User:Linda Olive/Prayer at the Western Wall

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Women at prayer, early 20th century
Birkat Hachama, 2009

The Western Wall, being one of the most sacred sites in Judaism, has been a site for Jewish prayer and pilgrimage for centuries.

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”.[1] Jewish Law dictates that when Jews pray the Silent Prayer, they should face mizrach, towards Jerusalem, the Temple and ultimately the Holy of Holies,[2] as all of God’s bounty and blessing emanates from that spot.[3] According to the Mishna, of all the four walls of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall was the closest to the Holy of Holies[4] and therefore that to pray by the Wall is particularly beneficial.[3] 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."[5] A well-known auspicious practice among Jews is to pray for 40 consecutive days at the Western Wall. This custom was apparently conceived by Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Fisher.[6]

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.[7] 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 The Scroll of Ahimaaz, a historical document written in 1050 CE, distinctly describes the Western Wall as a place of prayer for the Jews.[8] In around 1167 CE during the late Crusader Period, Benjamin of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".[9] 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."[10] In 1625 "arranged prayers" at the Wall are mentioned for the first time by a scholar whose name has not been preserved.[11] 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 the year 1699.

"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: "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)[12]

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.[11] 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."[13] The Kaf hachaim records that Ashkenasim 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.[14]

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.”[15] On October 13, 1994, 50,000 gathered to pray for the safe return of kidnapped soldier Nachshon Wachsman.[16] 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.[17][18] 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.[19] During the month of Tishrei 2009, a record 1.5 million people visited the site.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer 35
  2. ^ Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 18:10. The Kaf hachaim (Orach Chaim 94:1:4 citing Radvaz Vol. 2; Ch. 648) rules that if a Jew was forced onto the Temple Mount and the time of prayer arrived while he’s standing between the Western Wall and the place of the Holy of Holies, "he should pray facing towards the Holy of Holies even though his back will be facing the Western Wall."
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference KHB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Middot 2:1
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference SLC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Origin of the 40 Days; 40 Day to a Better Self!
  7. ^ Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, Fayard, Paris, 2002 vol.2 p.157
  8. ^ "The Western Wall Plaza". Western Wall Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference itinerary222 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference travellers2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference report1930 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "The "Wailing Wall" in the 1800s". Lifeintheholyland.com. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  13. ^ Deutsch, Nathaniel (2003). "In the Holy Land". The Maiden of Ludmir. University of California Press. pp. g.199. ISBN 0-52023191-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  14. ^ Kaf hachaim Orach Chaim 94
  15. ^ Gilbert, Martin (1996). "The Second World War, 1939-1945". Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century. London: Chatto & Windus. pp. g.167. ISBN 0701130709. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  16. ^ Gilbert, Martin (1996). "Towards the Twenty-First Century". Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century. London: Chatto & Windus. pp. g.353. ISBN 0701130709. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  17. ^ "Tears, sackcloth and prayers against pullout as 250,000 face Western Wall". Israelinsider. August 11, 2005. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  18. ^ Marciano, Ilan (August 10, 2005). "70,000 protest pullout at Western Wall". Ynet. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  19. ^ Ratzlav-Katz, Nissan (July 23, 2007). "100,000 Jews At Western Wall for Tisha B'Av 5767". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  20. ^ Judith Weil. "Kosel Visitors record", Jewish Tribune, 22 October 2010.


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