Western Wall

31 46'36 "N 35 14'3" E / 31.77667, 35.23417

Western Wall X

Panorama of the Western Wall overcome the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock (left) and the al-Aqsa mosque (right)

In the Western Wall Tunnel

Hakatan the Kotel

Gathering at the Western Wall during the priestly blessing

The Western Wall ( Hebrew : , translit. : also called ("the Wall"), Wailing Wall ( Arabic and since the 1920s, is a retaining wall of the esplanade of the Temple in Jerusalem -East from the first century BCE, at the time of construction of the Temple of Herod at the end of the era of the Second Temple.

He is revered by Jews for its proximity to the Holy of Holies , located on the Temple Mount and is thus considered the holiest place (generally accessible) to the Jews for prayer.

The Western Wall is also a national symbol of Israel, and not inherently religious ceremonies held there, including the commemoration of the soldiers died for their country and the victims of anti-Israeli terrorism.

The Western Wall is a remnant of the wall erected by Herod's order to extend the shelf on which the quasi-natural temples of Jerusalem had been built.

The section of 57 meters in length is visible in that part of the west wall, 497 meters long. The rest of the wall is currently located for a party in the Arab quarter of the city, used as the fourth wall by adjoining houses, and the other buried over 200 meters. The underground portion can be seen via the underground tunnel that runs along the wall over 200 meters.

The Western Wall is part of a larger religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem called Har Habayit by Jews, the Temple Mount by Christians and Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims. There is another portion of the wall a little further north, which is called the Kotel HaKatan, Little Western Wall, considered by some to be closer to the Holy of Holies as the general Kotel. A small underground chamber called "The Cave", located in the Western Wall tunnel, is even closer to the Holy of Holies, but it can not be attended by a few visitors at a time.

The Jewish holy site

Slips of paper inscribed with good wishes and prayers in the cracks of the wall

The Western Wall by night.

The Western Wall is the holiest place according to the Jewish religion as it is now the location closest to the Kodesh Ha 'kodashim (Holy of Holies), living first and second temples in which only the Kohen Gadol (large priest) could access it. There are actually moving closer in the basement of the Kotel, is directly opposite the Kodesh Ha'Kodashim (which is now erected the Dome of the Rock ). As usual, some Jews who come to pray at the Western Wall or Kotel, deposit vows, usually in the form of prayer and small folded papers which are written their wishes, which are then inserted into the slots that separate the different stone wall.

Origin of the name "Wailing Wall"

The Western Wall, the only remnant of the Second Temple, becomes accessible to the Jews that one day a year. They are the laughingstock of the Gentiles who enjoy seeing them often spend large sums to mourn on a piece of wall.

The term "Wailing Wall" is introduced ^nineteenth century by British agents, who translated the Arabic -Mabka it. This term has fallen into disfavor in Jewish circles . However it is still overwhelmingly used in France and Christendom in general.

Today, the term "Western Wall" and "Wailing Wall" is used in the war of words in the Israeli-Palestinian .

The Wall for Muslims

The Wall is also of significance for Muslims because it serves as a support to the esplanade where are built the Dome of the Rock mosque and the Al-Aqsa. A tradition that dates back to a text of the fourteenth ^century by Ibn Furkah said that the frame of Muhammad was attached to the Western Wall during the Prophet's journey to Jerusalem , even if this text does not seem to have been known before early twentieth ^century. Thus, the guides published by the Waqf in Jerusalem in 1914, 1965 and 1990 they do not attribute any sacredness to the Wall .

History

According to the Bible , the Temple of Solomon was the first temple Jew from Jerusalem , whose construction would be around ^the tenth century BC. AD on a site megalithic. Its destruction by the Babylonians date of 586 BC. AD. However, archaeologists have found no trace of this construction. The population of Jerusalem at the time, a few hundred, making it impossible to build a large structure.

The second temple was built in 515 BC. AD , the fifth year of the reign of Darius the Great ( Ezra 6:15), considerably enlarged and embellished by Herod the Great , inaugurated in 63 AD and destroyed by the Roman army in 70 AD, following the Jewish-Roman War. The wall dates from the Herodian expansion.

Evidence of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans

Flavius Josephus , who witnessed the fall of Jerusalem taken by Titus , recounts in The Jewish War , Book 7 that the only remaining Western Wall:
"When the army did nothing to kill or rob, for want of objects which satisfy his rage - as if she had had enough exercise, she had refrained from any restraint by violence - Titus Caesar he immediately gave orders to destroy the city and the temple, however, maintaining the highest towers, those Phasael, of Hippicos, Mariamne, and also any part of the wall surrounding the city side of the west. This wall was intended to camp at the garrison left in Jerusalem, the towers were to demonstrate the importance and strength of the Roman city whose value had triumphed. All the rest of the enclosure was razed by the so undermines the passengers on arriving there, could doubt that this place had ever been inhabited. That was the end of Jerusalem, quoted shows, famous among all men, a victim of the madness of the rebels. "

In antiquity

Saint Jerome, violently anti-Jewish, already evidenced ⁱⁿ the fourth century of the habit of Jews to come crying along the wall: "To date, these hypocrites tenants are prohibited from coming to Jerusalem, because they are the killers of prophets, including the last of them, the Son of God unless they come to cry because they were given permission to lament on the ruins of the city, subject to payment " .

In the Middle Ages

The wall is already a place of prayer as evidenced by Benjamin of Tudela in the ^twelfth century: "In contrast to this location to the west is a wall that is a remnant of the Temple and even the Holy of Holies. It's called the door of Mercy. All Jews go to pray at the spot where the court was " .

Under the Ottoman Empire

Etching printed in 1850

Engraving of the wall by Bida drawn from Jewish Encyclopedia

For 400 years, from 1517 to 1917, the Turks administer Palestine and let the Jews pray at the Wall. The Jewish Encyclopedia describes the Wall circa 1906: "The famous place of Lamentations (the" Kotel Ma'arabi ") is interesting in every respect. Every Friday afternoon and after the service of Shabbat morning or holidays, the Jews come together in a picturesque crowd to mourn their past glory. This is the gathering place for Jews to Jerusalem as is the Temple Mount to Muslims or the Holy Sepulchre for Christians " .

Under the British Mandate

1918. Soldiers of the Jewish Legion belonging to the British army near the Wall

In turn, the British administer Palestine from 1917 to 1948 and will perpetuate the status quo. But in 1929, the clashes are becoming more numerous among the Jews praying at the wall and the Arabs. Rioting that extend to Hebron where Jews were massacred. The British appoint a commission of inquiry finds that the Wall was the property of Muslims and administered by them. However, the Jews have the right to pray as long as they comply with certain regulations restricting their right to make objects or forbidding them to sound the shofar .

Under Jordanian control

During the Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949 , the Arab Legion took control of the site to which access is forbidden by the authorities in Jordan , the Jews, in violation of Article VIII of the armistice agreements signed between the belligerents. For the first time since the Crusaders, the Jews were numerous in the district of North Africans are then absent from the Old City of Jerusalem. During the nineteen years that followed, numerous requests by Israeli officials and Jewish groups in both the United Nations as with other international organizations to try to implement the Armistice Agreement, remain idle. Only Jordanian soldiers and tourists can access the site which is a time transformed into a dump.

Since 1967

Release of the esplanade in front of the Kotel in July 1967

During the Six Day War in June 1967 the Israelis took control of the entire right bank of the Jordan and thus the entire city of Jerusalem. The reconquest of the Western Wall, almost 19 centuries after the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, is symbolized by the sounding of the shofar made by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren once the Israeli troops reach the Wall June 7, 1967. Access to the Western Wall, forbidden to Jews by the Jordanian authorities for twenty years, their returns when possible. Soon the Israelis begin the destruction of a hectare of "North African neighborhood" and extrude 650 inhabitants to clear the existing plaza "so that for centuries the Jews who came to pray were satisfied with existing four meters between houses and the wall " ^, . The rest of the neighborhood saw the return of the Jews and especially the establishment of yeshivas.

The Wall today

The Western Wall and access: the walls are on the far right of the photo, the Mughrabi gate is hidden. At the center is the dome of the al-Aqsa Mosque. The Wall plaza is on the left and behind rises the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock. In the middle of the photo in the lower part of the checkpoint.

From outside the old city , you reach the plaza in front of the wall through a gate of the ramparts, the Mughrabi gate or door of Garbage, and police controls are strict. This door also gives access to the Mughrabi Quarter, the old and new flourishing Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The plaza in front of the Wall is separated into 3 parts: the later is open to all age groups, two sections separated by a mekhitsa (partition) are available to people who want to go near the Wall, the northern section is reserved for men and women in the southern section.

The underground rooms bordering the men's section include many holy arches which are ranged Torah scrolls used in prayer services that take place at any time. It is also north of the tunnel wall that begins at the Western Wall (the output is on the Via Dolorosa ), accessible to the public by appointment.

The site is frequently chosen for celebrations and ceremonies, especially those of bar mitzvah , worldwide. Much sacrifice in the very popular custom though not unanimously approved deposit slips containing wishes or prayers in the cracks and crevices of the wall.

The Wall, which is shown by the upper, is topped by the plaza where the Dome of the Rock mosque and also the Al-Aqsa

The Wall plaza, left with the men's section and to the right of women, the gateway for tourists visiting the mosques and mosque Al-Aqsa

During a Bar Mitzvah , a Sefer Torah is raised in front of the faithful before reading the Torah. The Sefarim are stored in underground rooms which shows the entrance at the northeast corner of the wall to the right of the photo.

Underground room where you store the Kotel sefarim

Notes

References

See also

Related articles

• Second Temple
• Temple of Herod
• Temple Mount and the Temple Mount

Links and external documents

• (In) The shofar and the wall (events of 1929 - 1930)
• (In) Liberation of the Temple Mount and Western Wall - Issue history of the Voice of Israel, June 7, 1967
• (En) Research on the Temple Mount
• (In) The Wall Tunnel
• (In) The Temple Mount and the Antonia Fortress

Panoramic views from cameras, films, and photographs online

• Live view of the Wall, Refreshed Every 20 minutes
• Jerusalem Photo Portal - Western Wall
• Western Wall Photos
• 360 view of the Wailing Wall
• Gallery of photos and videos of the wall and Israel.

Old City of Jerusalem
Jewish Quarter	Western Wall Hurva Synagogue Four Sephardi Synagogues	Neighborhood Christian Neighborhood Jewish Neighborhood Armenian Neighborhood Muslim Mount of Temple
Muslim Quarter	Church of St. Anne Zedekiah Caves Pool of Bethesda
Christian Quarter	Church of Holy Sepulcher
Armenian Quarter	Cathedral Saint-Jacques Tower of David
Temple Mount	Temple of Jerusalem ( 1 2 Temple of Herod ) Temple Mount ( Dome of the Rock al-Aqsa Mosque )
Doors (Designated by numbers on map)	1. New Gate 2. Damascus Gate 3. Herod's Gate 4. Lions Gate 5. Golden Gate 6. Dung Gate 7. Zion Gate 8. Jaffa Gate

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