Posted on 04/28/2008 1:56:22 PM PDT by NYer
For thousands of years it has withstood fires, floods and earthquakes. But now a portion of one of Judaism's holiest sites, Jerusalem's Western Wall, is crumbling.
The rabbi charged with watching over the structure, which the faith believes to be the last remnants of a retaining wall from the ancient Second Temple, has warned that a section repaired more than a century ago is again at risk of falling.
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Because the weakened stonework is high on the 60ft wall, the danger from any falling fragment to the crowds who pray at its foot each day is particularly acute.
"We found that the stones at the bottom of the wall, the stones from the Second Temple period, were strong and stable," said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. "However, we discovered that there are problems with the smaller stones, those at the top of the wall."
His warning came as Israel hosted record numbers of tourists for the Passover holiday and prepares for high-profile visitors for the 60th anniversary of its founding, next month. World leaders including the American President, George W Bush, the former prime minister Tony Blair, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, are to be joined by others such as the Google founder, Sergey Brin, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerman at a conference hosted by Israel's president, Shimon Peres.
A pilgrimage to the wall is a standard part of dignitaries' visits and it receives an estimated six million visitors each year, including Israeli army recruits and tour buses of young Jews on their first visit to the Holy Land. Last week, the grand limestone plaza in front of it, also known as the Wailing Wall or in Hebrew as Ha Kotel, was crowded with families holding bar mitzvahs for excited young sons, tour groups and visitors from around the globe.
The damage was discovered just before Passover as religious leaders cleared thousands of written prayers tucked into the stones of the wall, according to Jewish tradition. Twice a year, thousands of such entreaties, which also arrive by email and post, are gathered and buried on the Mount of Olives so as not to desecrate the contents.
The Western Wall is believed to date from 20BC, when King Herod the Great first ordered the construction of the Second Temple, a project that took 46 years to complete. Roman legions razed the temple in AD70, and today the wall that remains is thought to be the only surviving portion of Judaism's holiest site.
Along with the massive stones commissioned by Herod, the wall contains stones placed by the Umayyad dynasty in an eighth?century restoration. But the section crumbling is at the very top, where a series of smaller, uniformly sized stones were added in the 1800s under the financing and supervision of British financier and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. Restoration experts say the more modern cement used as mortar to hold those stones together has been eroded more quickly by wind and rain than the ancient preparations used on the lower levels. The result is that several are now poised to fall.
Israel's Antiquities Authority has said there is no immediate risk to visitors, since the heavy winter rains have passed. But the repair work is to begin almost immediately, to ensure it is completed before the return of worse weather in the autumn.
"We know it is old stone and we have some crumbling," said Raanan Kislev, head of the conservation at the authority. The repair will be a delicate operation: Jewish religious law forbids the removing of any stone from the wall, and rabbis are divided over who is even permitted to carry out such work.
Traditionally, Jews are forbidden to set foot on the ancient site of what they believe to be the Temple Mount, so the rabbi said much of the work would have to be conducted using cranes rather than scaffolding. Jewish workers on the project will also have to undergo ritual baths.
That was the Temple itself.That pretty much got obliterated by Rome.
“I wonder how much arguing in going on about actually adding reinforcement?”
Jewish guys arguing? Never heard of that.
(My family just had a knock down drag out over shoes.)
So, when Jews go to say prayers over the graves of their mothers and fathers, are they praying to the stones and dead bodies?
You should try listening to drivers in Tel Aviv
Would you care to be more specific in describing these "people"?
If the wall collapse how long they blame mean ole Jews for the collapse
If the wall collapse how long they blame mean ole Jews for the collapse
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Thanks Convert from ECUSA. For years, the Muzzies have been undermining the Temple Mount, and caused a partial collapse of that edifice, while simultaneously removing and dumping all traces of Pre-Mohammedan occupation. |
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...or global warming?
people with excessive emotional attachment to bricks and mortar.
Pretty crappy.
Thanks for the verse. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I found out that this wall was a retaining wall for the temple that I always had problems with that verse (and/or the wall!) “Hey, Jesus said none of the stones would be left on top of one another?” But, as you both point out, Jesus says “You SEE all these”, while pointing to the huge, magnificent (and relatively new) temple, which probably did not include the retaining wall.
What I find interesting is how the old “cement” or whatever the Jews used is working just fine, but the newer cement is junk. Of course the Jews had thousands of years to perfect there building technique in this climate.
Your post brings to mind a question - since I can’t imagine that the religious leadership believes the Presence is currently there (or do they?), what is their reasoning behind that? Is the spot simply considered hallowed forever?
And if that’s the case - when the temple is finally rebuilt, how will they know for sure exactly where the Holy of Holies was and will that matter? (For that matter, how can they construct it with that restriction in place?)
I can understand Jewish leadership deciding that Jews should not ascend the Temple Mount in its current state (desecrated by mosques), but would love some feedback on why the restriction is based on the Holy of Holies. Thoughts?
Did you know that they carved the stones for the Temple off site so that the sound of a hammer wouldn’t be heard near the Temple Mount?
That is for sure. Nowadays so many people want to profane and cheapen everything. The idea of quiet reverence is alien.
The day ain’t over yet.
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