorities believe that the rocky outcrop in the Dome of the Rock is the Foundation Stone,[104] some rabbis say it is located directly opposite the exposed section of the Western Wall, near the El-kas fountain.[105] This spot was the site of the Holy of Holies when the Temple stood.
Jewish tradition teaches that the Western Wall was built by King Solomon and that the wall we see today is built upon his foundations, which date from the time of the First Temple.[106] Jewish midrashic texts compiled in Late Antiquity refer to a western wall of the Temple which “would never be destroyed.”[3] Some scholars were of the opinion that this referred to a wall of the Temple itself which has long since vanished. Others believed that the wall still stood and was actually a surviving wall of the Temple courtyard. However, today there is no doubt that the wall is the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount and the Midrash refers to the Temple in its broader sense, that is, the Temple Mount.[107] Jewish sources teach that when Roman Emperor Vespasian ordered the destruction of the Temple, he ordered Pangar, Duke of Arabia, to destroy the Western Wall. Pangar however could not destroy the wall because of God's promise that the Wall will never be destroyed. When asked by Titus why he did not destroy it, Pangar replied that it would stand as a reminder of what Titus had conquered. He was duly executed.[108] There is a tradition that states that when water starts trickling through the stones of the Wall, it is a signal of the advent of the Messiah.[109]
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kaindenover discusses the mystical aspect of the Hebrew word kotel when discussing the significance of praying against a wall. He cites the Zohar which writes that the word kotel, meaning wall, is made up of two parts: "Ko", which has the numerical value of God’s name, and "Tel", meaning mount, which refers to the Temple and its Western Wall.[110]
Jewish sources, including the Zohar, write that the Divine Presence rests upon the Western Wall.[111] The Midrash quotes a 4th-century scholar: “Rav Acha said that the Divine Presence has never moved away from the Western Wall”.[112] 18th-century scholar Jonathan Eybeschutz writes that “after the destruction of the Temple, God removed His Presence from His sanctuary and placed it upon the Western Wall where it remains in its holiness and honour”.[113] It is told that great Jewish sages, including Isaac Luria and the Radvaz, experienced a revelation of the Divine Presence at the wall.[114]
Prayer at the Wall[edit]
The sages state that anyone who prays in the Temple in Jerusalem, “it is as if he has prayed before the throne of glory because the gate of heaven is situated there and it is open to hear prayer”.[115] Jewish Law dictates that when Jews pray the Silent Prayer, they should face towards Jerusalem, the Temple and ultimately the Holy of Holies,[116] as all of God’s bounty and blessing emanates from that spot.[106] According to the Mishna, of all the four walls of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall was the closest to the Holy of Holies,[117] and therefore that to pray by the Wall is particularly beneficial.[106] Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger writes "since the gate of heaven is near the Western Wall, it is understandable that all Israel's prayers ascend on high there...as one of the great ancient kabbalists Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla said, when the Jews send their prayers from the Diaspora in the direction of Jerusalem, from there they ascend by way of the Western Wall."[37] A well-known segula (efficacious remedy) for finding one's mate is to pray for 40 consecutive days at the Western Wall.[118] This practice was apparently conceived by Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Fisher.[119]
According to some, by Late Antiquity the privileged site of Jewish prayer in Jerusalem was located on the Mount of Olives and only towards the end of the Middle Ages did Jews gradually begin to congregate instead at the Western Wall for their prayers, authorized to do so by the waqf authorities.[120] Indeed, most historians believe that the Western Wall became a popular prayer area only after the Ottoman conquest of Jerusalem in 1517. There are, however, recorded instances of the wall being used as a place of prayer before the Ottoman period. The Scroll of Ahimaaz, a historical document written in 1050 CE, distinctly describes the Western Wall as a place of prayer for the Jews.[121] In around 1167 CE during the late Crusader Period, Benjamin of Tudela wrote that "In front of this place is the Western Wall, which is one of the walls of the Holy of Holies. This is called the Gate of Mercy, and hither come all the Jews to pray before the Wall in the open court".[122] In 1334, Jewish traveller Isaac Chelo wrote: "It is this Western Wall which stands before the temple of Omar ibn al Khattab, and which is called the Gate of Mercy. The Jews resort thither to say their prayers, as Rabbi Benjamin has already related. Today, this wall is one of the seven wonders of the Holy City."[123] In 1625 "arranged prayers" at the Wall are mentioned for the first time by a scholar whose name has not been preserved.[23] Scrolls of the Law were brought to the Wall on occasions of public distress and calamity, as testified to in a narrative written by Rabbi Gedaliah of Semitizi who went to Jerusalem in 1699.
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| "On Friday afternoon, March 13, 1863, the writer visited this sacred spot. Here he found between one and two hundred Jews of both sexes and of all ages, standing or sitting, and bowing as they read, chanted and recited, moving themselves backward and forward, the tears rolling down many a face; they kissed the walls and wrote sentences in Hebrew upon them... The lamentation which is most commonly used is from Psalm 79:1 "O God, the heathen are come into Thy inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled." |
| Rev. James W. Lee, 1863. (Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee, p. 147)[2] |
The writings of various travellers in the Holy Land, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, tell of how the Wall and its environs continued to be a place of devotion for the Jews.[23] Isaac Yahuda, a prominent member of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem recalled how men and women used to gather in a circle at the Wall to hear sermons delivered in Ladino. His great-grandmother, who arrived in Palestine in 1841, “used to go to the Western Wall every Friday afternoon, winter and summer, and stay there until candle-lighting time, reading the entire Book of Psalms and the Song of Songs...she would sit there by herself for hours."[124] The Kaf hachaim records that Ashkenazim and Sephardim were accustomed to walking through the streets and markets of the Old City wearing their tallit and tefillin on their way to pray by the Western Wall.[125]
Throughout the ages, the Wall is where Jews have gathered to express gratitude to God or to pray for divine mercy. On news of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944 thousands of Jews went to the Wall to offer prayers for the “success of His Majesty’s and Allied Forces in the liberation of all enemy-occupied territory.”[126] On October 13, 1994, 50,000 gathered to pray for the safe return of kidnapped soldier Nachshon Wachsman.[127] August 10, 2005 saw a massive prayer rally at the Wall. Estimates of people protesting Israel's unilateral disengagement plan ranged from 50,000 to 250,000 people.[citation needed][128] Every year on Tisha B'Av large crowds congregate at the Wall to commemorate the destruction of the Temple. In 2007 over 100,000 gathered.[129] During the month of Tishrei 2009, a record 1.5 million people visited the site.[130]
Women's prayer at the Wall[edit]
Until 2013, non-Orthodox prayer was not allowed at the Wall due to the regulations of the Law of the Holy Places, and thus women who prayed using tallits and tefillinwere often arrested and given restraining orders keeping them away.[131] Then in April 2013, Judge Moshe Sobel of the Jerusalem District Court ruled that as long as there is no other appropriate area for pluralistic prayer, women should be allowed to pray according to non-Orthodox customs at the Wall.[131] As of 2014, negotiations are ongoing with a view to creating an area for pluralistic prayer at the Wall, and officially nullifying the regulations that disallowed non-Orthodox prayer there.[131] Women of the Wall has been campaigning for "women's free prayer at the Western Wall" since 1988.[132][133] In October 2014, Women of the Wall smuggled a Torah scroll into the Western Wall women's section and held their first Torah reading by a woman at the site, as part of a bat mitzvah.[134] However, Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, issued a statement saying in part, "In future, efforts will be made to ensure that this does not happen again, and the introduction of Torah scrolls will be banned for everyone – men and women."[135] In December 2014, women lit menorahs at the Wall for the first time.[136] Specifically, they lit 28 menorahs in the women's section of the Wall.[137] Sarah Silverman was among those who attended the lighting of the menorahs.[138] However, this event came after the rabbi in charge of the Wall had refused a request from Women of the Wall to place a menorah in the women’s section.[139]
The Wall and prayer by people with disabilities[edit]
Guide dogs began to be allowed at the Western Wall in 2013, due to a new ruling by Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch.[140]
The Wall and transgender individuals[edit]
In January 2015 a transgender Jewish woman, Kay Long, was denied access to the Wall, first by the women's section and then by the men's section.[141][142] Long's presence was prevented by “modesty police” at women’s section who are not associated with the rabbi of the Western Wall or the site administration. They are a group of female volunteers who guard the entrance to the women’s section preventing entry to visitors are not dressed to their idea of Orthodox modesty standards for women. The director of Jerusalem’s Open House, a community center for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, noted that Long’s experience was not unique. “Gender separation at the Western Wall is harmful for transgender people. This is not the first story that we know of with transgender religious people that wanted to go to the Western Wall and pray and couldn’t,” said Elinor Sidi, who expects that the battle for access to the Western Wall for the GLBTQ community will be a long and difficult one.[143]
Mourning the Temple's Destruction[edit]
According to Jewish Law, one is obligated to grieve and rend one's garment upon visiting the Western Wall and seeing the desolate site of the Temple.[144] Bach (17th century) explicitly mentions the "Kotel ha-Ma'aravi" when expounding how one could encounter the ruins of the Temple before the ruins of Jerusalem.[145] Today, some scholars are of the view that rending one's garments is not applicable since Jerusalem is under Jewish sovereignty. Others disagree, citing that the Temple Mount itself is controlled by the Muslim waqf and the State of Israel has no power to remove the mosques which sit upon it. Furthermore, the mosques' very existence on the site of the Temple should increase one's feeling of distress. If one hasn’t seen the Wall for over 30 days, in order to avoid tearing one's shirt, the custom is to visit on the Sabbath, including Friday afternoons, or Saturday evenings if dressed in Sabbath finery, or on festivals.[146] A person who has not seen the Wall within the last 30 days should recite:
The Bach cites Likutim which instructs that "when one sees the Gates of Mercy which are situated in the Western Wall, which is the wall King David built, he should recite:
Prayer notes[edit]
Main article: Placing notes in the Western Wall
There is a much publicised practice of placing slips of paper containing written prayers into the crevices of the Wall. The earliest account of this practice is recorded in Sefer Tamei Ha-minhagim U’mekorei Ha-dinim and involves Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, (d. 1743).[148] More than a million notes are placed each year[149] and the opportunity to e-mail notes is offered by a number of organisations.[150] It has become customary for visiting dignitaries to place notes too.[151][152]
Sanctity of the Wall[edit]
There is much debate among Jewish codifiers about whether it is permitted to place one's fingers inside the cracks of the Wall. Those who warn against such action hold that the breadth of the Wall constitutes part of the Temple Mount itself and therefore retains holiness. Others hold that the Wall stands outside the given measurements of the Temple area and therefore there is no concern about inserting one's fingers into the crevices.[153] In the past, visitors, based upon various scriptural verses, would drive nails into the cracks and paint their Hebrew names on the Wall. These practices stopped after rabbinic consensus determined that such actions compromised the sanctity of the Wall.[37] Another practice also existed whereby pilgrims or those intending to travel abroad would hack off a chip from the Wall or take some of the sand from between its cracks as a good luck charm or memento. In the late 19th century the question was raised as to whether this was permitted and a long responsa appeared in the Jerusalem newspaper Havatzelet in 1898. It concluded that even if according to Jewish Law it was permitted, the practices should be stopped as it constituted a desecration.[37] More recently theYalkut Yosef rules that it is forbidden to remove small chips of stone or dust from the Wall, although it is permissible to take twigs from the vegetation which grows in the Wall for an amulet, as they contain no holiness.[154] Cleaning the stones is also problematic from a halachic point of view. Blasphemous graffiti once sprayed by a tourist was left visible for months until it began to peel away.[155] Many contemporary poskim rule that the area in front of the Wall has the status of a synagogue and must be treated with due respect.[106] As such, men and married women are expected to cover their heads upon approaching the Wall, and to dress appropriately. When departing, the custom is to walk backwards away from the Wall.[106] On Saturdays, it is forbidden to enter the area with electronic devices, including cameras, which infringe on the sanctity of the Sabbath.
There was once an old custom of removing one's shoes upon approaching the Wall. A 17th-century collection of special prayers to be said at holy places mentions that “upon coming to the Western Wall one should remove his shoes, bow and recite...”.[37] Rabbi Moses Reicher wrote that “it is a good and praiseworthy custom to approach the Western Wall in white garments after ablution, kneel and prostrate oneself in submission and recite “This is nothing other than the House of God and here is the gate of Heaven.” When within fourcubits of the Wall, one should remove their footwear.”[37] Over the years the custom of standing barefoot at the Wall has ceased, as there is no need to remove one's shoes when standing by the Wall, because the plaza area is outside the sanctified precinct of the Temple Mount.[154]
In the past women could be found sitting at the entrance to the Wall every Sabbath holding fragrant herbs and spices in order to enable worshipers to make additional blessings. In the hot weather they would provide cool water. The women also used to cast lots for the privilege of sweeping and washing the alleyway at the foot of the Wall.[37]
Islam[edit]
Islamic reverence for the site is derived from the belief that the prophet Mohammed tied his miraculous steed Buraq nearby during hisnight journey to Jerusalem. Various places have been suggested for the exact spot where Buraq was tethered, but for several centuries the preferred location has been the al-Buraq mosque, which is just inside the wall at the south end of the present Western Wall plaza. The mosque is located in an ancient passageway, which once came out through a long-sealed gate whose huge lintel is still visible directly below the Maghrebi gate.[156]
When a British Jew asked the Egyptian authorities in 1840 for permission to re-pave the ground in front of the Western Wall, the governor of Syria wrote:
- It is evident from the copy of the record of the deliberations of the Consultative Council in Jerusalem that the place the Jews asked for permission to pave adjoins the wall of the Haram al-Sharif and also the spot where al-Buraq was tethered, and is included in the endowment charter of Abu Madyan, may God bless his memory; that the Jews never carried out any repairs in that place in the past. ... Therefore the Jews must not be enabled to pave the place.[157]
Carl Sandreczki, who was charged with compiling a list of place names for Charles Wilson's Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem in 1865, reported that the street leading to the Western Wall, including the part alongside the wall, belonged to the Hosh (court/enclosure) of al Burâk, "not Obrâk, nor Obrat".[158] In 1866, the Prussian Consul and Orientalist Georg Rosen wrote that "The Arabs call Obrâk the entire length of the wall at the wailing place of the Jews, southwards down to the house of Abu Su'ud and northwards up to the substructure of the Mechkemeh [Shariah court]. Obrâk is not, as was formerly claimed, a corruption of the word Ibri (Hebrews), but simply the neo-Arabic pronunciation of Bōrâk, ... which, whilst (Muhammad) was at prayer at the holy rock, is said to have been tethered by him inside the wall location mentioned above."[159]
The name Hosh al Buraq appeared on the maps of Wilson's 1865 survey, its revised editions of 1876 and 1900, and other maps in the early 20th century.[160] In 1922, it was the street name specified by the official Pro-Jerusalem Council.[161]
Christianity[edit]
Some scholars believe that when Jerusalem came under Christian rule in the 4th century, there was a purposeful "transference" of respect for the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in terms of sanctity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, while the sites around the Temple Mount became a refuse dump for Christians.[162] However, the actions of many modern Christian leaders, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the Wall and actually left prayer messages in its crevices, has symbolized for many Christians a restoration of respect and even veneration for this ancient religious site.[162]