The Western Wall

Introduction

The Western Wall (also called the “Buraq Wall”

by Muslims) is an important religious site for
both Judaism and Islam; and even though
Christianity doesn’t consider it directly sacred,
it’s still highly respected within the Christian
community. The Western Wall is a part of an
ancient wall that in total stretches 488 meters,
Figure 1: The current bishop of Rome: Pope Francis, praying at the
but the Western Wall itself is only 48 meters Western Wall in 2014.
long. Today, it stands 32 meters above the Photograph: (Rocca, 2014)

ground, but due to previously lower ground levels and underground sections, the real height
is a whopping 51 meters (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2024).

The wall was originally built by Herod the Great, but the later Islamic invaders continued the
construction one two separate occasions. The three separate layers of stone is still visible to
this day (ReligionForBreakfast, 2020).

Figure 2: The Western wall separated into the three periods of construction (i.e. the Herodian, Umayyad, and Ottoman).

Photograph: (Allan, 2008)

History

The first Temple of Jeruslam was raised by king Solomon of Israel around the 10th century
BC. It was built on mount Moriah, the place Abraham was ordered by God to sacrifice his
son, Isaac. The Temple of Jerusalem was crucial to the ancient Israelites’ faith. It was
believed that it was the closest you could get to God, due to the holy Ark of the Covenant’s
placement in the innermost chamber of the temple. According to Jewish tradition, the Ark of
the Covenant contained the very presence of God himself (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
2023). 400 years later, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon invaded Israel and completely
destroyed the temple (Duignan, 2023). Furthermore, countless Jews were deported and held
captive in Babylon. This is known as the Babylonian captivity and went on for about 70 years
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2023). Following the Jews’ return to Israel, the temple
was rebuilt in 516 BC.

Approximately 500 years later Herod the Great, a roman appointed king of Judea began an
extensive renovation and expansion of the second temple; in just two years, he doubled the
area of the whole complex (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2024). He even expanded
Mount Moriah itself with hundreds of tons of dirt and stone. In order to keep in all the dirt,
Herod had to build massive retaining walls surrounding the mountain. A certain part of this
retaining wall is what we today call the Western Wall (Sar-El Academy , 2020). But just a
few decades later the first Roman-Jewish war broke out, and in 70 AD the temple was once
again destroyed. Only small bits survived, including the Western Wall (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia, 2024).

Moreover, the founding of Islam in the early 7th century had a significant impact on Jerusalem
and the Temple Mount (Mount Moriah). Four years after the Islamic prophet, Muhammed
died, the first caliphate invaded the Byzantian controlled Israel (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia, 2024). And in 637 AD the Muslims
finally conquered Jerusalem and built one of the most
holy sites for Muslims today: "Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa",
which translates to, "The Farthest Mosque". It’s made
up of two parts, a sacred mosque called Al-Aqsa and a
shrine by the name of “Dome of the rock”. Both
Figure 3: The Dome of the Rock on top of the Temple Mount.
sections were built on the ruins of the previous Jewish
Photograph: (Lawler, 2023)
temples (i.e. on the Temple Mount). There is still scholarly debate regarding the dating of its
construction, but the rough estimates are somewhere between 638 and 715 AD (Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia, 2024).

Jerusalem and Israel experienced a long period of war during the second millennium (this
includes the crusades, caliphates, Ottoman wars, the world wars etc.), leading up to the
establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. The next 20 years Israel was still filled
with war and conflict (e.g. the 1948 War of Independence and the Sinai war) (Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia, 2024). In 1967 the infamous Six-Day War broke out. Israel bombed Egypt
on June 5th, and after just two days of fighting with the neighboring Arab countries, Israel
regained control of East Jerusalem (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2024). This was more
or less the first time in almost 2000 years the Jews had access to the Temple Mount. At the
time, the Western Wall Plaza was covered by the
Moroccan Quarter, an Arab neighborhood. Due to
this you could only access the Western Wall
through a narrow alley right next to the wall
itself. But when the Jews took back control of the
Temple Mount, they cleared out the Moroccan
Quarter, leveling out the ground and displacing
hundreds in the act (ReligionForBreakfast, 2020).
Figure 4: The Moroccan Quarter and the western wall before the Six-
Israel then declared the Western Wall Plaza an Day War (1967).

open-air synagogue, which it still is to this day Photograph: (Babas, 2017)

(The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, 2024).

Jewish religious practices and tradition

As stated before, the Western Wall holds great religious value to the Jews. Jews have been
praying and reciting the Torah at the Western Wall for centuries and there’s still thousands
that pray there every year. In addition to the religious importance it holds, the Western Wall
has also become a popular tourist destination. According to “The Times of Israel” 10 million
people visit the Western Wall every single year (The Times of Israel , 2017).
A relatively new tradition, from the early 18th century revolves around the placing of notes
inside the cracks of the wall. On these notes people typically write their prayers or some other
form of “message to God”. According to Jewish belief, these prayer notes will all be sent up
to heaven for God to read. This tradition gradually became more and more popular during the
19th century; and today, one million prayer notes are placed in the Western Wall every year.
You can even write your own prayer note digitally and make someone else do the rest for you
(The Western Wall Heritage Foundation,
2024). Furthermore, it’s actually prohibited
by Jewish law to destroy even a single one of
these notes. Thus, twice a year the notes are
collected and buried in the Cemetery on the
Mount of Olives (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia, 2023).
Figure 5: Removal of thousands of prayer notes from the Western
Wall.
Due to the Western Wall Plaza being an
Photograph: (Jerusalem Post, 2021)
officially recognized synagogue, there’s
always celebration, prayer, or other gatherings present. Local Jews often take use of the plaza
for their Bar mitzvah or celebration of holidays like Passover (Pesach) and Hanukkah. But
this doesn’t come without controversy. Certain Orthodox Jews believe only they have a right
to the wall because they are “the only real Jews”; some also believe the prayer notes oppose
Jewish law. Additionally, Orthodox Jews doesn’t believe in the right for women to recite the
Torah during prayer. This has caused massive
controversy, conflict, and debate (Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia, 2024). Women at the
Western Wall has been harassed and attacked
for decades on end. The Ultra-Orthodox have
repeatedly thrown rocks, spit and catcalled at
the praying women (Rudoren, 2013); some
Figure 6: Israeli police protecting praying women against Ultra-Orthodox
Jews.
even going as far as throwing stink bombs at
Photograph: (Rudoren, 2013)
them (Tait, 2013). Incidents like these have
made the non-Orthodox women push back and create what is known as “the Women of the
Wall”. They gather monthly at the Western Wall to pray and protest for gender equality at the
wall, but frequently gets shut down, removed, or even arrested (Rudoren, 2013).
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