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Volume 1
Lesson 3
Why the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is holy.
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- Because it is the only remnant of the Temple that has survived. That Temple was the center of the nation; it was the inner heart of the Jewish people through which all the souls of Jews merged and became as one.
- Because our sages prophesied for centuries after the Temple's destruction that this Wall will never be destroyed because the Divine Presence will never leave it.
- Because all of Israel's prayers have always been directed to this place as Judah Halevy so poignantly put it, "I am in the west, but my heart is in the end of the east." Similarly a Talmudic source instructs us: "If a man is outside Eretz Israel (the land of Israel), he should direct his heart when he prays in the direction of Eretz Israel, as it is said, 'And they will pray to You through the land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You chose and the house which I have built in your name' (I Kings 8:48). If he was in Eretz Israel, he should direct his heart towards Jerusalem, as it is written, 'And they will pray to God through the city which you have chosen' (I Kings 8:44). Those in Jerusalem should direct their hearts to the Temple, as it is written, 'And they shall pray towards this house' (I Kings 8:30). It thus follows that those in the north face south (when they pray), those in the south face north, those in the east face west, and those in the west face east, with the result that all Israel pray towards one place. And this is what the prophet Isaiah was referring to when he said, 'And I will bring them to My holy mountain and I will make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar. For My house will be called a house of prayer for peoples' (Isaiah 56.7).
- Because, when the First and Second Temples were destroyed and in the Bar Kokhba revolt, Israel's heroes sacrificed their lives for every stone of the Temple and fought like lions for every inch of it. They have served as the example of bravery for Israel ever since. Like them, our soldiers fought in holy trepidation to liberate the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.
- Because for more than one thousand five hundred years, Jews in all generations have watered the courses of the Wall with their tears and melted their stones with their kisses.
- Because the Wall is endowed with everlasting sanctity. The sages of the Mishnah, some of whom lived in Temple times and others of whom witnessed its destruction, explained the verse, "And I will make your sanctuaries desolate" (Leviticus 26:31) as meaning that they still have the sanctity of sanctuaries even when they are desolate (Megillah 3:3).
In the sources, the Temple Mount is also called Mount Moriah and the rabbis explained that name by a play on the word Moriah: "That is the place from which instruction (hora'ah) goes forth, from which the fears of heaven (yir'ah) goes forth; from which light (orah) goes forth."
The sanctity of the Wall is frequently discussed in midrashic literature. A good example is: "Rabbi Eleazer said: The Divine Presence never departed from the Temple, as it is written, 'For now I have chosen and sanctified this house so that My name shall be there forever and My eyes and My heart will be there all the days' (II Chronicles 7:16)... Even when it (the Temple) is destroyed, it remains in its sanctity...Even when it is destroyed, God does not leave it. Rav Aha said: The Divine Presence will never leave the Western Wall, as it is written, 'Behold, He (God) stands behind our wall' (Song of Songs 2:9).
Chapter IV, "Sanctity, Law, and Customs,"
written by: Rabbi Mordechai Ha'Cohen
Ministry of Defense
Publishing House
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Rabbi Kalman PackouzCopyright © 1996
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