Israel-©-MEA-20180221-(C30)-Historical-Icons-of-Israel–The-Kotel
Historical-Icons-of-Israel–The-Kotel
The Kotel or the Western Wall, is the most significant prayer site in the world for the Jewish people. It is the last remnant of their Temple which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Many Jewish people from around the world gather here to pray and sometimes leave written prayer notes pushed between the mortar and the great ancient stones of the limestone wall. According to Jewish history and tradition, this Temple mount was originally known as Mount Moriah, and the place where many pivotal events in Jewish history occurred.
Traditionally, it is where the ‘Foundation Stone’ was set up for the creation of the world. Also, it is where Adam, the first human, was brought to life, and “the place which God chose” for Abraham to sacrificed his son Isaac—the peak of Mount Moriah. Also from the Bible, it is believed that there is a link between Mount Moriah and Jacob’s amazing dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder joining heaven and earth. There is another suggestion that the Holy of Holies, the holiest place within the First and Second Temples built around this same ‘Foundation Stone’.
In the year 37 BCE, Herod was appointed king in Jerusalem and soon began renovating the Second Temple which was almost completed by the time he died in 4 BCE. It was quite magnificent. In order to accommodate the total area required, Herod widened the land and built four support walls around it. However, the Western Wall was the only one that survived the Jerusalem’s. Sometime later in history, it become the central icon of Jewish identity and prayer.
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Eastern portion of Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan who expelled all Jews from the ‘Old City’ including the Jewish quarter which effectively barred them from praying at the Western Wall. However, on June 10, 1967, at the conclusion of the famous Six-Day War, All of Israel and Jewish people around the world rejoiced when the Western Wall was once again back in their hands.
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