Western Wall

How the Western Wall Came to Be

The Western Wall or Wailing Wall (or Al-Buraq Wall, in a mix of English and Arabic) is the one remaining wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest building in Judaism connected to the special sanctity of the Temple Mount on which the First and Second ancient Jewish Temples stood.The first having been destroyed by the Babylonians, and the second by the Romans.Each Temple stood for a period of about 400 years. When Vespasian's legions destroyed all that stood there, somehow only a part of an outer court-yard 'western wall' remained standing. Legend has it that Vespasian left it as a bitter reminder to The Jews that Rome had vanquished Judea.The Jews however attributed it to a promise made by God that he would leave some part of the holy Temple standing as a sign of his unbroken bond with the Jewish people in spite of the catastrophe which had befallen them.Jews have prayed there for two thousand years, believing that that spot has greater holiness than any other place on Earth, and that God is nearby listening to their prayers. There are some customs , such as leaving written prayers addressed to God in the cracks of the wall.

The actual wall is holy to the Jewish People. However matters are complicated since on the other side of the wall Muslims have the Mosque of Omar and the nearby Dome of the Rock,from which they believe that Mohamed ascended to heaven.Obviously, there is much contention over who "owns" it and who should have custody over it, as part of the larger struggle between the Jews and their Arab neighbors.

It should be noted that according to all the leading rabbis of the last two thousand years, all Jews are strictly forbidden to enter onto the Temple Mount in the place where the mosque and dome stand, since that same area was once occupied by the Temple which was a biblically designated holy place. Even in ancient times only certain people were permitted into the Temple's grounds. Only members of the priestly cast , the Kohanim and Levi'im were deemed to have the requisite holiness and purity necessary to enter into God's Temple. In fact the 'rock' beneath the Dome of The Rock, is considered to be by Judaism the first matter from which God created the universe. Upon it was Isaac bound as a sacrifice to God by Abraham. It is where the patriarch Jacob slept and dreamt of a ladder going up to heaven with angels upon it as mentioned in the Book of Genesis . And the Holy Of Holiest, the central part of the Temple was built near it with only the High priest being allowed to enter on the day of Yom Kippur.

In 1515 Islamic Turkey took the land of what was once ancient Israel and Judea from the Egyptian Mamelukes. Turkey had a very benevolent attitude towards the Jews in general, having welcomed thousands of Jewish refugees who had recently been expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand in 1492. The Turkish Sultan himself, Selim I, was so taken with Jerusalem and its plight that he ordered that a magnificent surrounding fortress-wall be built around the entire holy city, which was not that large at that time. This wall still stands and can be seen by all today.

However, the Western Wall remained a venerated site by the Jews , and many trekked from all corners of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East to spend their last years near the walls of Jerusalem and spending long days and nights in tearful prayer in front of the Western Wall, hence its name, the Wailing Wall. When Great Britain took control of the land in 1917, Jews were still allowed to stand by the wall and utter their prayers of lament and glorification of God. However during the 1947-8 War of Israel's independence, the area near the wall was lost to the Jordanian army. Jews were not given entry to the wall, and it became abused. During the 1967 Six Day War , Israel brought the wall under Jewish control for the first time in 2,000 years.

The Israelis created a huge plaza in front of the wall which is used by thousands of Jewish worshipers on the Jewish holidays. The Western wall continues to have a powerful hold on the devotion of the Jewish people all over the world. Tens of thousands have come as tourists and pilgrims to be able touch the wall with ther hands and feel the sanctity that emanates from it.

Some related sites to the Western wall and the Temple Mount

Live pictures from the wall http://www.aish.com/wallcam/

Researching the Jerusalem Temple Mount http://www.templemount.org

History of the Western Wall http://www.westernwall.co.il/

Accomodation at the Wall http://www.kotelquarters.com/