History of Jerusalem's Western or Wailing Wall-The Kotel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

Still standing in the Old City of Jerusalem is the Western or Wailing Wall (Kotel maaravi in Hebrew)  built by Herod I.  What is there are the remains of a wall that enclosed Herod's Temple (Solomon's Temple (961-920 BCE) which was rebuilt into the 2nd Temple and then rebuilt again by Herod). The Temple had been destroyed in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar and rebuilt in 538-515 BCE  as the 2nd Temple. Details of building the temple are found in I Kings 6, and II Chronicles 3:1.   Major reconstructions were done in the periods of Simon the Just, Judah the Maccabee, Simon the Hasmonean, and Herod.  This Herodian wall surrounding the Temple hill measured  913 x 1,515 x 1,586 x 1,050 feet and the extensive area enclosed was party obtained by leveling and filling between the Tyropoeion and Kidron valleys.  This means that if one walked completely around the 4 walls, they would have walked 1,543.507 meters or 0.959091 miles.  That's just a little bit short of a full mile.

The 1st Temple that King Solomon built was built for G-d (Hashem).  It was 60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide and stood 30 cubits in height.  Quarried stone was used to build it.  It is written in Kings that hammers, chisels, or any iron utensils were not heard in the Temple when it was being built.  Now, a cubit probably was a measurement from Egypt as far back as 3,000 BCE.  It was the distance from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger.  So it could be about 45.72 centimeters or 17 to 21 inches.

 Herod I., who became known as 'the Great" even though he was a murderer,  was born in 73 BCE and died in 4 BCE.  He had been appointed as King of Judea by the Romans because he captured it in 37 BCE with Roman forces.  His father was Antipater, an Idumean (people, descendants of Esau, had been converted to Judaism,  from the Mt. Seir area once called Edom), and his mother was a Nabatean (also Arabs  who occupied Edom in 6th century BCE), lived in Petra), by the name of Cypros. He married Mariamne, a granddaughter of the high priest, Hyreanus, a Hashmonean, which gave him a free hand in internal affairs but still could not conduct an independent foreign policy. (Hashmoneans were a priestly family and dynasty founded by Mattathias of Modiin.    It was Mattathias and his 5 sons, Judah the Maccabee being one who was the hero in our Chanukah story).    Herod was ruthless.  He murdered his own brother-in-law- Aristobulus, the last Hasmonean high priest, and his own wife, Mariamne, their 2 sons, Alexander and   Aristobulus and Antipater, his first son.   He is guilty of many things but he was quite the businessman by enhancing the wealth of Judea through his commercial operations.  Then he rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale and erected the 2 new cities of Sebaste and Caesarea.  He was known outside of Judea as a spokesman and protector of the Jews.  When he died he left a will partitioning his kingdom among his 3 remaining sons:  Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip.

  The wall  is made up of 5 lower courses, each over 3 feet high.  It continues over 60 feet underground.  The Temple's Holy of Holies (inner sanctum) stood at the western end of the Temple so this part of the wall was considered as sacred in our history as far back as the Talmudic Period because at least the 10th century regular services were held before it.  The original Temple was built by King Solomon as a shrine for the Ark, sacred vessels and offerings with a court for worshippers.  It had a hall, shrine and the inner sanctum.  We know that the holy of holies was 32.5 X 32.5.cubits and went from east to west.  In this room was kept the Ark, and had a raised floor and was windowless.  A small cedar altar overlaid with gold stood at the entrance to the holy of holies.
                                                                       

Problems surround the Wall.  The area in front of the Kotel  was Muslim property.  A serious argument broke out between Jews and Muslims in 1929 and again in 1931.  A special commission of the League of Nations regulated the rights of the parties.

What had happened was that during the Roman war, the Temple served as a center of military activity, and was destroyed by the conquering Romans in 70 CE.  A Roman temple was later built on the site.  Since the Moslem Period, a mosque has stood there called the Mosque of Omar, established in 1193.  .

From Israel's birth again May 14, 1948, Jews were cut off from the Wailing Wall which was under Jordanian control even though there was a paragraph in the Israel-Jordan 1949 Armistice Agreement affirming  Jewish right of access.
     

Jews could not go to the Wailing Wall until the miracle happened when in June 1967 Israel won a war of an attack from  all surrounding states but mostly by Syria, Jordan and Egypt  in which Israel  surprised everyone by winning.  The war lasted from June 5th to June 10th.  The Wall now came under Jewish sovereignty for the first time since the 2nd Temple period.  Soldiers rushed to the Wall to pray.
                                                                         

 It was on Shavuot of 1967 ( Sivan) 6 when people could visit the Wall.  200,000 went there and danced and said prayers.  What became the custom was to write a prayer on a piece of paper and insert it between the stones.

Jewish tourists coming to Jerusalem usually go there first. One has to realize that the remaining wall which once went around the Temple area built first by King Solomon  is over 2,000 years old.  That's where   our ancestors had prayed.  It's where the High Priest entered the holy of holies on Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement.  The Priests, which would have been the Cohens, descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses, Levites and certain Nethinim  performed services there. (The Nethinim were Temple servants, originally conquered Canaanites who were given the jobs by King David to assist the Levites in the Temple.  These people were exiled to Babylon along with the Jews and returned with them under Zerubbabel and Ezra.  They were given a special quarter of Jerusalem.  They had accepted Ezra's covenant but were still debarred from the Jewish community.  They kept their identity down to amoraic times.  )  Amoraic times covered from 200 to 500 CE when the oral Torah was being discussed.  

 Israel has done a considerable amount of landscaping the area.   The area around the western and southern walls of the Herodian Temple compound was extensively excavated  starting in  1968  directed by B Mazar, of which  many remains dating from Temple times were uncovered.

Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanach, The Stone Edition; Kings 6.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/six_day_war_1967.htm
http://www.bonayich.com/Portals/102/tichon_pic_stuff/Series%204%20Unit%201%20-%20Introduction%20to%20the%20Amoraic%20Period%20-%20English.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoraim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Omar_(Jerusalem)

The Religious Significance of Jerusalem to Islam

Nadene Goldfoot
When Mohammed lived(570 CE-632 CE) , there was no mosque in Jerusalem.  The Koran tells only that Mohammed in a single night was taken to heaven by Buraq, a horse with wings, a woman's face and a peacock's tail.  He was first taken to a place the Koran called the "uttermost mosque": --il masjad al aksa.
أقصى مسجد.  
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the story at all.  After his death, the tradition was that the "uttermost mosque" must have been the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.  The 1st Temple was built by King Solomon (961 BCE-920 BCE)  of the Jews.  It held the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred vessels and offerings and had a court for worshipers.  The makeup of it was a hall, shrine and inner sanctum for the holy of holies. Then it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE and was rebuilt in 538-515 BCE by the Jews and called the 2nd Temple.  This time it included the Western Wall (also called the Wailing Wall).

The Western Wall is part of the wall enclosing Herod's Temple still standing in the Old city of Jerusalem. Herod lived from 73 BCE to 4 CE and was the King of Judea who had been appointed governor of Galilee by his father, then was appointed king by the Romans.   The wall  is very close to the Holy of Holies which was at the western end of the temple.  It's regarded as sacred.  Regular services had been held before it.  Though Jordan had taken over this part of Jerusalem in 1948, a paragraph in the Israel-Jordan  1949 Armistice Agreement  affirmed the Jewish right of access to it which Jordan denied to them anyway.  It wasn't until 1967 that Jews could again go to the Wall.  It's the first place Jewish tourists go to when they visit Jerusalem today.  The tradition is to place a prayer  written on a little piece of paper into the niches of the wall.   One good thing about Herod is that he had rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale.

The Temple Mount was the existing sacredness of the place that had been holy to Jews for nearly 2,000 years before Mohammad.  This must be why Mohammed's followers chose it as being the fitting and awesome place for Mohammed's ascent.  A mosque is the Arabic name for a temple, a building used for public worship by the Muslims.

The Moslems called the site, Buraq, which has become a memorial to Islam's recognition of the Jewishness of the Holy Place.  It's why the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque were built on the Mount.  They called this Haram-A-Sharif, and it became the 3rd holiest place in Islam after Mecca and Medina, which are in Arabia.  Nobody knows if Mohammed ever came to Jerusalem or not.  There is no proof.

What is known is that Mohammed was establishing Islam in Arabia and hoped that both Jews and Christians would adopt the new religion.  He called on them to accept him as the successor of both Moses and Jesus.  First he ordered that when praying, the Moslem should copy the Jewish custom of turning his face towards Jerusalem, which was at that time under Christian rule.  When neither Jews or Christians were converting to his new religion, he got angry and 18 months later after his decree changed it and they were to turn their faces towards Mecca.

In fact, when directing the needs to build a mosque, it was then built so that the worshippers could face Mecca for prayer and they built in a prayer niche.  Most mosques built during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods have been destroyed.  Ones remaining are one in Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.   The Dome is the golden shrine on the Mosque of Omar.  The intentions of the builders was to outdo other religious buildings.  It was constructed from 689 CE-691 CE in the Muslim conquest of Syria of 637 CE by the Rashidun Caliphate.

Mohammed  and his followers knew that Jerusalem was a Holy City to the Jews and then to the Christians.  In following in the tradition to its holiness,  they made Jerusalem's Temple Area the site of his ascent to their 7th heaven.  It was not Mohammed's dream that made the Temple Mount holy to Islam.  It was the existing sanctity of the place.

In the siege of Jerusalem during the Roman war, the 2nd Temple served as a center of military activity and then was destroyed by the Romans soldiers with only the wall remaining.  In 70 CE Jerusalem fell to the Romans.  A Roman temple was later built on the site.

In the Moslem Period, the Mosque of Omar had been built over the Temple area.  This is the only claim to Jerusalem that the Moslems have.  Jerusalem was never a holy city to Islam.  Palestine has no significance in the Moslem religion.  It never existed as a country under Arab or any of the other Moslem administration.  The city of Jerusalem as such has no significance in Islam.  It was just that they were able to take over a site that had been holy to both previous religions of Judaism and Christianity.  That was a feather in the cap for Islam.

Resource: Battleground, fact and fantasy in Palestine by Samuel Katz
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Middle East Past & Present by Armajani and Ricks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock

Palestinian Authority's Plans for Western Wall and Jews

Nadene Goldfoot

Just when I think things can't get any worse for Jerusalem, the situation only gets worse.  We Jews just can't come up with such evil ideas like our cousins, the Arabs that surround us can.

The Palestine Authority just broadcast a documentary on TV of their plans to build an Arab residential area in place of the Western Wall Plaza in East Jerusalem "when the Israelis disappear like a forgotten chapter in the pages of "our" city's history."  They are most likely hoping that this will happen shortly after September 22nd. 

The Western Wall is a remnant of the Temple Mount  which was the outer wall surrounding it which is the holiest and most important prayer site for Jews.  It's called the Kotel ha-Ma'aravi.  That's where the Jewish tourists head for when they come to Jerusalem.  That wall has my piece of paper with my prayer on it stuck in between the stones, which is what we all do. 

Muslims used it as a garbage dump just to humiliate any Jew that was to visit it.  From 1948 to 1967 Jordanians illegally occupied Jerusalem but had signed an agreement that Israelis could visit it.  They then refused to allow Jews there at all.  So much for their agreements. 

When the Six Day War of 1967 was over, Moshe Dayan was one of the first IDF soldiers to enter and go to the wall.  He inserted a prayer that asked that "lasting peace descend upon the House of Israel." 

That isn't all.  Hamas and Fatah reject any Jewish connection to Jerusalem calling it "their false history."  They call Jews praying there a "sin and filth." 

Well now, this just can't happen.  We'll all have to say a prayer to keep Jerusalem united as one city and in Israel's hands.  . 

http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5490 by Itamar Marcus & Nan Jacques Zilberdik

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Western_Wall.html

Why Shavuot in Jerusalem 1967 is So Important to Jews

Nadene Goldfoot
In 1967 Israel was able to retrieve all of Jerusalem just before Shavuot, one of the three holiest days in Judaism.  It celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai to Moses.  Three million Jews were there witnessing this divine revelation.  The Torah brought monotheism, justice and responsibility to the Jews.  This in turn has been shared with the whole world.  Perhaps the whole world has been changed because of it. 

 The Western Wall, or Wailing Wall is in East Jerusalem.  This was the first time that Shavuot could be commemorated at the Wall since 1948.  It was opened for visitors on this holiday.  Since buses and cars are not used on holidays in Jerusalem, people walked to the wall.  This has been the custom ever since. 

The Wall is usually the first place that Jewish tourists go to when they visit Israel.  The custom is to put a prayer on a piece of paper and put it in the cracks of the wall.  For 19 years Israelis had to wait to have free access to this part of their most important city in all of their history.  They're not about to lose it again.  In their hands Jerusalem has come to life.  Remembering our history is to know how we were made.  The Wall's history goes back to the Temple built by Herod in 19 BCE.  This very wall is the remnant of the wall surrounding the courtyard of that Temple.  It was called the Wailing Wall because people would remember the day the Temple fell to the Romans in 70 AD.  This 2nd Temple brings to our mind Solomon's Temple built in the 10th century BCE.  It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.  The Babylonians came from what is today called Iraq. 

Under Jordan from 1948-June 1967, no Jew could enter East Jerusalem under any condition.  The cemeteries were violated in every way.  The condition of the area was terrible.  Under Israeli rule the area has blossomed for all: Jews, Christians and Muslims.  In 1980 Israel declared Jerusalem complete, united and Israel's capital.  As the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat,  has stated, Jerusalem must not be divided. 

Resource: http://www.aish.com/h/sh/t/48959111.html?utm_source=mimi_aish_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Aish_com%3A+Get+Ready+for+Shavuot+-+June+6%2C+2011+&utm_campaign=Aish_com%3A+Get+Ready+for+Shavuot+-+June+6%2C+2011&utm_term=ABCs+of+Shavuot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nir_Barkat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Jerusalem

Cordoba Mosque of 9/11 Wants Federal Funding

This is a picture of the Cordoba Mosque in Spain. What does the Cordoba Mosque and the Dome of the Rock have in common?

This picture is of New York's St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, now destroyed.
by Nadene Goldfoot


Approximately 70% of New Yorkers oppose building a huge $100 million dollar mosque two blocks from the 9/11 site where the Twin Towers fell from the ramming of planes with Saudi Arabian Muslims filled with jihad against America. By August 18th, CNN poll showed that 68% of New Yorkers were against building the proposed mosque so close to the site of disaster. Then, on August 19th, The Siena Research found 63% opposed with 27% supportive of building. The Jewish Defense League is against it because it will cause pain for those who lost friends and family in the disaster, not comfort.

It's called the Cordoba Initiative and Park51, title of the Cordoba Mosque project at Ground Zero. One reason it stings is that it is named after "The Great Mosque" in Cordoba, Spain. In the 700's around the time Islam was born, the Christian church of Saint Vincent sat on the foundation of a Roman temple. The Moors (Arabs) attacked and tore it down. It was replaced with The Great Mosque which became the 2nd most important mosque after Mecca.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf should have called it by a different name. This is inflamatory. His wife, Daisy Khan explains that it will be modeled after a Jewish Community Center and sounds absolutely delicious. They both refuse to build in a different spot. It is to be opened on the 10th anniversary of the Twin Towers attack.

Now they are asking for federal funding of around $5,000,000 whereas in the beginning they assured everyone that they would have all the necessary funding.

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed on 9/11. They have been asking ever since the incident for funds to rebuild but without any success. Shouldn't the Iman do the generous thing and offer money to this church to rebuild instead of glorifying his religion with a a grand mosque?

Many people read history and feel that Islam has shown dominance over the West in insidious ways. For instance, the Dome of the Rock in East Jerusalem, next door to the Western Wall, was actually built on the ruins of Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount. That's why it's so close. Now the Muslims are tying to proclaim that Jews have no connection to Jerusalem at all and want to take over all of East Jerusalem for their capital saying that they own the Western Wall.

Another example is the Al-Aqsa Mosque built on the southern end of the Temple Mount and over the Basilica of St. Mary of Justinian. The Grand Mosque of Damascus was erected over the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. These are but a few examples.

At a time of austerity in spending, I doubt very much if our leaders are going to fund this mosque. I do hope that the mayor of New York takes pity on the destroyed Greek Church and does something to allow them to rebuild on their own site. They have been rebuffed enough times. Shouldn't a destroyed church take precedent over a new grandiose mosque?

12/9/10: Pamela Geller's website has that the 95 yr old St. Nicholas Church at ground zero is suing for rights to rebuild. Good for them. I hope they win.

Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielle-parker/cordoba-mosque-the-conque_b_691583.h
http://www.prlog.org/10869856-new-york-people-against-building-mosque-on-911-site.html
actforamerica Ground Zero Mosque seeks tax dollars!

http://www.pi-news.org/2010/08/jewish-lobby-against-cordoba-mosque/ ADL

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-05-07-mosque-ground-zero_N.htm

http://thehill.com/index.php?as_q=Cordoba+mosque+in+NY&Itemid=315&option=com_gsearch&btnG.x=16&btnG.y=5

Amish Stand With Israel

Amish from the United States and Switzerland broke their tradition for the important task of getting to Israel. They flew in order to go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem where they asked the Jewish people's forgiveness for their group's silence during the Holocaust when Jews were being exterminated.

Amish are a sect of the Mennonite Church which rejects modern transportation. Their goal was so important to them that they flew. They met with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. "They also declared their unreserved support of the Jewish people and the State of Israel." The Amish representative gave Rabinovitch a parchment with a request for forgiveness in the name of the entire Amish community and a commitment that from now on, they would loudly voice its support of the Jewish people.

It appears that Ahmadinejad's hateful comments of Israel and the Jewish people have helped to bring about this decision.

Resource: http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=1997087

Jerusalem's Western Wall; Jewish or Muslim?

"To Jerusalem, thy city, shall we return with joy!" from Psalms, found in Old Testament

Muslims are trying to erase all things of our Jewish heritage and claim that we never existed in Jerusalem or the surrounding countryside. The latest attack is on our Western Wall located in the old city of Jerusalem.

King David would have loved to build the Temple but was not allowed to as he had blood on his hands, being a warrior king. His son, Solomon received this honor and built the magnificant temple of which we have the last remnant of wall remaining that has become the holiest site in Judaism. It is a place where all Jewish tourists come to and insert little papers with prayers in between the rocks. I did that upon visiting for the first time. I prayed for the return of good health for my son who was struck with an unknown disease and am happy to report that he is well now. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." is another prayer said of Jerusalem daily by observant Jews.

400 years later, in 586 BCE, the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. 70 years later a second temple was built by the Jews on the same site.

The first century BCE found King Herod, placed in this position by the Romans, enlarging and expanding the temple. Then in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the temple and almost all of Jerusalem with the wall section still standing. It happens to be adjacent to the Temple Mount, home to al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Coming from the lovely people that we are trying to make peace with, Fatah's Al-Mutawakil Taha, deputy information minister in the Palestinian Authority, published a 5 page study on Wednesday disputing Jews' reverence of the shrine as a retaining wall of the compound of Biblical Jewish Temples destroyed so long ago. Netanyahu stated that "this denial of the connection between the Jewish peoople and the Western Wall is baseless and scandalous. " Needless to say, this report has angered Israel.

The Palestinian's verbal attack probably came as a retaliation to Israel's 5 year renovation plan for the Wall area. US-brokered peace talks are supposed to address the issue of Jerusalem which would include the Western Wall, but Abbas refuses to come to the table because Netanyahu refuses to extend another 3 month freeze on top of the 10 month freeze that had expired without any fruitful peace talks. We have an expression during Passover: Dayenu (enough already). I believe that's how Netanyahu was thinking.

Now the wheels are turning in the minds of Netanyahu and others. the Palestinian position paper on the Western Wall "raises a very serious question." Do they truly intend to reach a peace agreement with Israel based on co-existence and mutual recognition? Frankly, I have thought not for a long time, now. This episode is just the piece de-resistance.

"The Israeli government expects the leaders of the Palestinian Authority to renounce the document and condemn it, and to stop twisting historical facts," declared Netanyahu.

The Palestinians have not recognized Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, where the Western Wall is located. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of "Palestine" which will take in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Including the Gaza Strip is the most earth-shaking goal that I can think of. It is run by Hamas terrorists and only desire the total destruction of Israel.
12/1/10 Today the proclamation was taken down. "In the report, Deputy Information Minister Al-Mutawakil Taha claimed the Western Wall was not connected to the biblical Jewish Temples — contradicting centuries of archaeological evidence and one of Judaism's most fundamental Prrinciples."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vie/Jerusalem1.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101125/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_wall

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101201/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_western_wall