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MEMORANDUM ON THE WESTERN WALL
SUBMITTED TO THE
SPECIAL COMMISSION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
ON BEHALF OF
THE RABBINATE*
THE JEWISH AGENCY FOR PALESTINE
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF PALESTINE (KNESSETH ISRAEL)
AND THE CENTRAL AGUDATH ISRAEL OF PALESTINE.
JERUSALEM Sivan 5690-June 1930.
- A united Rabbinical Board, constituted of the Chief Rabbis of Palestine and of the Chief Rabbi of the Agudath Israel in Palestine, and acting with the authority and on behalf of the Comité Rabbinique Permanent pour sauvegarder les Droits Réligieux des Juifs aux Lieux Saints presided over by the Chief Rabbi of France, and of Unions of Rabbis in nearly every country in the world.
JERUSALEM
PRINTED BY AZRIEL PRESS
AND
HAMADPIS LIPHSHITZ PRESS
JUNE 1930
The main text of this Memorandum on the Western Wall, was prepared on behalf of the Jewish Agency for Palestine by CYRUS ADLER, Ph. D., D. H. L, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary at New York, President of the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning at Philadelphia, Member of the American Philosophical Society, and Honorary Associate in Historic Archaeology of the United States National Museum, Washington.
The additions and annotations printed at the foot of the pages have been prepared, by a Jerusalem Committee representing the bodies on whose behalf this Memorandum is presented, and consisting of:
Mr. David Yellin, Lecturer at the Hebrew University, President of the Jewish Palestine Archaeological Society, and Director of the Hebrew Teachers' College, Jerusalem;
Rabbi Samuel Klein, Ph. D., Professor at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem;
Mr. Isaac Ben Zvi, Vice-President of the Knesseth Israel, Member of the Executive of the General Federation of Jewish Labour in Palestine, and Member of the Committee of the Jewish Palestine Archaeological Society, Jerusalem;
Mr. Ben-Zion Dinaburg, President of the Jewish Historical and Ethnographical Society, Jerusalem;
Rabbi Samuel Webber, General Secretary to the Chief Rabbinate of Palestine, Jerusalem;
Rabbi Raphael Katzenelenbogen, Jerusalem; and Mr. M. Eliash, B. Litt, Advocate, President of the Palestine Jewish Bar Association, Jerusalem.
[5] MEMORANDUM ON THE WESTERN WALL
Gentlemen of the Special Commission of the Council of the League of Nations:
You have the difficult task, under the terms of Article 14 of the Mandate for Palestine, “to study, define and determine finally the rights and claims of Jews and Moslems at the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem.” The question of the Western Wall is not a new one to the League of Nations; it has on former occasions been brought before the Permanent Mandates Commission and before the Council itself.
In the absence of any special Commission on the Holy Places or on this particular Holy Place, there was a consensus of opinion at the 9th session held at Geneva on June 22nd, 1926, that the question could be settled only by an agreement between the Moslems and the Jews, and the Government should do its utmost to promote such an agreement. It is with the deepest regret that we record that no such agreement has been reached or is in prospect.
We wish to premise that although this memorandum is presented on behalf of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a body recognised in the Mandate as advisory to the Palestine Government, the subject which is brought to your attention has no political or racial connotation; and that while this Holy Place exists in Palestine, and is therefore frequented by Jews in Palestine, it is a place of pilgrimage for Jews throughout the entire world, and a matter for solicitude to many millions who never have the opportunity to go to the Holy Land, but nevertheless have a profound affection for the spot and view everything about it with deep concern. The subject is one purely of religion, of devotion and of sentiment, and there is no ulterior purpose save to conserve those ideals. We trust it is not necessary to give the assurance that the memorandum here offered has been prepared in an objective and historical manner and that the statements are culled from reliable and authentic sources.
[6] The Temple which Solomon built in Jerusalem required, as the Holy Scriptures tell us in the 6th chapter of First Kings, seven years for its construction and in that same book are described in great detail the edifice and its glory. In the 8th chapter an account is given of the dedication of this House, and in verse 11 we read: “the glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord.”
As will be shown in the course of this document the belief that God's presence adhered to the Temple and to the site* upon which it was built has been continuous in the minds and in the prayers and in the literature of the Jewish people throughout these three thousand years.
This Temple of Solomon did not always endure in its glory, for it is recorded in Second Kings, 25, 8, that in the 5th month, the 7th day of the month, Nebuzatadan, the Captain of the Guard, (of Nebuchadnezzar) “burnt the House of the Lord,” and at that time the building was despoiled and many precious
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- The Wailing Wall is the surviving southern portion of the Western side of the Wall that anciently surrounded the flat summit of the hill which was and is known as the Temple Mount (Har Ha-bait) from the fact that for the space of roughly a millenium (from about 962 before the Christian era to 70 of the Christian era), interrupted only by an interval of seventy years (586-516 b.c.e.), it constituted the site and precincts of the Jewish Temple.
But the holiness of the spot dates even further back than the erection of the Temple. It is associated, indeed, with the genesis of the Jewish Nation and the origins of the Jewish religion. For the “Temple Mount” is the Mount Moriah1 on which Abraham bound his son Isaac in obedience to God's command, and which he was promised would remain for ever a place of worship and of revelations of the Divine Presence (the Shekhinah).2
1“Then Solomon began to build the House of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah.” __.II. Chr. 3: 1. cf. Gen. 22: 2. (All quotations are from the text and margin of the English Revised Version).
2”And Abraham called the name of that place Adonai--jireh (margin: that is, The Lord will see or provide) as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided” (margin: or he shall be seen). “Gen. 22; 14--“From this text we learn that the Holy One, blessed is He, showed him a vision of the Temple.” Genesis Rabbah 56: 17--“Will see (or provide): this means that Abraham saw the Temple built and standing.” Yalkut, Vayyera 216: 102; 40:17.
[7] objects taken to Babylon. This Temple was rebuilt as indicated in the very last verse of Second Chronicles, though it was done in the presence of objection and hostility.* The Temple was reconstructed by Herod. The original ground plan and interior arrangements were left, but the entire structure was greatly enlarged and it was said “that no more beautiful sight was ever seen by man.”1
Descriptions of the Temple and of its vicissitudes, are given in many records. We cite that of the eminent French architects and archaeologists, Perrot and Chipiez2:--
1 “History of the Jewish People.” Margolis and Marx. Philadelphia. 1927. p. 173.
2 “History of Art in Sardinia, Judea, Syria and Asia Minor.” Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez, Translated by I. Gonono. London. Chapman and Hall. 1890. Volume I. p. 156.
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Not only that, but according to Jewish tradition the altar which Noah built was on Mount Moriah; even he had been preceded by Cain and Abel, for there stood the altar upon which they offered their oblations; and Adam, the ancestor of the human race, sacrificed to his Maker on this spot immediately after being created.3
The children of Israel were commanded upon their entry into Palestine to build the Temple in Jerusalem. This is expressly commanded in the Torah,4 though the name of the place is not specified. We find, however, that the threshing floor of Araunah upon which King David erected his altar5 was on this site which is identical6 with the site on which his son Solomon erected the Temple (ca. 962 b.c.e.).
- Although the Temple of Solomon was destroyed and the city razed to the ground, within one generation7 the Temple
3 “It is a universally known tradition that the spot where David (II. Sam. 24:18-25; I. Chr. 21:18-28) and Solomon after him (Note 1) built the altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah is the same spot as that on which Abraham built his altar and bound his son Isaac thereon; on which Noah built an altar and sacrificed to the Lord when he came forth from the Ark; on which stood the altar whereon Cain and Abel brought their offerings to God; and on which Adam sacrificed immediately after being created. For it was from the soil of this place that he was created, as our sages have said (Gen. Rab. 14:9) 'Man was created from the element of which he obtains forgiveness'”: Maimonides--Yad Ha-Hazakah, Hilkhot Beth Hab-Behirah, II.2.
4 Dt. 12: 5.
5 II. Sam. 24:18 H.
6 II. Chron. 3:1, and compare note 3 above.
7 Ezr. 3:3.
[8] “The area of the sanctuary may be described as a rough square or trapeze; averaging from 491 to 462 m. from east to west, and 310 to 281 m. from north to south. The broad, level and conspicuous position of the Haram, enclosed throughout by a massive wall, singles it out at a considerable distance. Despite the political and religious convulsions that have raged around and within its walls, despite the ruthless brutality and fanaticism that have forced open its gates, violated its precincts, and destroyed to the last stone the buildings that once formed its glory, the main outlines of the sanctuary are appreciably the same as when Herod, to please the Jews, widened the plateau to build a temple greater and more magnificent than the two that had preceded it. From that day the circumference of this colossal plinth has remained unchanged; none of its angles have been broken off, nor have its faces been damaged. Jews and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, have all built upon it, and the ruins of all are even now discernible. The platform is as of yore, when Titus, from Mount Olive, viewed with mixed feelings of admiration and awe the sumptuous edifices on Moriah and the adjacent slopes, fenced round by walls which rendered the Haram a formidable fortress.”
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service on Mount Moriah was renewed and within seventy years the Temple itself was rebuilt. Haggai's prophecy that “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”8 was fulfilled. Jews, whether resident in Palestine or in the Diaspora, were not only in the habit of making pilgrimages to Jerusalem for sacrifice and prayer but always turned in their prayers, no matter where they might be, “toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen and the house which I have built for thy name”9; and numbers of Gentiles, rich and poor, high and humble, used to bring their presents and sacrifices to the Temple and approach its gates to prostrate themselves before the Eternal God and to offer up their prayers to him. For “the Temple was renowned among all mortals”10 and the city of Jerusalem was celebrated for the “Jerusa-
8 Hag. 2:9.
9 I.K. 8:48; cf. Dan. 6:10.
10 E. Schuerer: Geschichte des Juedischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi. II. 358, with references to classical authors.
[9] And another eminent Frenchman, DeSaulcy,3 gives a vivid and scholarly description with special reference to the Wall which many later works quote:
“I was aware long since, that there exists in the interior of Jerusalem, and at a particular spot of the enclosure of the Seraglio, which has taken the place of Solomon's temple, a portion of wall which the Jews have in all times considered as a fragment of the original building. I also knew that the foot of this wall, which the Jews were not forbidden to approach, was considered by them a sort of sanctuary, where they came to pray every Friday evening; and where they were often seen lamenting, crying, and thrusting their heads into the cavities of the holy wall,--so that their tears might water it, while they pondered over the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple. As I then supposed that this was the only vestige of the edifices of Solomon I was likely to meet, the reader will readily conceive that my first visit to the enclosure of the Haram was directed towards the Heit-el-Morharby (the western wall). Under this appellation the ancient structure is known in Jerusalem, although the German and Polish Jews who settle in the city pronounce the name Kothel-Maaravi.
3 “Narrative of a Journey round the Dead Sea and in the Bible Lands”: by F. DeSaulcy. London. Richard Bentley, 1854. pp. 78-79.
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lem Temple.”11 To this day one of the Arabic names of Jerusalem is Beit-Ul-Makdes, a literal translation of the Hebrew “Beth-Hammikdash,” by which both the Solomonic Temple and the Post-Exilic one are designated throughout Hebrew literature. According to the Jewish religious outlook, this sanctity is not dependent upon the Temple building but upon the site, the Temple Mount, the sanctity of which is eternal and did not cease with the destruction of the Temple.12 A special sanctity, however, attaches to the western portion of the hill upon which the Temple used to stand,13 because according to the religious tradition
11 Reinach, Textes d'auteurs grecs et romains relatifs au Judaisme, 52.
12 Maimonides, Hilkhoth Beth Hab-Behirah. II.
13 “The Temple Mount was occupied (i.e. by the Temple) in its western part” Mishna Middoth 2:1.
[10] “On arriving in front of this venerable relic, I was struck with admiration: up to a height of more than twelve yards from the ground the original building has remained entire; regular courses of fine stones, perfectly squared, but with an even border standing out as a kind of framework enclosing the joints, rise over each other to within two or three yards from the top of the wall. A moment's inspection is enough to ascertain without any doubt that the Jewish tradition is positively correct; a wall like this has never been constructed either by Greeks or Romans,--we have evidently here a sample of original Hebraic architecture. In the inferior courses, the stones are on the average twice as wide as they are high; now and then, however, some square blocks happen to be laid between the long ones. The four inferior courses nearest the ground are formed of square blocks, with the exception of the last but one, which is composed of blocks three times as long as they are high. As the courses successively rise above the ground, the dimensions of the blocks decrease; and, lastly, every course recedes rather more than an inch behind the surface of the one immediately below it, and these successive recessions constitute, as may be easily conceived, a most important fact in connection with the Solomonian wall. The portion of this, which is left to the Jews as a place of prayer-offering, is comprised between the enclosure of the Mehkemeh (or Turkish tribunal) and the side-wall of a
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“The Divine Presence (the Shekhinah) rests in the West.”14
The belief that “the Lord hath chosen Zion, He hath desired it for His habitation”15 and that “He built His sanctuary like
14 R. Joshua b. Levi, 3rd century, said: Let us be grateful to our forefathers for revealing to us the place of prayer, by the verse “The Host of Heaven worshippeth thee” (i.e. prostrate themselves before Thee--in the West),” Nehemia 9:6 . . . R. Abbahu (end of third century) said: “The Shekhina is in the West”: (Baba Batra, page 25a).
The Tosephists to this portion of the Talmud (article beginning “Ruah Maaravith”) say: In the Temple, the Shekhinah rested on the Western side.
Maimonides in “The Guide to the Perplexed,” III. 19:48, explicitly locates the Holy of Holies in the West of the Temple. See plan Jewish Encyc. Vol. XII. pp. 94-95.
15 Ps. 132:13.
[11] private house. Its length, measured between these two limits, is nearly thirty yards. Beyond these walls, which defy escalade, the ancient construction may be seen extending still, in a straight line, about twelve yards to the right, and eleven to the left, or in the direction of the Mehkemeh. Beyond that, the modern buildings conceal the original enclosure of the temple. Again, the primitive wall is crowned towards the summit by several courses of hewn stones regularly disposed, but of small dimensions. These upper courses are of comparatively recent date, and their age cannot be referred to a period anterior to the Mohammedan conquest.”
A more highly detailed and laudatory description of this same reconstruction by Herod, from which all later authors derive, is found in the works of the Jewish historian, Josephus, Ant. Jud., Book XV, Chap. XI.
It might be said that these are prejudiced witnesses: the Jewish historian who wished to enhance the splendor of his own sacred House, or the modern French Christians, whose reading of the sacred writings had given them an equally exalted notion of the ancient fane. So we turn to pagan authors, and first to the famous Roman historian, Tacitus, who wrote his history between 104 and 109, at the very beginning of the second century of the Christian Era. We cull from his writings:
PAGAN SOURCES.
“The temple is distinguished by its wealth4 no less than by its magnificence. The fortifications of the city are its first defence; the royal palace is the second; the inclosure, where the temple stands, forms the third.
4 Tacitus Hist. V. 8-12, 16-17 condensed (Trans. Murphy).
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the heights, like the earth which He hath established for ever”16 was not only a bulwark to the City during all its troubled history. It was the expression of the prophetic ideal that Nations and Kingdoms would gather together “to serve the Lord”17 upon “the Mountain of the Lord's House” which was “exalted above the hills”18 and brought home to the people a realisation of the exalted destiny that lay in store for the Holy City. It was this faith that made Jerusalem the Eternal City.
16 ibid. 78: 69
17 ibid, 102; 23
18 Isaiah 2, 2
[12] “Pompey was the first Roman that subdued the Jews. By right of conquest he entered their temple. It is a fact well known, that he found no image, no statue, no symbolical representation of the Deity: the whole presented a naked dome; the sanctuary was unadorned and simple. By Pompey's orders the walls of the city were levelled to the ground, but the temple was left entire.
“The temple itself was a strong fortress in the nature of a citadel. The fortifications were built with consummate skill, surpassing in art as well as labor all the rest of the works. The very porticos that surrounded it were a strong defence.
“Titus had now gained an eminence from which his warlike engines could play with advantage on the enemy. The approaches to the temple lay exposed to the valour of the legions. To save the sanctuary and even to protect the people in the exercise of a religion which with every Roman he condemned as a perverse superstition was still the wish of his heart . . .
“Titus saw that his moderation only served to confirm the hard of heart. He called a council of war. The principal officers were of the opinion that nothing less than the utter destruction of the temple would secure a lasting peace. A building which the Jews themselves had made a theatre of blood, ought not they contended, to be any longer considered as a place of worship. It was rather a citadel in which the garrison remained in force, and, since the proffered capitulation was rejected, ought to be given up to the fury of an enraged soldiery. Titus concurred with his officers in every point except the demolition of the inner part of the temple. That he still resolved to save; but as Josephus observes, a superior Council had otherwise ordained.
“On the following day the general assault began.
"They say that Titus, having called together5 his council, declared that the first point to be decided was if they ought to destroy the temple, so great a monument. Several thought it was not right to tear down a sacred edifice, notorious among the works of man; by sparing it they would leave a witness of Roman moderation, in destroying it they would mar the
5 Tacitus Fragment 1 and 2 Halm. II. Chronicles 30 according to Sulpicius Severus. Section 6. Reinach: Textes d'auteurs Grecs et Romains Relatifs au Judaisme. Paris. Ernest Leroux. 1895, pp. 324, 325.
[13] Roman name with a lasting blemish of cruelty. Others, on the contrary, and among them Titus, strongly insisted on the Temple's destruction in order to abolish more completely the Jewish and Christian religions. These religions, although hostile to each other, sprang from the same sources, the Christians having grown out of the Jews; the root destroyed, the stalk would more easily perish.”6
And in the next century, about 230 of the Christian era Dio Cassius7 writes of the Jews and the Temple:
“They are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life, and especially by the fact that they do not honor any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence for one particular divinity. They never had any statue of him even in Jerusalem itself, but believing him to be unnameable and invisible, they worship him in the most extravagant fashion on earth. They built to him a temple that was extremely large and beautiful, except in so far as it was open and roofless8 and likewise dedicated to him the day of Saturn on which, among many other most peculiar observances, they undertake no serious occupation.
9“Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless, the capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders killed great numbers who tried to crowd through the opening, and they also set fire to some of the buildings nearby, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans, even should they gain possession of the wall. In this way they not only damaged the wall, but at the same time unintentionally burned down the barrier around the sacred precincts, so that entrance to the temple was now laid open to the Romans. Nevertheless, the soldiers because of their superstition did not immediately rush in; but at last, under compulsion from Titus, they made their
6 The reference to Christianity is suspect as being an interpolation, thus casting some doubt on the trustworthiness of the last passage.
7 Dio's Roman History Translated by Ernest Cary. The Loeb Classical Library (New York: The Macmillan Co.) 1914. Volume III. Book XXXVII. 17, 2.
8 This statement would seem to rest upon a confusion of the court (or courts) with the temple itself.
9 Epitome of Book LXV.
[14] way inside. Then the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the temple and fall in its defense. The populace was stationed below in the court. The senators (i.e. the members of the Sanhedrin) on the steps, and the priests in the sanctuary itself, and though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force, they were not conquered until part of the temple was set on fire Then they met death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another, others taking their own lives, and still others leaping into the flames, and it seemed to everybody, and especially to them that so far from being destruction, it was victory and salvation and happiness that they perished along with the temple.”
Hadrian had decreed that the Jews might not enter Jerusalem, yet it appears that he and other Roman Emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Alexander Severus, did permit them to come once a year and enter the Temple Area to weep over the ruins.10
Such a structure and the beautiful area on which it stood, rivalling, indeed surpassing, the Acropolis at Athens, must of necessity remain imperishable in the minds of the descendants of those who had formerly worshipped within its precincts and who had defended it with so much ardour and such great sacrifice of blood.
After the destruction of the Temple by Titus there remained considerable ruins, and portions of the walls surrounding the Temple Area have stood to this day. It is one of these, the Western Wall, the Kotel Maaravi, as it is known in common speech, with which your honorable Commission is called upon to deal, as well as with the Court in front of the structure. This Wall has been variously called by other writers The Wall of Weeping, The Wall of Tears or the Wailing Wall, but the Jewish people know it as the Western Wall.
10 History of the Jews. H. Graetz. Volume II. Phila. 1893. pp. 457, 458, 482, 564.
[15] THE RUINS ALWAYS HOLY TO THE JEWS
In other places of this memorandum a more exact description of the structure and of the court before it, and many details are given, but as we take it, your body is concerned neither with architectural nor archaeological questions, but with a determination as to a holy place, let us be permitted first to undertake to establish the fact that this place has always been held holy by the Jewish people.*
Biblical references have already been cited.
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- Even after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temples on Mount Moriah, both the First and the Second Temple, the Children of Israel did not cease to go to Jerusalem on pilgrimages and to worship God at the site of the destroyed Temple. Thus we read in Jeremiah 41, 5, that “there came certain people from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their garments rent and having cut themselves, with oblations and incense in their hand, to bring them to the House of the Lord.”19
Similarly the Jews of Palestine and the Jews of the Diaspora used to go up to Jerusalem and the Temple site after the destruction of the Second Temple. “Rabbi Gamaliel, President of the Yeshiba (College) of Yabneh, the official head of Palestinian Jewry during the generation following the destruction of the Temple, and Rabbi Joshua and Rabbi Eleazar Ben Azaria and Rabbi Akiba once were on their way to Jerusalem; when they reached the Temple Mount and saw a fox coming out of the Holy of Holies, they began to weep.”20
This practice of visiting Jerusalem to meditate upon its ruins21 was very widespread. The story is told, for example, of a man who “made his wife take a vow not to go to Jerusalem, but he was released from the obligation of the vow and she went.”22 This took place in the second century as the Rabbi who released the man from his vow, Rabbi Yose, is mentioned by name, and he is known to have flourished in the first half of the second Century c.e. in Galilee. The same Rabbi Yose relates:
19 This pilgrimage was after the destruction of the First Temple.
20 Bavli, Makkoth 24.
21 Tosephta Nedarim 1,4 (Zuck. 276, 19): saying . . .”on the day I saw Jerusalem in her ruins.”
22 Tosephta Nedarim 5,1 (Zuck. 280, 13).
[16] There are passages in both the Talmud of Babylon and in the Talmud of Jerusalem which especially declare that even in desolation the Temple Area was a holy place, and in a work, classic in Jewish literature, the Midrash, a Rabbi, Joseph, the son of Hanina, of the 3rd century, mentions by name this Kotel Maaravi, or Western Wall which, as he said, is never to be destroyed because the Shekhinah, that is, the Divine Presence, dwells in the West. And in another section of this same work in the commentary to the Song of Songs, it is recorded that the Lord swore that the Kotel Maaravi of the Temple shall never be destroyed. Another Rabbi, Acha, of the 4th century, in the Midrash to Exodus, declares that the Shekhinah, the Divine
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“I was once walking on the road and entered one of the ruins of Jerusalem to pray . . .”23
These “ruins of Jerusalem” to which people repaired to pray, were the ruins of the Temple, as may be seen from the story of the son of Rabbi Ishmael, whom we find on his way to Jerusalem whither he was journeying for the purpose of praying among the ruins of the Temple.24
Nor was there any tendency in subsequent centuries to abandon the practice: Rabbi Hanina, Rabbi Jonathan and Rabbi Joshua Ben Levi went to Jerusalem and an old man who met them told them how their ancestors used to act in the matter of the 'Second Tithe.”25 These Rabbis lived in the earlier part of the third century. As to the fourth century, we are told by Rabbi Pinchas that the learned men of Israel used to take off their shoes before ascending the Temple Mount26. (It was forbidden to enter the sacred precincts with shoes). The fact that not only the learned and eminent of Israel, but also men of the people used to go to visit the ruins of Jerusalem, is clear from the question asked by Simeon of Camatrea, (a city in Trans-Jordan), a plain donkey driver, of Rabbi Hiyya Bar Abba (who lived in Tiberias) with regard to the rending of the garments on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.27
23 Bavli Berakhot P. 3a.
24 Genesis Rabba 8, 3.
25 Yerushalmi Maaser Sheni 3:6 (54a; Makkoth 196; with regard to R. Jonathan cf. Genesis Rabbah 32:10).
26 Yerush. Pesahim 7:12, p. 38b.
27 Yerushalmi Berachot 9, 3.
[17] presence, shall never depart from the Kotel Maaravi, and so the tradition and the belief runs through the course of Jewish literature to this day.
It rarely happens that when a city is destroyed and its buildings razed to the ground that it ever becomes entirely deserted of its former inhabitants. At least it is known that not all the Jews, only the principal persons, were taken to Rome, and that many dwelt in the vicinity. And so it is recorded in the excellent work of the Dominican Fathers, Vincent and Abel, that in the early days, after the destruction of the Temple, the Roman Emperors permitted the Jews to come to Jerusalem and even worship within the Temple Area, or at other times to ascend the Mount of Olives where from a distance they could see the holy site and recite their prayers and make their lamentations over the departure of its glory. As evidence for these statements we shall now proceed to cite some early Christian sources, some of which are given in that work.
CHRISTIAN SOURCES.
11 “Jerusalem, however, though its importance was greatly reduced, was not totally deserted by the Jews. Certain indications arising in Rabbinic literature show that a little colony of them repopulated certain quarters of the city.
11 “Jerusalem,” Tome II. Jerusalem Nouvelle par les P.P. Hughes Vincent and F.M. Abel, Paris. 1922-1926. pp. 877-878.
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The references given above will show with what feelings the Jews approached the site of the Temple even after its destruction.28 Their reverence found expression in the following passage in the Mishna: “No man shall behave frivolously when standing near the Eastern Gate, which looks to the Holy of Holies; he shall not enter the Temple Mount with his cane, his shoes, his purse or the dust on his feet, nor shall he use it as a short cut, still less shall he spit there.”29
It is clear from the comments on this Mishna which appear in the Talmud that even after the destruction of the Temple, in the days of Rabbi Akiba, these prohibitions were rigidly observed.
28 Yehuda on pages 5-6 quotes other passages with reference to this point.
29 Mishna Berakhoth 9, 8.
[18] “While the schools discussed the questions of the purity or impurity of the Temple Mount, of the legitimateness of sacrifice in a violated sanctuary, in case they were allowed, the Jews of Palestine did not fail to visit their unfortunate capital which remains holy, according to Rabbi Judah,12 by virtue of its former consecration. At the sight of the ruins of the sanctuary from which occasionally a jackal furtively made its escape, the pilgrims would tear their garments and having reached the foot of the gates and the crumbling walls, gave vent to their sorrow in lamentations of which Pseudo-Baruch has left us examples.
“If later, in spite of being forbidden to approach Jerusalem, the Jews succeeded in coming there at least once a year, it is natural that at this period, when access to the holy city was not forbidden, a number of them should have faithfully observed the pilgrimages fixed by Mosaic Law. The crowds Ben Zoma saw one day 'on the heights of the Holy Mount'13 were probably an indication of this, just as were certain offerings which were brought either outside or near the 'wall,' probably the wall of the sanctuary. The Jews on their part obtained a tempering of their condition of banishment to such a point that they thought the moment had come when Jerusalem would be given over to them. At the Feast of Tabernacles 438, the Persian Barsauma and his disciples found thousands of Jews weeping in the deserted Temple enclosure.”14*
12 The reference is apparently to Zohar on Exodus. V, 72 : Rabbi Judah says: The Shekhina never departed from the Western Wall of the Temple, for it is written: Behold, he standeth behind our Wall (Song of Songs 2, 9.).
13 The reference is to Tosephta Berachot, VII, 2. ed. Zuckermandel, p. 14, l. 24.
14 Vincent and Abel. Op. Cit p. 909.
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What is more, most of the scholars in the 3rd and 4th centuries taught that the sanctity of the place persisted even after the destruction of the Temple and that the Divine Presence still rested there and would rest there forever.
- As to the Western Wall itself, the following Midrash,30 which is found in many sources, testifies to the eternal sanctity of the place:
30 Midrash Tehilim II, 3; the passage is repeated elsewhere in slightly different versions: Shir Hashirim Rabba, 2, 9. Yerushalmi Sukka, 4, 1.
[19] The immemorial usage of the Jews resorting, whenever possible, to the ruins of the Temple or to its neighborhood, is attested by many Christian writers. The earliest so far known is the so-called Pilgrim from Bordeaux, who visited Jerusalem in the year 333 of the Christian era and narrates that “all Jews come once a year to this place, weeping and lamenting near a stone which remained of the Holy Temple.” This once a year which he describes was undoubtedly the 9th day of Ab, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple.
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“. . . . . . And the Lord is in His holy Temple (Psalms 11:4).”
Rabbi Samuel Ben Rabbi Nahman (early third century) said: “While the Temple stood in its place, the Divine Presence rested within its precincts, as it is written 'and the Lord was in His Holy Temple,' but when the Temple was destroyed the Divine Presence retired, to heaven . . .” Rabbi Eleazar (later third century) said: “The Divine Presence never left the Temple, as it is written, 'My eyes and my heart shall be there all the time' (Kings 1, 9, 3), and it says further: 'I cry unto the Lord with my voice and He answereth me out of His Holy Hill, Selah'31 (Psalms 3 : 5). Thus you will see that King Cyrus said: 'Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him and let him come up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah . . . And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the House of God which is in Jerusalem' . . . (Ezra Chapter 1: 3-4). He said to them32: 'Although the Temple is in ruins God has not departed therefrom.' “Rabbi Acha (4th Century) said: “The Shekhina (Divine Presence) has never departed from the Western Wall, as it is written 'Behold, He standeth behind our Wall'” (Song of Songs 2:9).
These passages from the Holy Scriptures and the Rabbinic comments thereon are quoted in order to show the feeling of reverence and piety which both the masses and the learned amongst the Jews have always felt towards the Temple site. In this connection the statement of Rabbi Acha concerning the Western Wall, is of especial significance.
31 Selah is here understood, to mean “for evermore.”
32 This gloss is based on the fact that when Cyrus said, “For the House of God,” the Temple was not yet rebuilt.
[20] “There are two statues of Hadrian,15 and not far from the statues there is a perforated stone to which the Jews come every year and anoint it, bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart.”16
Next was the Church Father Gregory of Nazianzus who lived from 329 to 389 who says (in the “Orat. vi. de pace” page 91) “the scarcely to be recognized site of Jerusalem itself, which is now only so far accessible to them . . . that they may appear there on a single day in the year to bewail its desolation.”
15 “Palestine Pilgrims Text Society.” London, 1887. “The Bordeaux Pilgrim” 333 a.d., translated by Stewart p. 21-22.
16 “The Perforated stone (Lapis pertusus) is only mentioned by the Bordeaux Pilgrim; it has been suggested that this stone may have been the stone of foundation even sheteyah, and identical with the Sakhrah in the Dome of the Rock, but there is no clue to its position except that it was near the statues of Hadrian, and probably therefore within the limits of the Jewish Temple. After the suppression of the revolt, during the reign of Hadrian, the Jews were forbidden all approach to Jerusalem, and this prohibition remained in force until the reign of Constantine, for Eusebius states (Theoph) that they were not allowed to set foot in the city, or view it even from a distance. The law must have been revoked soon after Constantine's accession as sole Emperor in 324 a.d., for the Pilgrim (333 a.d.) mentions the visit of the Jews as an annual custom. The Jews now wail every Friday at the well known Jews' wailing place, outside the Temple enclosure.”--Stewart's Note ad loc.
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Jewish legend refers to the same strong feeling when it relates how one of the Roman Generals undertook, in the course of the Destruction of the Second Temple, to pull down the Western Gate, but it was divinely ordained that the Gate should never be destroyed, “because the Presence rests in the west.” Rabbi Berachia, a junior contemporary of Rabbi Acha, tells us in one of his stories of the difference between the pilgrims of olden days and the pilgrims of his own: “In former days the people used to come with rejoicing and jubilation, but to-day they come with feelings of sadness, wailing, and in secret, and by the grace of alien Governments.”33 But we are told by another Midrash that although the Temple was destroyed, the three pilgrimages which took place every year were not given up.34
There is no doubt that in Byzantine days, as well as during
33 Ekha Rabba I (17) 52.
34 Midrash Tehillim 42:4, Bacher (266).
[21] And third, Jerome,17 to whom the Church owes its Latin translation of the Bible, who makes a record in his commentary to Zephaniah, of which, because of its importance, we give herewith an exact translation of the Latin:
18”Until this very day faithless inhabitants . . . are forbidden to enter Jerusalem, and that they may weep over the ruins of their state that they pay a price, purchasing their tears as formerly they had purchased the blood of Christ, so that not even
17 Who was a contemporary of Rabbi Acha, to whom reference has been made on page 15.
18 Jerome commentary to Zephania I. 15-16 (Juster, Les juifs Dans L'Empire Romaine II. Paris. Guethner 1914, page 174, note 5.) (392 c.e.)
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the first centuries of the Mohammedan regime in the country, Jews used to visit the Holy Places and even set up memorials on the outskirts of the Temple Area. The evidence consists of certain inscriptions which were discovered in the vicinity of the Temple Area.35
On a column of one of the gates of the Temple Area an inscription was discovered in which a man and woman from Sicilia are mentioned with the words “Hizku Behayyim,” which may be rendered freely as “May ye be preserved alive.” From this it is certain that the Jews had access to the gates of the Temple Court and were even allowed to set up inscriptions there. There was also an inscription on the second column36 of the gate. There is also an inscription on the eastern gate of the Temple Court, in the name of Abraham ben Guliana (Julian).
A few years ago a Hebrew inscription was discovered at the northern end of the Temple area, the authors of which must have been Jews from Greek-speaking countries who came to Jerusalem, as is indicated by the Greek names of the worshippers: “Thou Lord of Hosts, build this House in the lifetime of Jacob Ben Joseph, Theophylactus, and Sisinia and Anastasia. Amen, and Amen Selah.” On the upper part of the same stone there is another inscription which bears names of people whose origin is apparently from Islamic countries. It may be that a Jewish synagogue stood on this site.
35 Cf. the article on this subject of Dr. Sukenik in “Zion,” Booklet 4, 136-141.
36 Cf. Sukenik, ibid.
[22] weeping is free to them. You see on the day of the destruction of Jerusalem a sad people coming, decrepit little women, and old men encumbered with rags and years, exhibiting both in their bodies and in their dress the wrath of the Lord. A crowd of pitiable creatures assembles and under the gleaming gibbet of the Lord and his sparkling resurrection, and before a brilliant banner with a cross waving from the Mount of Olives, they weep over the ruins of the Temple; and yet they are not worthy of pity. Thus they lament on their knees with livid arms and dishevelled hair, while the guards demand a reward for permitting them to shed some more tears. And does anyone who sees this doubt about the day of tribulation . . . ? They lament over the ashes of the Sanctuary and over the destruction of the altar, and over their state formerly fortified and over the lofty heights of the Temple from which James the brother of the Lord was once precipitated.”
In the Eleventh Century an anonymous Pilgrim testifies to a continuance of the practice of the Jews coming to Jerusalem annually--no doubt on the Ninth of Ab.
“Not far from this place is the stone19 to which the Jews come every year, anoint it, lament, and so go wailing away.”
“Now, the city wall on the southern20 and eastern sides surrounds all their (the Templars') dwellings, but on the west and the north a wall built by Solomon encloses not only their houses, but also the outer court and the Temple itself.”
In the Twelfth Century another Christian writer testifies to the existence of a wall on the west.
JEWISH SOURCES
We now turn to Jewish sources, which are naturally more numerous. Salman ben Yeruham, a Karaite, about 940-960,* writes in his commentary to Psalm 30:--
19 “Palestine Pilgrims Text Society,” Vol. VI, 1894. “Anonymous Pilgrims” 18 p. 1, early 11th century.
20 “Palestine Pilgrims Text Society,” Volume V, London, 1896. Theoderick's Description of the Holy Places about 1166 c.e., p. 32.
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- The Arab conquest brought with it many changes in the condition of the Jews. The conquerors, having no religious traditions of their own connected with localities in Palestine, at first
[23] “And when by the mercy of the God of Israel, the Romans departed from us and the kingdom of Ishmael (the Arabs) appeared, the Jews were given permission to enter and sojourn there.* The courts of the house of God were given over to them and they prayed there for a number of years.”21
Rabbi Abraham ben Hiyya ha-Nasi,22 in his book Megillath ha-Megalleh (p. 99), has a long passage in which he indicates that during the Arab domination the Jews were permitted to enter the Temple Area and “pray therein” on holidays and festivals and read that part of the service, the Musaf, which corresponds to the sacrifices; the practice was continued up to the Crusades, which was the period at which this author was writing (about 1100).
21 Jacob Mann, “The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimid Caliphs.” London, 1920-1922. Vol. I. page 46. Cp. also Ad. Neubauer: Beitrage und Documente zur Geschichte des Karaeertums. Leipzig, 1866.
22 “The Kotel Maaravi” by Isaac Ezekiel Yahudah, published in 'Zion' Volume III. Reprinted with introduction, Jerusalem, 1929, (In Hebrew). Citations are from the reprint, p. 21.
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joined in the veneration of the places sacred to the Jews; later on as they developed their own religious traditions, the Jewish holy places were taken up into them.
In another source, dating probably not later than the first period of that supremacy, the Seder Eliyahu Rabba (Chapter 28, ed. Friedmann, p. 149), we are told that Rabbi Nathan entered into the Temple and found the Temple destroyed and one wall standing. He asked what that wall was, and one said to him [another text reads: and one said to him: it is the Western Wall]: I shall show thee, and took a ring and fixed it in the Wall, etc.”
- When the Jewish community of Jerusalem was re-established, when “the Jews were granted permission to come and settle in Jerusalem,”37 they were permitted not only to pray regularly at the
37 Notices about a Jewish population in Jerusalem in the days of Omar and Moawieh are contained in the work of Theophanes (ed. De Boor I.P. 342, 22) who lived towards the end of the 9th Century. He reports conversations between the Jews of Jerusalem and Omar in connection with the building of the Mosque; also in the account of Arculf (German edition p. 30) who visited Jerusalem in the year 670.
[24] Moses Maimonides, who came to Jerusalem in 1165,23 wrote, “And on the third day of the week, the fourth day of the month of Heshvan, the 26th year of creation (i.e. 4926 = Oct. 12, 1165) we went out from Acco to go up to Jerusalem. I entered the great and holy house and prayed there on the fifth day, the sixth of Heshvan.” From which it would appear that he was actually permitted to pray on the Temple site. This great man--philosopher, legalist, physician to the Sultan Saladin, fixed the law on this subject: In the Hilkhoth Bet ha-Behira, Chap. 7, Hal. 7, he says: “Although because of our sins the Temple is desolate to-day, everyone is in duty bound to reverence it even as though it were established, for it is said: (Lev. 19,30) 'Ye shall keep My Sabbaths, and reverence My Sanctuary.' Just as the keeping of the Sabbath is eternal, so also the reverencing of the sanctuary is eternal. Even though it is desolate it retains its sanctity.” This may be taken as the final and authoritative statement with regard to the Jewish attitude and belief toward the sanctity of the place, since all succeeding generations have recognized the authority of Maimonides, who ranked as one of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages.
23 Sefer Haredim, Chap. Teshubah, 84. The authenticity of this passage is questioned by some scholars.
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gates of the Temple Area, “to make the rounds of the Temple Gates and to pray by them with a loud voice”--as Shelomo ben Yehudah, principal of the Jerusalem Yeshiva (Talmudic College) in the first half of the 11th Century bears witness38--and to renew Divine Services at all the spots which according to tradition were endowed with special sanctity such as “the Mount of Olives where the Shekhinah once stood” as is attested by the Gaon Ben-Meir, Principal of the Jerusalem Yeshivah in the early part of the 10th century39--but also to enter the Temple Area and to build them-
38 I. Mann, “The Jews in Egypt and Palestine under the Fatimids,” Oxford, 1920, II. p. 186. Prayer at the “Temple gates” is attested even earlier. The wardens of the Jewish community of Jerusalem in the 10th Century, in an epistle in which they recount the history of the community from the time of the Arab conquest, state that the conquerors “made it a condition that they (the Jews) should sweep the Temple Area and that they might pray unmolested at the gates.” (HaMeammer, III. p. 23).
39 Sokolow's Festschrift p. 62; HaMeammer, III. p. 11.
[25] Ben Meir,24 the Head of the Academy in Palestine in 921 c.e., in a letter to friends in Baghdad, sends greetings from the Holy Land and adds: “We constantly pray for you and for your venerable Elders of the Mount of Olives opposite the Fane of the Lord and at the gates of the Sanctuary of the Lord, where all Israel gathers and celebrates the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Rabbi Samuel ben Paltiel25 (980-1010) records in the Sefer Yuhasin that: “He gave 20,000 gold drachmas for the poor and afflicted, for scholars and preachers who teach the Torah
24 Yehudah, p. 24. cp. Sokolow Festschrift, 1904, p. 62.
25 Ad. Neubauer Vol, II “Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles,” p. 130. Oxford Clarendon Press. 1895.
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selves “a house of prayer and study”40 near the Wailing Wall41 to which Jews abroad used to contribute considerable sums for attendance, oil (for lighting and ceremonial), etc.
And not only did the Jews have their own synagogue within the Temple area. They were even employed by the Moslems as
40 There are many Jewish witnesses to the existence of this synagogue. R. Abraham b. R. Hiyya Hanasi in his book Megillath Hamegalleh p. 99 (early 12th Century) writes: “The Moslem rulers dealt generously with the Jews and permitted them to enter the precincts and to build their house of prayer and study, and all the Jewish communities which lie near the place used to visit it on holidays and festivals and offer up their prayers in it as representing the ancient daily and special sacrifices that used to be offered on this spot. This was the custom throughout the period of Moslem rule.” (Dinaburg, Zion, III.).
Sahel ben Masliah (10th Century): “And groups were placed there to pray in turn before the porch of the Temple (i.e., on the actual Temple Area) to pray to God to deliver the lost sheep and return them unto their cities” etc., (Pinsker, Lekute Kadmonioth, Appendix 30).
41 The Structure erected by the Jews near the Temple Area stood on the space in front of the Western Wall and rested against the Wall, as appears from Megillath Ahimaaz (an 11th century chronicle) which relates how the son of one R. Paltiel (end of the 10th century), sent oil to the synagogue at the Western Wall for the “inner altar,” i.e., the column before which the people stood when they prayed--which was inside the building. (Neubauer; Anecdota Oxoniensa, Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles II. p. 130.)
[26] and for teachers of children and Hazanim, and for oil for the sanctuary at the Kotel Maaravi, for the inner altar, and for synagogues of distant and nearby communities, and for the learned mourners for the Fane who grieve and mourn for Zion, and for the academy, both students and teachers, and for the scholars of Babylon, the Academy of the Princes. May his memory be for a blessing.”26
Solomon ben Judah, the Head of the Academy27 of Jerusalem (1025-1050), wrote a full account of the prayers then offered by the Jews of Jerusalem stating that they go round the Temple
26 And on this passage Yahuda (p. 30) rightfully comments: “We see that 900 years ago money was sent to buy oil for lighting lamps at the Kotel Maaravi. And by 'the Inner Altar' he means the Ark of the synagogue which they built near the Temple at the Kotel Maaravi in place of the synagogue from which they had been expelled. For, from this context, it seems that this synagogue was close to the Kotel Maaravi.”
27 Mann Vol. II. p. 186.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________attendants in the Haram and used to make glass and lamps for the illumination of the Haram.42 These duties were subsequently denied to them43, but there is ample evidence of the continuance of their own regular services in the Area, particularly on the open space before the Western Wall, which was known as the “Azarah” (properly, “Temple-forecourt”)44 Many Jewish pilgrims used to inscribe their names on the “gates” of the “Temple” and on the “Western Wall.”45 The Jewish quarter likewise grew up by the Western Wall, 46 the Holy Place of the Jews, just as the Moslem quarter
42 Mugir El-Din: Al-Uns Al Djalil p. 249.
43 Ahmad Al Mukaddasi ap. Yahuda p. 73.
44 Ben-Meir, referred to at the beginning of the Chapter, likewise tells of an incident that happened to his grandfather during his disputes with the Karaites in the “Azarah.” (J.Q.R., N.S., V, 750; Mann. The Jews in Egypt and Palestine, I.). That the space in front of the Western Wall was called “Azarah” is stated explicitly by Benjamin of Tudela (12th Century): “Thither all the Jews come to pray before the Wall in the 'Azarah'”.
45 Sukenik, “Zion” IV pp. 136-140.
46 “Between the Street of Jehoshaphat and the City Wall, on the left side, is a group of streets constituting a sort of city apart. These streets are called The Jewish Quarter.”--Wilhelmi Tyrensis Historia Hierosol. Other evidence in Roehricet: Regesta Regni Hiesol. No. 113, 421.
[27] gates (which no doubt included the Western Wall) and pray by them with a loud voice, reciting the Kadosh and Baruch (the Sanctification), and further that on the festivals they ascended the Mount of Olives.
In a letter from the Rabbis of Jerusalem, written in 1087, which includes bitter complaints of oppression, the statement is made: “Our only comfort is our going round the gates to prostrate ourselves and implore mercy,” And further they speak of worshipping on the Mount of Olives when “the House of Israel assemble in Jerusalem in the month of Tishri.”
Rabbi Petahiah of Regensburg, who left an Itinerary,28 came to Jerusalem during the Crusades* (1180-1185) and at that time found only one Jew there, Abraham, the dyer, who pointed out to him the Mount of Olives, and the gates where the Jews had previously prayed.
28 Ed. Greenhut. Jerusalem 1905, pp. 32, 33.
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bordered on the enclosure of the Mosque of Omar (on its north and northwest sides) and the Christian Quarter concentrated round the Holy Places of the Christians.
- The Crusaders had annihilated the Jewish population, and Jerusalem, which passed through all the vicissitudes of war, was emptied of its Jews. At a later period, when more tolerance appeared and when, instead of the annihilation of unbelievers, the imposition of taxes was introduced, a possibility arose of re-establishing the Jewish communities. Benjamin of Tudela (1167) describes already the conditions of tens of Jewish communities, and his statistical data show at least 1,000 Jewish families existing in Palestine under the Crusaders. He mentions the Jewish prayers before the Western Wall, which he also calls “The Gates of Mercy” in view of its being a place of constant prayer.
We see, therefore, that in spite of the general intolerant attitude of the Crusaders towards the Jews, the Western Wall nevertheless remained a place of constant prayer for the Jews, and, to quote Benjamin again, “in front of that place, the Kotel Maaravi, which is one of the walls which surrounded the sanctuary . . . it is there that all the Jews came to pray in front of the Wall, in the open space (Azarah).” Benjamin adds, “All the Jews write their names on the Kotel, and everyone of them does so.”47
47 The writing of names on the wall is apparently a very ancient custom and was continued throughout the centuries. The writing
[28] Benjamin of Tudela (c. 1167), the greatest of mediaeval Jewish travellers, leaves this important record:
“Jerusalem has four gates, the gate of Abraham, the gate of David, the gate of Zion, and the gate of Gushpat, which is the gate of Jehoshaphat, facing our ancient Temple, now called Templum Domini. Upon the site of the sanctuary Omar ben al Khattab erected an edifice with a very large and magnificent cupola, into which the Gentiles do not bring any image or effigy, but they merely come there to pray. 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.”29
Rabbi Samuel ben Samson, together with Rabbi Jonathan ha-Cohen of Lunel, arrived in Jerusalem in the year 1210.* Rabbi
29 “The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela,” Nathan Marcus Adler, pp. 22, 23. London, 1907. He uses the word “Azarah.”
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- The reconquest of Palestine by the Moslems marked a new era for the Jewish population. Saladin published a special appeal (1190) inviting the Jews to come to Palestine.48 There started a considerable influx of Jews from Western countries, from France and England, as well as from Egypt. The right of Jews to settle in Jerusalem and to live there was recognised again, and a Jewish community was formed which continued its existence until the Mongol invasion, which wrought havoc throughout the country (Hulagu-Khan 1260).
was done not only by means of paint and ink, but also by incision on the face of the stones themselves, and there never was any objection, protest, or difficulty met in the maintenance of this custom. Another custom no less ancient is that of fixing nails between the crevices of the stones or the layers of the stones and in the natural pores of the stones themselves. This custom is still observed by Sephardic Jews whenever they leave the Holy Land. The fact that the Jews have during the centuries inscribed and incised their names on the stones and fixed these nails between the stones and in the stones without any interference is further proof that the Moslem authorities and inhabitants recognised the right of the Jews not only to visit the Western Wall and perform their prayers and devotions there, but also to show otherwise the sacred veneration in which they hold it.
48 Rabbi Judah Alcharizi in his Tachkemoni and other sources.
[29] Samuel thus describes their entry in his Itinerary:30 “We arrived in Jerusalem on the west side of the city; we came there and rent our garments, as we are commanded to do. Then our feelings were aroused and we wept bitterly, I and the great Cohen of Lunel. We entered by the gate until we faced the Tower of David, from which we proceeded to prostrate ourselves at the open space before the Western Wall.31 We fell upon our faces in front of the gate which is opposite it on the outside, on the side of the Spring of Etam, which was the place of immersion for the priests, and there is a gate opposite it in the Western Wall. And of the foundations of the Temple there is like a large hall which was of the foundation of the Temple, and there the priests passed through a tunnel to the Spring of Etam.”
Rabbi Jacob ben Nethanel ha-Kohen came to Jerusalem during the Crusades; he writes as follows:32 “And in Jerusalem is the Tower of David; and the Temple and the Azarah are new, but the Kotel-Maaravi and the store-room are of the structure of King Solomon; and the Gates of Mercy, a well in which priests used to bathe, and the Tomb of Absalom.”
30 “Itíneraires de la Terre Saínte.” Traduits de l'Hebreu par E. Carmoly, Bruxelles, 1847. p. 127.
31 Called by him “Azarah,” just as it is called by Benjamin of Tudela. Also by Ben Meir (921 C.E.) who reports a dispute with the Kara'ites at the same place (J. Q. R., NS., V., p. 750).
32 “Itinerary of R. Nethanel ha-Kohen, 'Jerusalem,' VII p. 90, 91. [Hebrew Year Book Ed. by A. M. Luncz.]
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The recovery of the Jewish community of Jerusalem from the invasion of the Mongols, who destroyed cities and slaughtered and carried away Moslems, Christians, and Jews alike, is due to the energy of Rabbi Moses Gerondi (Nachmanides) (1267). Since then the community has continued its uninterrupted existence until this very day. From the records of Nachmanides (the letter to his son at the end of “Shaar Hagmul”), it appears that the Jews reestablished their settlement in their old quarter, which is still the centre of the Jewish population in the Old City. The communal life was reestablished, a synagogue was built, and traditional prayers at the Holy Places were resumed.
In his commentary to the Song of Songs, (on v. 2, 8) Nachmanides speaks of the sanctity of the Western Wall, saying that
[30] Rabbi Menahem ben Perez (1215), who was for eight years the Hazan in Hebron, came to Jerusalem, where, he says,33 “The Kotel Maaravi is still in existence.”
34 The Kabbalist R. Isaac ben Joseph Hilu (1333) in his book “Shvilei Jerusalem,” records how after the Christians left and the Moslems returned to Jerusalem they found the Temple place hidden by a dunghill; “There was an old man who told the king that 'if he would swear to spare the Kotel Maaravi, I would show him the place of the ruins of the Temple.' The King immediately swore that he would do as requested. The old man pointed out to him the ruins of the House under a dunghill. The King removed it, himself clearing the ruins till he thoroughly purified that place. He then rebuilt everything anew, except the Kotel Maaravi. And he built there a very glorious temple which he dedicated to his God. This is the Kotel Maaravi which is over against the Mosque of Omar ben Al-Khattab, called 'Gate of Mercy.' The Jews come hither to pray as the Traveller [i.e. Benjamin of Tudela] had already remarked. It is to-day one of the seven noteworthy things in the holy city.'
33 'Ha-Me'amer' III pp. 36-46.
34 Carmoly. “Itineraires de la Terre Sainte” p. 237.
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“the Holy One, blessed be He, did not rest until he had established the Divine Presence of the Temple on the Western Wall,” and after quoting the saying that the Shekhinah never departed from the Western Wall, he adds, “and from thence it watches over the children of man.”
Eshtori Hafarhi (1324)49 enumerates the walls of the Temple Mount, mentions the Western Wall, and says, “And now that through our sins we are on the outside, we can draw near for prayer and devotion to these walls, and so is the people's custom: they approach the walls and they pray to the Almighty in front of the two gates which I mentioned.”
Of the records of the fifteenth century bearing on the Western Wall, that of Rabbi Obadya of Bertinora, (1488) is of interest, for he gives a detailed and accurate description of the Western Wall.50
49 Eshtori is the greatest of mediaeval geographers of Palestine. His 'Kaftor Waferach' was first published in Venice in 1549. The reference is to the Jerusalem ed. (1897) pp. 92-94.
50 Edition Cahana II, page 50. He describes the enormous stones and says that he has not seen their like either in the Kingdom of Rome or elsewhere. He also mentions an entrance through the North-Eastern corner of a house in the vicinity to subterranean passages where he saw many columns.
[31] *Rabbi Israel Ashkenazi35 (1520 c.e.) the Dayyan of Jerusalem, writes in a letter: “And I raise my hands toward the heaven opposite the Kotel Maaravi, and mention everyone by his name.”
In the Epistle Yihus ha-Abot36 (Merits of the Fathers), by an anonymous person (1537 c.e.) we read: “And towards the West side is the Kotel Maaravi, an ancient structure from which the Shekinah has never departed.”
An anonymous scholar37 (1625 c.e.), speaking of the Temple Area, wrote in a letter from Jerusalem to Carpi: “And the Jews are not permitted to enter therein. Only outside of it near the Kotel Maaravi, are they permitted to approach, and this in time of peace. For now that it is a contrary time,38 the holy community decreed that no foot should step therein. In the first week that I arrived, before the decree, I went up to the foundation thereof, kissed it, prostrated myself at its foot, and recited there the arranged prayers.”
35 'Ha-Me'amer' III pp. 184, 5, 9, 190.
36 'Ha Me'amer' III pp. 208-230.
37 'Jerusalem' Vol. X p. 25.
38 The “contrary time” here spoken of refers to the persecutions of Ibn Farukh, when the life of the Jews of Jerusalem was a nightmare, and when it was dangerous to set foot in the streets.
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- The Turkish period opened a new era for the inhabitants. A more stable Government replaced the anarchy of centuries of Arab and Egyptian rule, a Government which lasted almost uninterrupted for about 400 years.
Already 200 years before their occupation of Palestine, during the regime of the Sultan Orhan (1326), the Turks gave recognition to the Jewish communities. The tradition of hospitality to Jews, shown at the time of Bayazed the Second to the Spanish refugees, found a new expression in the recognition of the Jewish communities and the freedom of religious worship in the new territory. The story about the square in front of the Western Wall, which was covered with refuse which the Gentiles used to throw there for the sake of grieving the Jews, and about the King who cleaned the place and gave it to the Jews, keeps recurring in literature;51 but in different periods the gracious act is ascribed to different monarch.* (Omar, one of the Fatimid Sultans, Janhar, Sul-
51 cf. Dinaburg in “Zion” III.
[32] In the Introduction to the Book “Horbot Jerusalem” (1627 c.e.) we read:39 . . .”for our God, whom we have been waiting for stands behind our Wall. The Shekhinah did not cease from the Kotel Maaravi, to look to all the needs of the children of Israel wherever they are. . . . And if the Lord, blessed be He, because of His love for us, desired to dwell with us in this holy place, although beholding Gentiles dancing in His fane, how then can anyone who is called by the name Israel, whom the Merciful Father favored to stand at the threshold of the house of God, forsake it and depart from it, because of money at stake, and to
39 Carmoly p. 439.
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tan Selim). In the latest version of the story, which appears in Moshe Chagiz's Elle Masse (1700), the part of defender of Jewish rights is played by Sultan Selim the Conqueror. In effect, from the Turkish conquest down to our own day there is an almost unbroken series of fuller and more detailed notices about the Western Wall as a place of prayer and pilgrimage.
Rabbi Shimon Beck (1584) gives the most prominent place in his description to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.52 A source of primary importance, however, is Rabbi David b. Zimra (Ridbaz, middle of the 16th century), who deals with the halakhic (ritual and religious) aspect of the holiness of the Wall.53
In the 16th century, with the strong development of Cabbala and Mysticism in Palestine, the Western Wall acquired a reputation as a place of revelations of the Shekhinah (Divine Presence). Stories of such experiences are frequent in the Cabbalistic literature, For example, the Shekhina (or according to another version the Prophet Elijah) is said to have manifested itself to the Rabbi David b. Zimra just referred to. The disciples of R. Isaac Luria, the outstanding figure in Palestinian Cabbalah, report that their master (1572) commanded them to pray at the Western Wall.
To this period, the end of the 16th century, belongs the story about R. Abraham Ha-Levi Beruchim,54 one of the greatest writers on Cabbalah.
52 “Yerushalaim,” 1887, pp. 141-147; Ha Meammer, III, 282-288.
53 Responsa of Ridbaz, II, No. 628.
54 Sefer Kav Hayashar, Amsterdam, 1742.
[33] leave it, God forbid, bereft and barren?” And toward the end the scholars of Jerusalem write:
“We shall not refrain from beseeching God, behold he standeth behind our Wall. May he send you help from the Sanctuary, and sustain you from Zion.”*
The Karaite traveller, R. Moses Yerushalmi40 (1655 c.e.) writes.
“And the Kotel Maaravi of the Temple still stands: it is the one which King Solomon built. It is seen above the roofs of our poor-houses. We went up on the roofs and saw it. We
40 'Jerusalem' X p. 27.
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- Rabbi Eliezer Nachman Pouah, disciple of Rabbi Menahem Azaria of Fano, in his “Midrash Behidush” (Venezia, 1640), interprets the verse “(God) lifteth up the needy from the dunghill” (Ps. 113: 7), as follows: David foresaw by Divine inspiration what the Gentiles were destined to do to the site of the Temple where the Western Wall is, whence the Shekhinah never departed. Now, I have been told that in the days of Sultan Suleiman55 the site of the Temple was not known, and the Sultan had every corner of Jerusalem searched for it. One day the man in charge of the work, despairing after much searching and inquiring in vain, saw a woman coming with a basket of garbage and filth upon her head. And he asked her: “What are you carrying on your head?” and she replied “Garbage.” “And whither are you carrying it?” “To such and such a place.” “Where do you live?” “In Bethlehem.” “Is there no dunghill between Bethlehem and this place?” “It is a tradition among us that whoever takes a little garbage to that place performs a meritorious act.” The curiosity of the officer was aroused and he commanded a great number of men to remove from this place the garbage, which lower down had mouldered to dust with age; and the holy site was revealed to his gaze. And when the Sultan learned of this he rejoiced greatly and ordered the place to be swept and sprinkled and the Wailing Wall washed with rose-water. And on the Temple Area the Moslems built their Mosque. Hence David's words God lifteth up the needy from the dunghill.” They made a dunghill of the Holy Place, but He lifted the needy up from there.
55 i.e. Suleiman ibn Abd-el-Malik.
[34] also went near it and prostrated ourselves, passionately kissing its stones and embracing the dust thereof.”
Another Karaite,41 R. Benjamin Yerushalmi ben Elijah, who visited the holy city in the year 1686 c.e., writes: “Afterwards we went to the Kotel Maaravi to pray there. It is in the midst of Jerusalem, near the houses of the Gentiles. It is of the time of King Solomon; it is built of large stones about ten spans long and eight spans wide. There we prayed. If anyone desires to go every day to the Kotel Maaravi, the Ishmaelites permit him to go and pray. We therefore went many times to the Kotel Maaravi to pray. The Ishmaelites, however, do not permit any Gentiles42 to go near the streets close by the Kotel Maaravi to see it.”
Rabbi Moses Hagiz, (1671-1750) in his book, “Parshat Eleh Mas'ei”43 writes of his grandfather, the Gaon Rabbi Moses Galanti (1628-1680), the chief of the Rabbis of Jerusalem, that, “on the eve of Passover and the eve of Yom Kippur he used to go to the Kotel Maaravi, although windows were open in his upper chamber from which he could look upon the wall, yet would he gain added merit by walking thither. He used to read there on the eve of Passover the treatise Pesahim, and on the eve of Yom Kippur the treatise Yoma. He would add to the regular prayers Daniel Ch. 9 to the end, the prayers of Ezra in Ch. 6 from verse 9 to the end of the chapter, and the short prayer of Nehemia Ch. 1 from verse 5 to the end of the chapter. He would read a chapter in the Zohar 8, 3 page 111b. (Rabbi Isaac began 'My beloved is like a gazelle . . . behold he standeth behind our Wall . . . etc.') He would then recite 'blessed be our God who created us for his glory . . .' and 'It is our duty to praise . . .' and 'We therefore hope in Thee.'
“And the pious women go every Friday afternoon and sweep in front of the Kotel Maaravi and no one says a word.
“And on Sabbath and Holidays, after leaving the synagogue, some men who own houses the windows of which open toward the Kotel Maaravi, so that it seems as though they were close by, pray there an abbreviated form of prayers. This is its version in short: They begin, 'And I, in the multitude of thy loving-kindness.' Then they recite the 122nd Psalm, 'I rejoiced when they said unto me.' Then the Tamid selection and the daily
41 'Jerusalem' X. pp. 27, 28.
42 i.e. Christians.
43 Yahudah p. 43.
[35] Musaf, and 'Pittum ha-Ketoret,' and 'Blessed be our God who created us for His glory' and 'There is none but our God' and 'It is our duty to praise'; and, after reciting the Kaddish, each one departs for his home. There are some who go after the Afternoon Service to the Kotel Maaravi itself and pray there this prayer and no one murmurs against them. And if some small foxes come out of the Sanctuary, as it is the custom of all small foxes who want to bite, and call out tauntingly 'Jew,' some of the older ones prevent them.”
And in his book “Sefat Emet,” Moses Hagiz writes: “And with all this, He who peereth through the lattices, looketh intently from the place of His habitation and answereth His people in a time of distress, as we said: 'With my voice I call unto the Lord and He answereth me out of his holy mountain, Selah.' For the Shekhinah never departed from the Kotel Maaravi. And further: 'There remained the mark of holiness and the Shekhinah did not depart from the Kotel Maaravi.'”44
Rabbi Gedaliah45 of Semitizi near Grodno, Poland, came to Jerusalem at the end of the year 1699.
He describes the size of the Wall, the age of the stones, the physical appearance of the place, the courtyards that surround it, the Cadi's house at one end, and adds: “When we go to the Kotel Maaravi to pray we stand in back of cur wall, close to it, and we go at New Moon and on the 9th of Ab and on other fast days they go to pray there, and though the women weep in a loud voice no one disturbs them. Even though the Cadi lives nearby and hears the weeping, he does not protest nor disturb them in any way. And if a little Arab boy comes along and wants to do mischief they slap him46 and he runs away; and if a prominent Arab comes on the scene he scolds the lad severely.
“I heard a story that in ancient days there was a time of drought, and the Jews decreed a fast, and they went with the Scroll of the Law to the Western Wall to pray, and God hearkened unto them. The rain fell so hard that they had to wrap the Scroll of the Law in their clothes on their way back to the synagogue.”
44 Yahudah page 44
45 Shaalu Shalom Yerushalaim (Seek ye the Peace of Jerusalem] by Rabbi Gedaliah of Sematizi, 1699. Printed in 'Reshumot' Vol. II. page 477, 478. Tel Aviv.
46 Another reading: they give him a trible.
[36] Above, p. 31, there is cited the statement in a letter to Carpi, 1626, of the recitation of “arranged prayers,” and there is a sort of catalogue of the prayers recited before 1689. How early such forms of prayers existed in manuscript we do not know,* but from the beginning of the 18th century on we have actual printed books of a formal service, or order of prayers to be recited before the Western Wall. These books contain upon their very title pages the statement: Prayers to be recited before the Western Wall whence the Divine Presence has never departed.
In the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary at New York, editions of this service are found as follows: Constantinople 1740, 1743; Amsterdam 1759; Jerusalem 1849 (reprinted
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Prayerbooks for Use at the Western Wall: The oldest extant collection of prescribed prayers and ceremonial injunctions is contained in “Yihus Ha-Tsaddikim,” by R. Gershon b. R. Asher of Scramela (first edition, Mantua, 1601). According to this book, the Jews on approaching the Wall used to take off their shoes and kiss the stones of the Wall and say special prayers and certain prescribed chapters from the Psalms.
The prayers contained in the Western Wall prayerbooks which have been published at various times (most of them in Hebrew, but some in Spaniolish and Yiddish), during the past 300 years, revolve around both national themes--the destruction of the Temple, the coming Redemption, persecutions--and private petitions for the healing of the body and the soul, etc. The assumption that underlies all such prayers and collections is that the Western Wall is the most suitable place for devotion as being a part of the Temple concerning which King Solomon prayed: “And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of the people Israel, when they shall pray towards this place.” (I.K. 8:30).
The Yiddish and Spaniolish prayerbooks of this nature deserve to be specially noted. They were composed primarily for women and ignorant immigrants who did not understand Hebrew, in order to enable them to pour out their hearts in the place in a language which they understood.
A special set of prayers to be recited at the Western Wall was also in use among the Karaites. Its authorship and date of composition are unknown, but it appears in Section V of their prayerbook (Vienna, 1854).
[37] with Judeo-German translation 1877); Jerusalem 1861; Salonica 1890 (in Ladino); Jerusalem 1880-90 (with Judeo-German translation).
There is also a copy printed in Venice, 1702, in the Bodleian Library, earlier than the copies in New York, which I have examined. There is also in existence in the Library of the Beth-Hamidrash (House of Study) in London a manuscript order of prayers which states, among other things, that some pietists were accustomed to go every Sabbath Day to the Kotel Maaravi to pray, while others preferred to go on Thursdays. This manuscript is dated 1725, but refers to the practice at the time of the writer's teacher, perhaps half a century before.
Coming down to the latter part of the eighteenth century* we find a curious reference to the belief in the efficacy of prayer before the Wall, in Italian-Jewish literature.
In 1777 harsh restrictions were made against the Jews living in Venetian territory47. In the notebooks of Solomon Levi
47 “Venice and Her Persecution of the Jews” by Cecil Roth, 'Revue des Etudes Juives,' Tome LXXXII Melanges Offert à Israel Levi, 1926, p. 416.
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- The surviving official account books of the Jewish communities beginning at the 18th century prove that the right of the Jews to use the square in front of the Western Wall was recognised in practice. For example, expenditures are recorded for the year 1711 which include a number of entries for the cleaning of the place.
Among other references which have been noted are the following: R. Gershon Kittower (1741), brother-in-law of R. Israel Baal-Shem-Tov (Besht), the founder of Hassidism, used to read lamentations at the Western Wall until he reached a pitch of ecstasy and fell into repeated swoons and was revived only with difficulty.
R. Aryeh-Leb Frumkin, who settled in Jerusalem in the 1870's and collected the materials for his book on “The Lives of the Scholars of Jerusalem” (published 1929) from oral witnesses (old men) and written documents, relates in Part 3, p. 148, of that work that Rabbi Mordecai Joseph Meyuhas, who lived in the time of Napoleon, “used to go to the Western Wall every Friday night after midnight with his servant and recite the whole Book of Psalms through, and tarry there until it was time for morning prayers. Sometimes he said his morning prayers there, too.”
[38] Mortara of Verona occurs a letter in which the Rabbis of Jerusalem were “adjured to petition the Almighty before the Western Wall to avert His anger and to incline the heart of the Signoria to mercy upon His people.”
Rabbi Mendel of Sklov, writes in a letter dated 1816: “Far be it from me to cease praying for you near the Kotel Maaravi where we go and pray every eve of the New Moon and on other days of supplication.”48
The heads of the German community in Jerusalem write in their letter to Rabbi Joseph Rozaat, dated the 7th of Shebat, 1817; “We are prepared, with the help of God, to pray near the Kotel Maaravi--and it is our duty, with our entire company, the Ashkenazim, to pray regularly near the Kotel Maaravi.”49
- The Spanish Rabbis in Jerusalem in their letter of the month of Iyar 5597 (1837) write: “And we pray for our brethren who are in exile before Him who dwelleth in Zion and hath chosen Jerusalem. Behold He standeth behind our Wall, the Kotel Maaravi, the place of our Sanctuary, the joy of the whole earth.”50
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kamenetz, 1840, writes: “I went to pray before the Kotel Maaravi of the Temple (in 1833) according to the custom of those who go there every Friday night. Some poor people sit there to receive alms. Afterwards they say a few psalms; after that they say Minna and receive the Sabbath (and the prayer comes from the very bottom of the heart). And the Hazan stands there near a certain stone, and they say that there the Shekhinah was revealed to a certain pious man. And he who approaches the Kotel Maaravi takes off his shoes.”51
48 'Jerusalem' IV p. 115.
49 'Jerusalem' IV pp. 113, 114.
50 'Jerusalem' IX pp. 77, 78.
51 On the Kotel Maaravi, by Michael Rabinovitz. In 'Mizrah ou-Maarav,' Vol. IV, February, 1930, p. 281.
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- R. Isaac Farhi (1834) tells us in the Introduction to his book “Tuv Haares” that the Jews “visit the Western Wall every Friday afternoon and sit there in groups, some studying Mishnah and some reading the weekly portion of the Law and Midrashim. Men and women come to utter prayers and supplications before the abode of our Glory, and there they stay for the afternoon prayer. During the month of Elul (preceding the Jewish New Year) and on the Day of Atonement people go there constantly to pray and
[39] “The Temple stands to the south-east of the city and is surrounded by a wall; the eastern wall is the wall of the city, and to the south stands the Midrash Shelomo, and on the west there are houses and amongst them is the Kotel Maaravi and on the north there are also houses; also on the west houses are built very near to it and there is a sort of lane between them where the people who pray, stand.”
And Rabbi Joseph Schwarz52 says in 1845: “This wall is visited by all our brothers on every feast and festival: and the large space at its foot is often so densely filled up that all cannot perform their devotions there at the same time. It is also visited, though by fewer numbers, on every Friday afternoon, and by some early every day. No one is molested in these visits by Mahomedans, as we have a very old firman from the sultan of Constantinople that the approach shall not be denied us, though the Porte obtains for this privilege an especial tax, which is, however, quite insignificant.”
Rabbi Meshil, in his book “Mishkenot le-Abir Jacob,” writes that the illustrious Rabbi Moses Judah Leib used to hire a quorum to pray every day, morning, afternoon and evening, at the Kotel Maaravi. This he did by permission of the government and no one protested. When he died (1869) the practice lapsed.53
- The well-known writer and editor, Abraham Moses Luncz, 1855-1918, came to Jerusalem from Kovno when he was
52 “A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine” by Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, translated by Isaac Leeser. 1850, Philadelphia, pp. 259-260.
53 Yahudah p. 48.
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confess. We have a tradition that their prayers never remain unanswered; for the Divine Presence has never departed from the Western Wall. There, too, are humble poor people and every man and woman gives them alms according to his means.”
- With increasing numbers of Jewish settlers during the second half of the nineteenth century and the improved state of security in the country, there was an increasing number of Jews who prayed at the Western Wall regularly. The Western Wall became the centre of the Jewish community, and the Jews began to improve the place and clean it regularly. Thus, for example, the Jews had the place paved and erected an awning over it to protect the worshippers from the sun.
[40] 14 years old and lived in the Holy Land the rest of his life. He was occupied all his days with the literature of Palestine, and speaking of the Jewish customs in Jerusalem on the eve of the Sabbath, writes:
“Every Friday, immediately after noon, crowds of our brethren, men, women and children, hasten to the Kotel Maaravi of the Temple Mount, to pour forth supplication that God have mercy upon the remnant and scattered ones of Judah, etc., and also for the welfare of our brethren in exile who support them, etc. In every house in the city where we are passing, tumuli and haste are noticed. Everyone hastens to finish his work so as to manage to be at the Kotel Maaravi. As we walk through the streets we see in every direction and corner a crowd of men running, dressed in holiday attire, carrying holy books. Old men and women supporting themselves on crutches, tender babes carried by their parents, all are moving eastward. Scorching heat or cold and wind, storm and snow and drenching rain, do not prevent them.”54
54 'Jerusalem,' Volume I. p. 10.
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The learned Rebecca Lipa, wife of the Rabbi of Ingstone writes in her book “Zekher Olam” (1860). “It is our duty to remind you of your duty towards those who pray for you daily at the Western Wall.”
In 1867 R. Moses Nehemia Kahana describes in detail in “Shaalu Sheloni Yerushalayim” the prayer and weeping at the Western Wall on the eve of Sabbaths and Festivals, when almost all the Jews of the Holy City gathered there. He describes the height and length of the Wall and the vacant space in front of it, having in mind, probably, the old pavement, not the new one, which was laid some time later.
R. Moses Glebastein wrote in “Mishkenoth Yaakov” (1870) that somebody ought to be paid to keep guard over the holy place in order to see that the Gentiles did not pollute it with human excrement, “as I have seen many times with my own eyes even during services that there was excrement there and they covered it with a stone or a similar object.”
Concerning the pollution of the place, there is a record (“Levanon,” 1860, III, 9) of Rabbi M. N. Auerbach requesting Sir Moses Montefiore to petition the Pasha to forbid the neighbours
[41] And further: “So intense is the agitation and the impression that this spectacle produces upon every onlooker, that many Gentile tourists who come to visit our holy land try to be at this holy place at this time. All of them record in their diaries the impression of this scene, to be kept by them for an everlasting remembrance.”
Another old inhabitant of Jerusalem, Isaac Ezekiel Yahudah, wrote his own experiences in connection with the Western Wall:
“I wish to record now what I heard in my parents' home and what I have seen with my own eyes. When in the year 5601 (1841) my grandmother's father, the saintly Kabbalistic Rabbi Abdullah ben Rabbi Moses Hayyim, of blessed memory, went up to Palestine, my grandmother's mother, the old wife of the Rabbi, used to go every Friday noon, summer and winter, to the Kotel Maaravi and remain there to read the entire Book of Psalms and the Song of Songs, till it was time to kindle the Sabbath lights. In those days the city was forsaken and desolate. Not a single Jew was found there at noon. However, from early afternoon people would come for the Inauguration of the Sabbath. So she would be there alone many hours. She never heard a rebuke. On the contrary, the inhabitants of that place respected her.
“In my infancy, till I was five years old, my mother, of blessed memory, and also my grandmother, used to carry me to the Kotel Maaravi. Often only women were there. No one disturbed or insulted the women who assembled in this holy place.
“When I was six years old, my father, of blessed memory, used to take me always to pray there on the eve of Sabbath with his illustrious teacher, the saintly Rabbi Elazar ha-Levi, of blessed memory, and we used to finish the Evening Service while the sun was still shining.”
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throwing filth and dung near the Western Wall. These incidents prove incontestable that the Moslem attitude towards the Western Wall was one of contempt and never of reverence as to a Holy Place.
Mordecai Razanis Effendi of Rustchuk (Havazeleth, IV, 39, August, 1874) spent a sum of money on beautifying the site in front of the Wall. He first paved the square and distempered and painted the three surrounding walls. Like Montefiore before him, he endeavoured to make things easier for the worshippers, and by his
[42] “Tables were there, upon which were placed large lanterns, belonging to the German Jews, lighted in honor of the Sabbath. If, at times, my father, because of his business, came late, we used to pray there with the German Hassidim, led by their Rabbi, R. Elazar Mendel Biederman, and we would finish the Evening Service late, when it was already dark. A non-Jew would carry the lanterns before us, to light the way for us.”
“In my youth I was accustomed to go on Yom Kippur, between the morning and afternoon prayer, to the Kotel Maaravi, to pray the prayer of King Solomon (1 Kings, ch. 8). There I would find the saintly Rabbi Moses Meshil55 Gelbstein praying 'Musaf with his Hassidim . . . Sometimes I would find them at the Reading of the Law (since we, in our synagogue “Hesed-El,” used to finish our service earlier or later than the others); a 'tent' was spread over their heads, stretched from the wall of the Kotel Maaravi to the wall of the court opposite it. There were tables, a holy Ark, a Scroll of the Law, chairs and benches. I even saw
55 “I did not know R. Meshil in my childhood, and so do not remember him, for a large crowd of German and Spaniards used to come to pray there; I only remember him from my youth-Rabbi Meshil used to pray there with his Hassidim every day in the year at afternoon and evening services; and on the eve of the New Moon I saw him lighting oil-lamps there. On the High Holydays he would lead in all the prayers. But when at the end of his days he became sick he would lead only in the morning service, and he commanded his son to do likewise after him. His son kept the father's charge.”
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instructions large stones were placed there as seats for the old and the sick.
Mahazeh Erez Ha-Kedoshah (1891) describes in detail the Western Wall and the prayers of the Jews on weekdays and Sabbaths, and recounts the story of the revelation of the Divine Presence (v. supra) to R. David b. Zimra (Ridbaz). It tells of people of advanced age who used to visit the Wall at midnight and pray till morning, “From dawn to dusk,” says the author, Jews may be found there reciting Psalms and praying. Often congregations (minyanim, properly “quorums,” i.e. groups of at least ten men, the minimum required for organised prayer) come to pray for those who are ill, and all day long there is no end to loud praying and the loud wailing of women and children.
[43] feather cushions upon which weak old men sat. They prayed undisturbed and peacefully. The people dwelling there would pass noiselessly, without disturbing the worshippers.”56
“Very often, on ordinary days, I entered the northern ground, which had a wall, and would find men and women praying and reading. It was so also when the pressure was great in the court of the Kotel Maaravi; and the owners did not protest or offend them. “I also entered the gate of the cavity which is there, as I mentioned above.”
56 Luncz relates ('Jerusalem' X, p. 49): “Rabbi Meshil's son told me that once a Moslem tore the tent because of a controversy between him and one of the worshippers. The next year he asked the Chief Rabbi, the illustrious Rabbi Elijashar, of blessed memory, to improve the matter. The Haham Bashi complained about it to the chief of police, who immediately sent a policeman to see to it that the Jews should be able to stretch the tent, and he remained on duty the entire Yom Kippur to make certain that no harm or insult befell them on the part of the neighbors.”-- Yahudah's Note ad loc
57 “The Spanish sexton, stationed at the Kotel Maaravi, keeps his articles, for a small consideration, with the owners of that place. For this they allowed entrance there and would also give water to drink, free. Luncz ('Jerusalem' X, p. 51) says that the Spaniard was stationed there since 5640 (1880); but, according to my memory, he was stationed there a long time before this.”--Yahudah's Note ad loc
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“Towards evening the pious throng gather for afternoon and evening prayers, both summer and winter. During the summer as many as 200 people gather at that hour [Note: This was 40 years ago], but even during the winter, the wind and rain do not stop the worshippers. On Friday multitudes come to recite the Song of Songs and to read the Mishnah. During the summer the number of people gathered in that place on Friday is from 1000 to 1800. The prayer ushering in the Sabbath is finished with the appearance of the stars, and evening prayers are held after the appearance of the stars. On festivals, especially the Three Festivals [Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles] not a man of the inhabitants of Jerusalem stays away, and many Jews come from other cities and even from other countries. During the Musaph service the press is so great that it is impossible to move to the right or to the left Often there are many-thousands there at once and the adjoining lanes for a distance of hundreds of yards are filled with the people coming.”
[44] “I remember, from my childhood, that Siman-Tob Meyuhas used to sit at the Kotel Maaravi, before him a table, a chair, oil-lamps, candles, wicks and Psalm books. He stayed there of his own accord, for his support, to make a living by kindling the lamps of the visitors. If a prominent man or woman came he would give them a chair to sit upon. Afterwards an Ashkenazic sexton also attached himself of his own accord. Siman-Tob passed away; his son Rahmim inherited his place.
“Poor Spanish scholars also used to sit there all day and read Ladino to the old men and women who sat in circular rows to hear from the scholar 'Me'am Lo'ez,' 'Reshith Hokhmah' and other similar books. On the eve of the New Moon they would read to them the 'Announcement' of Rabbi Elazar of Worms.
“I similarly remember the remnant of the large stones that were placed there to sit on, and which also completely disappeared afterwards.
“This, too, I remember, that in the year 1878, during the Russo-Turkish War, the government asked the Jews to pray for its success near the Kotel Maaravi. So the pupils of the Spanish and German Schools went to the Kotel Maaravi, and the government sent soldiers to accompany them going and returning, as a guard of honor.
“Sheik Rahmim, the saintly Kabbalistic Rabbi Rahmim Antabi, of blessed memory, was one of the 'Zion-Mourners.' He did not wear shoes, only nail-studded sandals (Kabkab, in Arabic) without socks. He did not eat meat nor drink wine. Every midnight, summer and winter, he used to go to the Kotel Maaravi, to recite the Midnight Order of Prayers and to weep. Neither rain nor storm prevented his going till the day of his death (Shebat 1876). The Mussulmans respected him and never vexed him. He was called by Jews and Arabs by the name of 'Sheik Rahmim.'”
Following the recollections of Mr. Yahuda and Mr. Luncz we add a few statements which have come to us, although no effort was made to obtain such statements.
Elkan N. Adler, an English barrister, writes as follows:
“To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph:
“Sir--The 'Daily Telegraph' has published much valuable information and discussion with regard to the recent troubles in Palestine.
[45] “It has been alleged that these were due to the unwarrantable exercise by Jews of their right to pray before the Wailing Wall or, as it has always been known by the Jews, the Western Wall (Kotel Maaravi). I visited Jerusalem several times between 1888 and 1925. On each occasion I attended Divine service at this Western Wall of the Temple on Friday nights to usher in the Sabbath with Jewish worshippers exceeding the Minyan (congregational number) of ten. There was at no time any interruption, any stopping, any objection.”
The testimony of Miss Annie E. Landau, for 30 years resident in Jerusalem, Headmistress of the Evelina de Rothschild School, as to the usage at the Wall is interesting. She writes: “In February, 1929, I shall have worked here for thirty years. From the first week of my arrival I was, for many years, a regular attendant for prayers at the Wall, on Friday evenings, and Jewish Festivals. I never once in pre-war days either witnessed or heard of any trouble at the Wailing Wall between our co-religionists and our Moslem fellow-citizens. I myself paid a Jewish man two Turkish piastres per day, during my first year here, to sweep the thoroughfare leading directly to the Wall, but gave it up afterwards as the man complained of the untidy habits of the Arab neighbours, who would throw their house refuse into the alley after he had swept it. The orthodox women, I among them, often went into the little enclosure to say prayers, as many of the strictly observant Jews strenuously objected, then as now, to praying in the presence of women. No objection to this use of the enclosure was ever raised by anyone. Many women liked to pray where the beadle had a stand for oil lights, which were lighted in memory of one's dead. Sometimes a particularly devout worshipper in the community or an important visitor, a Gaon for instance, would not like women to be in sight at this place, and then a screen would be put up. I never knew of any Moslem objection to this. I remember vividly how in 1902, when there had been no proper rain for several seasons, the communities of all religious denominations were asked to have special prayers. The Chassidic element said we could not expect an answer to the prayers for the blessing of rain when we had let the Jewish custom of the separation of the sexes at prayer lapse at the Wailing Wall, though we kept it in synagogue; and a screen was put up. Hundreds of people flocked, fasting, to the Wailing Wall for special prayers for rain.”
[46] “There were always some very rickety old benches standing about for worshippers who were old and weak.”
In a letter to Dr. Weizmann written from Manchester on January 19, 1930, I. W. Slotki says: “I well remember that about 40 years ago, when I was a little child, both forms (or benches) and small stools were used at the Western Wall by Jewish worshippers. I well recollect a particular moment when I was anxious to sit on one of the forms and my father explained to me that as the place was packed with people and sufficient forms for all were impossible, it was the duty of little children like myself to leave the forms for the benefit of the elderly people.”
It might seem superfluous to add anything to this weight of testimony of the usage of prayer by the Jews before the Wall, and we do not refer simply to individual, silent prayer, but to regular assemblage, for what would certainly be denominated public worship.
We now turn to modern sources, both descriptive books and general books of travel, and refer to them sometimes merely by name and date because the description is almost uniform, citing only those passages which would bear most particularly on the points which will be mentioned in the conclusion. One or two of these are from English travellers, simply because this collection was made in an American library where the books of the English travellers predominate.
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- During the middle ages the entrance to the vicinity of the Temple Area was forbidden to Christians. For that reason Christian travellers had no opportunity of visiting the Western Wall. Rabbi Moses Hagoz56 makes reference to this, and many Christian travellers bear him out. It was only with the beginning of the nineteenth century and with Ibrahim Pasha's conquest that the situation was changed.
From the time when Christian travellers were permitted to visit the neighbourhood of the Temple Area, they never failed to visit the Western Wall and to describe the Jewish prayers there. Such records cover the entire period of the last eighty or ninety years. The records generally make reference to the custom being ancient, and in many cases speak of the special privilege granted
56 See page 34.
[47] It should also be said that most of these books were found in a single library, and that no very great effort was made to multiply these citations. No doubt many references of a like nature could be secured from French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swiss and Swedish sources.
We open with a statement made by Edward Robinson, an American scholar of whose accuracy there is no doubt, and who was the founder of modern archaeological research in Palestine. He writes: “In the afternoon of the same day, I went with Mr. Lanneau to the place where the Jews are permitted to purchase the right of approaching the site of their Temple and of praying and wailing over its ruins and the downfall of their nation. The spot is on the western exterior of the area of the great mosque, considerably south of the middle; and is approached only by a narrow crooked lane, which there terminates at the wall in a very small open place.
“The lower part of the wall is here composed of the same kind of ancient stones, which we had before seen on the eastern side. Two old men, Jews, sat there upon the ground, reading together in a book of Hebrew prayers. On Fridays they assemble here in greater numbers. It is the nearest point in which they
60 “Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petra.” E. Robinson and E. Smith. Crocker and Brewster. Boston 1841. pp. 349, 350, 351.
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to Jews to pray in front of the Western Wall. Some date this privilege from the period of the conquest of Omar and describe it as a compensation for the actual Temple Area, to which the Jews had free access prior to that period and which was then denied to them. Others date it back to the Byzantine period. The travellers particularly speak of prayers on Fridays and the eve of holidays when the number of worshippers was larger than usual.
It should be noted than not in a single case is there to be found any record of interference by Moslems or of any objection on their part to the prayers of the Jews. References are, however, made to the fact that the Turks used the Western Wall as a means of extracting money from the Jews.57
57 References for this note are to be found in the list of books contained in the note to page 63.
[48] can venture to approach their ancient temple; and fortunately for them, it is sheltered from observation by the narrowness of the lane and the dead walls around. Here, bowed in the dust, they may at least weep undisturbed over the fallen glory of their race; and bedew with their tears the soil which so many thousands of their forefathers once moistened with their blood.
“This touching custom of the Jews is not of modern origin. Benjamin of Tudela mentions it, as connected apparently with the same spot, in the twelfth century; and very probably the custom has come down from still earlier ages.”
Allan Cunningham, in editing the journal and letters of Sir David Wilkie, gives the following:
Journal of January 13th, 1841: “It is very interesting to see this people, poor but respectable in their looks, still dwelling on the same holy hill they have held since the time of the Jebusites. The quarter allotted to them is close to the ancient wall of the Temple, where they go every Friday to weep, and wail, and hug, and kiss great stones of the Temple, and to read and repeat the 13th psalm . . .”58
And in a letter to the Earl of Leven, 1841, he writes a similar description of the scene:
“Not a hundred yards further to the north is a spot immediately under the wall and quite concealed from observation, where they have purchased permission from the Turks to approach the boundary of the temple, to wail over the desolation of Judah, and implore the mercy and forgiveness of their God. We repaired to this place on Friday, when a considerable number usually assemble. In the shadow of the wall, on the right, were seated many venerable men, reading the book of the law, wearing out their declining days in the city of their fathers, and soon to be gathered to them in the mournful Valley of Jehoshaphat. There were also many women in their long white robes, who, as they entered the small area, walked along the sacred wall, kissing its ancient masonry, and praying through the crevices with every appearance of deep devotion.”59
In 1843 Ridley H. Herschell wrote:
“One Friday afternoon Mr. Caiman took me to the Jews'
58 “The Life of Sir David Wilkie,” Allan Cunningham. London, 1843.
59 “Walks About the City and Environs of Jerusalem,” 1842, by W. H. Bartlett London, pp. 140-141.
[49] Place of Wailing. The lower part of the wall is evidently very ancient; and there is historical evidence that as far back as the 12th century the Jews regarded it as having belonged to the court of the ancient Temple. The scene that here presented itself was one of the most striking I beheld in Jerusalem. About thirty men and half as many women were assembled together, all without shoes, the ground whereon they trod being in their testimation holy.”60
Walter Keating Kelly, in 1844, repeats the description of Robinson and adds: “I never visited the Jewish place of wailing hat I did not find it occupied with some of the Israelites.”61
In 1845 John P. Durbin says:
“A narrow, crooked lane leads from the Jews' Quarter to a small spot on the west side of the Temple wall, entirely shut out from observation, which is the scene, every Friday, of a most touching custom, long kept up by the children of Israel. They have purchased of the Turks the privilege of approaching the ancient Temple wall at this spot, which is called their Place of Wailing, to weep over the fallen glory of their race, under the very ruins of their once magnificent sanctuary. The masonry of the wall at this point is of the same massive character as at the ancient bridge, and the Jews believe it to have been part of the wall of the Temple. On Friday they assemble here in considerable numbers, and cry, 'Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our house to aliens.' The Book of the Law is read by aged men, and women walk up and down the small area, occasionally approaching the wall to kiss it, pouring forth lamentations and prayers.”62
Mrs. Romer, writing in 1845-46, after describing the Wall says:
“It was the belief of the ancient Jews that the prayers offered up to the Most High within the precincts of the Temple walls, ascended at once to the Throne of Grace, and were propitiatory of the Divine Clemency; and, like the rest of their religious tenets, this belief has remained unchanged until the present
60 “A Visit to My Fatherland,” in 1843, by Ridley H. Herschell. London, 1845. p. 158.
61 “Syria and the Holy Land,” by Walter Keating Kelly. London, 1844. p. 411.
62 “Observations in the East,” by John P. Durbin. 1845, Harper & Bros, pages 277-273.
[50] day: for although the wails have been for ages closed against the remnant of God's chosen people by their oppressors, they still gather round the forbidden spot, and pressing their lips against the ancient stone-work, breathe through its crevices the aspirations of their unchanging hearts. I visited the spot on the day and at the hour when this sad gathering takes place, and I could have wept at beholding the descendants of Israel, aliens, as it were, in the land of their fathers, bearing the marks of oppression and proscription upon their timid brows, shut out from the high places of their antique worship, yet clinging, with the fond fidelity which acquires strength from persecution, to the beliefs and observances of their ancestors, and crowding with bursting hearts around that antique remnant of their lost glory to pray for its restoration.”63
In 1847 Viscount Castlereagh relates:
“We were shown the place to which the Jews repair, to mourn over their departed glories--to the west of the Mosque of Omar. To this spot on Fridays the Jews repair and sitting on the ruin, read the proud yet sorrowful history of their race. One corner is considered peculiarly sacred, as being nearest to the spot occupied by the Holy of Holies. Here they succeed each other in prayer.”64
In the following passage by Dr. Thomas, 1853, attention is called to the fact that a service taking place on Saturday is mentioned:
“It chanced that our visit was on Saturday, the Hebrew Sabbath. To me it was a most affecting sight to see two or three hundred Jews, men and women, assembled in an open space near these, the only relics of their ancient, venerated sanctuary, reciting or chanting from their sacred books in a low and plaintive tone, and with looks of abject sorrow. The open space previously referred to, is commonly known as the 'Jews' place of wailing.”65
63 “A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia and Palestine, in 1845-6,” by Mrs. Romer, London, 1846. Richard Bentley. Volume II, p. 237.
64”A Journey to Damascus” by Viscount Castlereagh, M. P. London, 1847. Volume II. pp. 121, 122.
65 “Travels in Egypt and Palestine,” by J. Thomas, M. D. Philadelphia, 1853. Lippincott, Grambo & Co. p. 89.
[51] James Finn,66 British Consul at Jerusalem from 1845-1863, has left remarkable memoirs in which occur the following interesting notes concerning the Western Wall: “I have experienced many acts of kindness from Jews in the Holy Land. Among other affecting tokens of gratitude, individuals have on several occasions resorted to the 'Western Wall' of the Temple to pray for my children, and also for myself, in times of sorrow and sickness. . . . The Jews are humiliated by the payment, through the Chief Rabbi, of pensions to Moslem local exactors, for instance the sum of £300 a year to the Effendi whose house adjoins the 'wailing place' or fragment of the Temple enclosure, for permission to pray there; £100 a year to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves on the Mount of Olives; £50 a year to the Ta'amra Arabs for not injuring the sepulchre of Rachel near Bethlehem, and about £10 a year to Sheikh Abu Gosh for not molesting their people on the high road to Jaffa, although he was highly paid by the Turkish Government as Warden of the Road. All these are mere exactions made upon their excessive timidity, which it is disgraceful to the Turkish Government to allow to be practised. The figures are copied from their public appeals occasionally made to the synagogues in Europe.”
In 1857, William C. Prime says: “The impression made on my mind by the scene here witnessed will never be effaced. Men, women, and children, of all ages, from young infants to patriarchs of fourscore and ten, crowded the pavement and pressed their throbbing foreheads against the beloved stones. There was no formality of grief there. We waited till the crowd had thinned away and only a dozen remained.”67
And in 1858 Mgr. Mislin tells us that: “They go to weep before this wall every Friday: that is why it is called The Place of Wailing. . . . The Jews visit this place not only on holidays, but almost daily: one can almost always find them there either prostrating themselves on the pavement, squatting and reading the psalms or the Lamentations of Jeremiah; the women kiss the
66 “Stirring Times or Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles, 1853-1856.” James Finn, London, C. Kegan Paul and Co. 1878. Vol. I page 130.
67 “Tent Life in the Holy Land,” by William C. Prime. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1857. pp. 137, 138.
[52] stories of the wall, and all kneel while repeating this sad cry: How long, O Lord?”68
The first known Guide-Book to Syria and Palestine, Murray's edition of 1858, says:
“The Place of Wailing: Passing round the house of Abu Sa'ud and winding through some narrow, crooked lanes, which it would be vain to attempt without a guide, we reach another most interesting section of the ancient wall--the Jews' Place of Wailing, There is here a quadrangular paved area between low houses and the Haram, from 40 to 50 yards north of Abu Sa'ud's house. Here the Jews have been permitted for many centuries to approach the precincts of the temple of their fathers, and bathe its hallowed stones with their tears. It is a touching scene that presents itself to the eye of the stranger in this spot each Friday. Jews of both sexes, of all ages and from every quarter of the earth, are there raising up a united cry of lamentation over a desolated and dishonoured sanctuary.”69
The Rev. Beaton who translated a book from the German of L. A. Frankl, includes the following account. (The Firman mentioned in this excerpt and referred to likewise by other writers has not been traced): “The Jews have a firman from the Sultan, which, in return for a very small tax, ensures them the right of entrance for all time to come. The road conducted us through several streets, till, entering a narrow, crooked lane, we reached the wall which has been often described. There can be no doubt but the lower part of it is a real memorial of the days of Solomon, which, in the language of Flavius Josephus, is 'immovable for all time.' Its Cylopic proportions produce the positive conviction, that it will last as long as the strong places of the earth.”70
The first edition of the well-known French guide-books, the Guides Joanne, published in 1861, contains on page 740, a plan of Jerusalem on which the Jews' Wailing Place is marked.
68 “Les Saints Lieux, Pelerinages à Jerusalem,” par Mgr. Mislin. (Abbe mitre de Sainte Marie de Deg en Hongrie, Camerier secret de sa Sainteté Pie IX, Chanoine de la Cathedrale de Grosswardein, Membre de plusieurs Academies.) Ed. Jacques Lecoffres et Cie, Paris. 1858. Volume II, p. 408.
69 “Murray's Handbook to Syria and Palestine.” John Murray, London, 1858. P. 121
70 “The Jews in the East,” by the Rev. P. Beaton, M. A. London. Hurst and Blacket, 1859. (from the German of L. A. Frankl) p. 12.
[53] Page 794 gives a long description of the place and a history of the usage. De Saulcy and Robinson are largely quoted, and the guidebook hint is added that “it is especially on Fridays that the Jews come in large numbers.”71
In the “Jewish Chronicle,” of London, May 2nd, 1862, is found the following interesting item (a similar account from a non-Jewish source may be found in a contemporaneous issue of the “Levant Herald” of Constantinople, June 10, 1862):
“THE PRINCE OF WALES AND THE JEWS OF JERUSALEM.
“Ten days after the arrival of the Prince in the Holy City he met by appointment at the Western Wall of the Temple the Chief Rabbi and others of the heads of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The Chief appeared in his full robes, and with the insignia of his office as Hacham Bashi, which, being an appointment by the Sultan, confers upon him great civil powers and authority. The Prince received the deputation in a most gracious manner, and after the ordinary formalities entered freely into conversation with the Chief Rabbi, of whom he enquired if he believed the massive wall by which they stood to be a portion of the great masterwork of King Solomon. The Chief Rabbi's explanatory remarks in answering this question in the affirmative evidently impressed the Prince, for he raised the covering from his head in token of the sincere veneration which he felt for the sacredness of the spot; and who can tell what associations of thought crowded in on him at that time, for he immediately requested the Chief Rabbi to offer up a prayer for his mother, the Queen of England. The Chief Rabbi then prayed aloud in Hebrew for the health of 'Queen Victoria,' and with great fervour, that she might long continue her reign, and with wisdom like unto that of Solomon. At the conclusion all the deputation ejaculated 'Amen, Amen.' The prayer being interpreted to the Prince, he was greatly moved, and even more so when the Chief Rabbi followed this prayer with an invocation to the King of Kings that the soul of the late Prince Consort might rest in peace in the realms of eternal bliss.”
Sir Moses Montefiore records in his Report to the Board of Deputies, 1866, after his trip to Palestine in that year: “The
71 “Itineraire de l'Orient,” Collection des Guides Joanne, by Adolphe Joanne and Emile Isambert. Paris, 1861.
[54] Governor (of Jerusalem, Izzet Pasha) during this visit kindly gave me permission to erect an awning for the 'wailing place' near the western wall of the Temple, so as to afford shelter and protection from rain and heat to pious persons visiting this sacred spot.”72
While not entirely relevant nor new in this narrative the following quotation is interesting as coming from the pen of Col. Sir Charles Warren, then Lieutenant Warren in charge of the excavations at Jerusalem from 1867-1870, under the patronage of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The first expedition of this society was made under Colonel Sir Chas. Wilson, then Captain Wilson, and was in the nature of a reconnaissance of Western Palestine. In consequence of this the Survey of Western Palestine was undertaken under the direction of Lieutenant Conder and Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake. On the death of Mr. Drake in 1874, his place was taken by Lieutenant H. H. Kitchener (Lord Kitchener).
73“Since the destruction of the Temple by Titus, the Jews have been in the habit of collecting together to mourn over the lost glories of their ancient city and House of God, and for a long time were permitted, once a year, to enter the Temple Enclosure, and approach the 'lapis pertusus,' anoint it, and there make lamentations, with groans, and rend their garments, and so retire. We have evidence that this stone in the fourth century was not far from the statues of Hadrian; that is to say, close to, if not identical with, the present sacred rock of the Moslems, over which they have built their grand Oratory, 'the Dome,' to cover this sacred morsel of Paradise.
“Some time after the fourth century, the Jews were turned out of the Temple Enclosure, and only allowed to approach its walls, and there lament; but where they did this at first, we have no evidence; probably not at the present Wailing Place, for there we find signs of vaulted chambers having once been built against the wall, and it was probably not until these chambers fell, or had been pulled down, that the mourners were here able to congregate.
“A few years ago, this Wailing Place was of greater length than at present, but a portion of its northern end has been taken
72 “Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore.” Edited by L. Loewe. London. Griffith, Farran, Okden and Welsh. 1890. Volume II, p. 177.
73 “Underground Jerusalem,” by Charles Warren, London. Richard Bentley & Son. 1876. pp. 366-368.
[55] into the grounds of the Council House. At present, the portion that remains free and open to the Jews is the west wall of the Temple Court, reaching for about one hundred feet to north from the Prophets' Gateway. Here at the modern level (seventy-four feet above the ancient foot of the wall, which was once exposed to view) is a stone-paved court, in which the Jews assemble on the afternoon of Friday, to read the Book of Lamentations, and rock themselves, and shake their bones in their anguish, for they still follow in this the practice of their forefathers.
“Above this pavement, rises fifteen feet more of this old wall, built by King Solomon, in which four courses of drafted stones are visible; many of them are very much worn, and the people in prayer thrust their hands into the interstices, and also push as far into the crevices as they can, prayers they have written to God, thinking that they will be carried from thence up to heaven. If afterwards they come and find these paper scraps gone, they think their prayers will be answered. On one occasion, I met a Frank diligently (when no Jews were by) collecting as many of these letters as he could, to send home as curiosities; such documents, I think, ought to have been looked upon as worthy of remaining in their places.
“It is a most remarkable sight; these people all thronging the pavement, and wailing so intensely, that often the tears roll down their faces. It was also a great rendezvous for Frank visitors, who walked about laughing and making remarks, as though it were all a farce, instead of realizing that it is, perhaps, one of the most solemn gatherings left to the Jewish Church.
“This length of old wall is covered up to north by the Council House, where the Cadi or Judge tries the several cases brought before him. On this very spot the Council House existed in the time of Josephus, when the first wall of the city joined on to the western cloisters of the Temple. This house occupies a piece of ground immediately adjoining the Temple, so as to quite obscure its wall from view, and north of it is the great causeway running across the valley, and forming part of the first wall, over which runs the street (now called David Street) from the Jaffa Gate into the Temple. It was to unravel the mystery of this causeway that we had undertaken the work here; all then known was that the street was raised across the valley, and that, adjacent to the Council House, it was connected with the Temple by a great arch (first suggested as a bridge, by Dr. Titus [56] Tobler, and confirmed as such by Major Wilson), now called Wilson's Arch.”
The following telegram quoted in the Diary of Sir Moses Montefiore and the letter of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem concerning the prayers said in behalf of the recovery of the Prince of Wales, while dealing with other subjects, show very plainly the attitude of the Chief Rabbinate of that time toward the Western Wall.74
December 10th, (1871): “There has been for nearly a week past but one topic of conversation, the illness of his Highness the Prince of Wales, and upon every face there is written a look of concern and sorrow, as the illness of the Prince has gone to the heart of everyone.” Sir Moses sent a telegram to the Haham Bashi at Jerusalem, to have prayers offered up in all the synagogues there, and in the holy cities of Hebron, Tiberias and Safed, for his recovery and for the health and happiness of the Queen, and all the other members of the Royal family. “I hope,” he writes in his Diary, “this will be done to-night in all parts of the Holy Land, and may the God of Israel hearken to their prayers, Amen, Amen.”
To this telegram he received the following reply:
“'My help cometh from the Lord, who made Heaven and earth. Seek the peace of the City, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.' Jerusalem, 2nd day of Tebet 5632 (December 18th, 1871).
“May peaceful salutations, like the dew of Heaven, descend on Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart., the zealous promoter of peace. Amen.
“We beg to inform you that your telegram, dated the 28th of Kislev (Sunday, 10th December), reached us just about the time for the afternoon prayers. We immediately made its contents known to our brethren belonging to the several Ashkenazim congregations in the Holy City, and dispatched special messengers to the Sephardim and Ashkenazim congregations dwelling in the Holy Cities of Hebron, Tiberias and Safed. We then, conjointly with our learned and pious colleagues, assembled in the Great Synagogue, gave orders to light up the candelabra in all the Synagogues in the Holy City, opened the portals of the
74 “Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore.” Edited by L. Loewe. London: Griffith, Farran, Okden & Welsh. 1890. Volume II. p. 242.
[57] Holy Ark, and offered up a most fervent prayer for the speedy and perfect recovery of His Royal Highness Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, invoking the Holy One (blessed be His name!) to make him live, to grant him health, to strengthen him, and to renew his youth. We also sent a congregation of pious and learned men to pray the whole night at the tomb of our Mother Rachel (may her merit protect us) while, at the same time, we ordered a congregation of equally pious and learned men to call upon our God at the western wall of the ancient Temple, from which spot, we are told by our ancestors, the Divine Glory never departed. And when we had concluded our heartfelt prayers for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, we implored God to cause His blessings to descend on her Majesty, the mighty and most virtuous Queen Victoria (may her glory be exalted), on Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, and on every member of the Royal family. Oh! that our prayers may have been favourably received in heaven, and that we may yet hear the good tidings that the Lord hath strengthened the Prince of Wales upon his bed of sickness, and has completely restored him to health. With sincere wishes for your own lasting happiness, crowned by the blessing of peace, we remain, esteemed Sir Moses, yours faithfully,
Abraham Askenasi, Haham Bashi.”
The well-known French editor and archaeologist, Vicomte Eugene Melchior de Vogue,75 writes in a diary of his trip to Palestine:
“Jerusalem, December 20, 1872: I had a new experience to-day when I went to see the Jews weep at the wall of the Temple, a curious sight which Jerusalem offers to tourists every Friday. The beautiful engraving of M. Beda has familiarized us with it.
“The wall of the Haram enclosure, facing west, inside the city, and near the bridge of the Maccabees, has been preserved, up to a great height, just as it was in the remote era when Israel peacefully held the city of David: it is coursed with huge blocks, worn and old. This monumental remain, tradition assigns with the greatest likelihood of truth to King Solomon. A narrow passage lies between this wall and the modern hovels; the Jews, whose entrance to the sacred area is strictly forbidden, have bought from
75 “Journèes de Voyage en Syrie,” par Eugene Melchior de Vogue. 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' 1875. Volume 2, pp. 538, 539.
[58] the Turks, in consideration of a sum paid down, the right to come and weep there by the ruins of their ancestral monument. The tradition is old among them and dates from the dispersion of Titus.
“The Romans, the Persians, the Crusaders, the Moslems have each in their turn levied a heavy tribute on this national piety.
“Saint Jerome bears witness to the antiquity of the custom in one of his letters. 'There you see this sad race come up to weep on the ruins of their temple,' he writes.
“At the foot of the huge wall a compact crowd, whose heads hardly touch the top of the first course of stones, press in and cover the holy stones with kisses, caresses and tears. Several hundred of them grasp the wall with crooked fingers, head and body sway in the rhythm of oriental prayer, they sing with shrill voices the lamentations of the prophets or Yiddish hymns.”
The infallible Baedeker testifies to the custom: “This spot should be visited repeatedly, especially on a Friday after 4 p.m., or on Jewish festivals, when a touching scene is presented by the figures leaning against the weather-beaten wall, kissing the stones, and weeping. The men often sit here for hours, reading their well-thumbed Hebrew prayer-books.”76
So vivid a description is given by M. Philippe Berger, well-known French archaeologist and savant, that we quote at least one paragraph:
“Saturday, April 7, 1894. In the broad sunshine we followed little unpaved lanes hemmed in by wretched hovels. As we went on we met men and women dressed in a sort of big white shroud, who were taking the same road as we were. The crowd became more and more dense; walking side by side jostling one another. At last at the corner of a little alley jammed with people we came to the wall of the Jews. Beda's beautiful engraving of the Jews weeping at the wall of 'Sion' gives an impression of size which the reality lacks. You expect to see a huge wall reminiscent of Herod and Solomon, with the sky and countryside as a horizon. Instead you are in a narrow passage so crowded with people that you must use your elbows to get through. There is a procession to-day, it is the first of Nisan, and it is hardly possible to pass. Some children led by a cantor sing with extraordinary energy. The Jewish women are in white, the men dressed in robes of
76 “ Palestine and Syria,” Handbook for Travellers. Edited by K. Baedeker. Leipzig. 1894. p. 58.
[59] purple or blue velvet, fur hats on their heads, long beards, their curls of hair combed in front of their ears hang on their temples, in their hands are old worn Bibles bound in black.”77
From the work of Margaret Thomas the following extracts are of interest:78 . . .”spending the afternoon in one of the most remarkable scenes in the world, the Wailing-Place of the Jews at the wall of their ancient temple. It should be seen on Friday to be seen at its best. . . . Leaning tenderly against these stones, may be seen sometimes as many as two hundred Jews, reading, praying aloud, and weeping, men in one group and women in another.
“On one occasion I came here and found some Jews wearing talliths richly embroidered with silver, praying.”79
We direct particular attention to an account given by Mr. Herbert Rix, published in 1907,80 in which he expressly states that there was a canvas screen separating the men from the women (the illustration mentioned in the text is included in this memorandum): “It was about half-past three, too early for the Friday liturgy, which is not read until four, but a number of Jews, young men and white-headed fathers, were already gathered together, and were praying, or reading their psalters, or kissing the great stones of the Temple wall. Some of the more poverty-stricken of them, I am bound to confess, left their prayers upon sight of us, and besieged us with requests for bakhshish; but, for the most part, the worship was devout, and the tears and lamentations apparently genuine. The men were variously habited, some in semi-European, others in Oriental dress; some in cloth coats, others in long cotton gowns; some wore the tarbush, others fur caps, and yet others the bowler-hat, which so many of the Jews affect (Fig. 58).
“On the other side of a canvas screen, which divided the
77 “Notes de Voyage” by Philippe Berger. Paris, 1895. pp. 95. 96.
78 “Two Years in Palestine and Syria” by Margaret Thomas, London. John C. Nimmo, New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1900. pp. 160-163.
79 The wearing of the tallith seems to indicate a formal service, probably a morning service.
80 “Tent and Testament.” A Camping Tour in Palestine with some notes on Scripture Sites, by Herbert Rix, B.A. Charles Scribner's Sons, London. Williams and Norgate; 1907. pp. 217-218.
[60] little courtyard into two, were the women, standing against the sunlit wall of the Temple, or sitting in the shade with their books.”
Robert Hichens, in his book on the Holy Land81 gives the customary description, adding, however, that: “In the alley are wooden benches. The Jews, both men and women, go there not only on Fridays, but on all the days of the week.”
Sir Frederick Treves, great English surgeon, soldier and traveller, devotes an entire chapter to the Wall, from which we quote: “The most living thing in Jerusalem is the spectacle provided at the Jews' Wailing Place, just outside the Temple Area, on certain days of the week. It is a spectacle dramatic and affecting.”82
Although published in 1919, the work of Alfred Forder was written before the war. A Foreword states that the Rev. Forder, who lived in Jerusalem for many years, was interned at Damascus during the War, and that the pages of this book were in type when the British troops entered Damascus and found him ill in hospital there:
“Another of the sights of Inner Jerusalem is that part of the outer wall of the Temple Area to which the Jews resort to lament the state of their nation, and the overrunning of their beloved city by the Gentiles. This place has so often been written about, that it seems superfluous to describe it here. Suffice to say that whereas it was only on Fridays that the Jews in any number went there, since the massacres in Russia and elsewhere the Hebrews have gone every day to the Wailing Place to implore God to have mercy on their brethren.
“An old Rabbi informed the writer that on and off for eight hundred years the Jews had resorted to this place to weep, also that the Government called for no recompense for allowing them to do this; on the other hand, if any help or protection was needed at feast times or on unusual occasions it was always readily granted.”83
81 “The Holy Land,” by Robert Hichens. New York. The Century Co. 1910. p. 234.
82 “The Land That is Desolate,” by Sir Frederick Treves. London, 1912. Page 113.
83 “In and About Palestine,” by Alfred Forder. London, 1919. (written before the war). Page 24.
[61] The Reverend O. H. Parry84 mentions the fact that on festival eves lamps are placed in the crevices between the stones of the wall.
Sir Wilfred Grenfell,85 the great explorer, gives the statement: “The Jews' Wailing Place is rather pathetic--symbolic of a nation without a home, or rather in sight of its home but not allowed to enter.”
The reference in the most recently published guide book to Palestine, (Cook's) by Roy Elston, and revised by Luke and Garstang,86 is quoted in full though it contains the curious bit of misinformation that the custom of wailing at the Wall was suspended until Sir Moses Montefiore received permission for its resumption. In a rather extensive search for material no evidence has been found for this, and in fact its falsity is proved by many of the preceding references. As a matter of fact, on the occasion of his first visit in 1839, he specifically records that “we proceeded to the Western Wall and there recited the usual prayers in the presence of a large assembly.” (Diaries, I. 181).
“Jews' Wailing Place. We reach the Jews' Wailing Place (Hebrew, Kauthal Ma'arbe) by following, for a few moments, a narrow crooked lane to the north, and then turning right. On the west side there is a low wall, and on the east is the celebrated section of the wall of the Temple. It is composed of enormous blocks of limestone, fifteen feet long and from three to four feet high; five or six courses of this masonry at the bottom bear smaller stones higher up; among these lowest courses there is one huge block (on the north), sixteen-and-a-half feet long and thirteen feet wide. The later masonry is Roman, with Arab work above. The whole of this celebrated wall is fifty-two yards in length and fifty-nine feet in height. From an early date it was to the Jews a pathetic symbol of their downfall, and hither they have come for centuries to bewail the misfortunes of their race.
84 “The Pilgrim in Jerusalem,” by the Rev O. H. Parry, M.A. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. New York. 1920. pp. 26-27-28.
85 “Labrador Looks at the Orient,” by Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell. Boston, 1928. Houghton Mifflin Co. Page 76.
86 Cook's Handbook for Palestine and Syria, by Roy Elston, revised by Harry Charles Luke. Simpkin Marshall, Ltd. London. 1929. With an Appendix on the historical interest of the sites and monuments of Palestine by Professor J. Garstang. Page 134.
[62] In modern times the custom was suspended until Sir Moses Montefiore secured from the Sultan permission for its resumption. The Jews now gather at this wall from three to five o'clock on every Friday afternoon. Jerome makes a touching allusion to the remnant of mourners who, in his day, bribed the Roman soldiers so that they might go unhindered and weep over the ruins of the Holy City.”
Similar statements of the custom of prayer and lamentation at the Western Wall are given in the following works:
“Wanderings in the Land of Israel in 1850 and 1851,” by the Rev. John Anderson, Glasgow, p. 126.
“The Old World, Palestine,” by J. R. Freese, 1867. Trenton, N. J., p. 80.
“The Teacher's Guide to Palestine,” by Henry S. Osborn, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 80.
“That Goodly Mountain and Lebanon, being a narrative of a ride in the month of August, 1872,” by Thomas Jenner, London, 1874, p. 70.
“Voyage en Terre Sainte,” by M. L'Abbe S. M. Ernard-Montreal, 1884, p. 25, picture of Jews at Wailing Wall, p. 88.
"Among the Holy Places,” Rev. James Kean, 2nd edition, London, 1892, p. 36.
“Jerusalem et Les Sanctuaires de la Judée” by Augustin Alboury, Paris, Firmin Didot, 1894.
“Jerusalem,” by Pierre Loti (1894-1895) translated by W. P. Baines, Philadelphia, pp. 115-119.
“To Jerusalem in 1894,” by Madame Hyacinthe Loyson, Chicago, 1905.
“Palestine the Holy Land,” by John Fulton, D.D., L.L.D., Philadelphia, 1900, picture of Wailing Place, pp. 479, 480.
“The Desert and the Sown,” by Gertrude Bell, London, 1900. (Page 17 has a picture of “The Wall of Lamentation,” showing about 75 people at the Wall).
“A Winter Pilgrimage,” (1900) by H. Rider Haggard, London, 1904. (Page 361 describes the scene at the Wailing Wall and mentions that in addition to the worshippers there were also tourists, “some seated on boxes or rough benches.”)
The customary account is found in “Black's Guide Books, Jerusalem,” by E. A. Reynolds-Ball, London, Adam and Charles Black, 1901, pp. 89-90.
[63] “A Journalist in the Holy Land. Glimpses of Egypt and Palestine,” by Arthur E. Copping. Fleming H. Revell Company, 1912: Jerusalem, p. 224:87
THE BURAK LEGEND.
All of the legends and traditions with regard to the Burak are identified with various gates and places on the inside of the Temple area or Haram and not at the Wall.
Your honorable Commission may think that it would be our part simply to establish the claim that the Wall is a Holy Place to the Jews and that they have the immemorial usage
87 The following list, whilst far from being exhaustive, offers a further selection of references:
Reise in das Morgenland in den Jahren 1836 und 1837,' Erlangen 1839 von Dr. Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert pp. 583-584.
Jerusalem. Bilder aus dem Orient, von Stephan Braun. Freiburg 1865. pp. 233-234.
Durch's Heilige Land, Tagebuchblaetter von Prof. Dr. C.v. Orelli, Brussel. 1879 pp. 125-156.
Extract from Wolfs Journal, published in the “Jewish Expositor and Friend of Israel” Vol. IX-1824. pp. 293-294.
The Land and the Book, by W. E. Thomson, D.D. New York 1859 pp. 587-580.
Pilgerbriefe aus dem Heiligen Lande, von Dr. Anton Kershbaum Wien. 1863 pp. 329-330.
Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement for 1879. Transference of sites: Page 19.
Orientalische Tageblaetter, von Sophie Christ, Mainz 1888 p. 121.
Eine Orientreise. Tagebuchblaetter eines Ausfluges, von August Minich. Wien 1891, p. 40.
Palaestina oder historisch geographische Beschreibung des Juedischen Landes zur Zeit Jesu, von Dr. Johann Friedrich Roehr Leipzig 1845. p. 176.
Meine Reise nach Palaestina, von Abraham von Noroff. aus dem Russischen von A. Zenker Leipzig 1862. pp. 214.
Das Heilige Land und die heiligen Staetten von Dr. Ferdinand Jaenner, New York 1869. pp. 267.
Gedenkbuch einer Pilger-Reise nach dem Heiligen Land, München 1867 von Petter Schagg. pp. 291-292.
Aus dem heiligen Lande. Von Constantin Tischendorff, Leipzig 1862. pp. 248.
To-day in Syria and Palestine by William Elroy Curtiss, London, 1903. pp. 392-394.
[64] to worship, and to leave it to whoever decides to state the contrary that it is a place holy to Islam, and that after these two presentations were made the issue should be joined and argued. But this would leave the matter in a false form and one which would require the listening to much testimony and argument and cause great difficulty in reaching a just and final decision.
We, therefore, have been at pains, in view of the recent claims that this Wall is called Al-Burak, to gather quite objectively, and to a very considerable extent from Moslem sources, the facts of the case, which we beg to present herewith.
In the seventeenth Sura of the Koran reference is made as follows:
“Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the sacred mosque to the remote mosque of which we have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”
We are furnishing you this translation not from any Jewish or Christian source, but from a translation made by a Moslem. A photograph of the title page and of this Sura are to be found in this memorandum. It will be noticed in the first place that there is no reference whatsoever to an animal called the Burak.
The Burak appears later in what is called the Hadith or tradition collected by Bukharia (810-870). Naturally, all religious codes, like civil codes, have their oral interpretation or traditions. We are not suggesting that the fact that it is tradition invalidates it as a correct tradition; but what we would point out is that in this very Hadith it is doubted that this journey was an actual fact and it is recorded simply as a vision. A succinct statement of the attitude of Islam as to the sanctity of the Wall or to its being called the sacred Burak up to within the last few years can be indicated by the fact that the Wall has never been used by Moslems for religious services or for pilgrimage, that the lane in front of it has always been dirty, that the passages in Arabic literature early or late do not apply the term Burak to the Wall, and that up to the past few years no claim was ever set up as to its sacredness on account of the Burak. Even in the official guide to the Haram published by the Supreme Moslem Council in 1924, no reference is made to the Wall as a Holy Place.
The following is a typical narration of the journey as given by Ibn Hisham (died 834) in his Life of Mohammed in the name of Al-Hasan (born 642):
[65] “The prophet of God said: While I was sleeping within the wall of the Kaaba, came to me Gabriel and kicked me with his foot, so I sat up, but, not seeing anything, I lay again on my bed. He kicked me then once more, and I sat up and did not see a thing, so I lay back on my bed. He then kicked me a third time and I sat up, whereupon he took me by the arm and I rose, and we went to the door of the temple. There was standing a white beast, between a mule and an ass (in size), with two wings on its thighs, digging its hind legs in and placing its fore legs as far as it can see. Gabriel carried me on the beast, and we went together at the same speed.” Al-Hasan continues the story:
“So the prophet of God journeyed, and with him also Gabriel, until they reached the temple in Jerusalem. He found there Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, among other prophets, and he led them in prayers. Then he was given two vessels, one filled with wine and the other with milk, so the prophet of God took the vessel with milk and drank it, leaving the vessel of wine. Seeing that, Gabriel said to him: 'You were guided to the true religion (Isla'm) and so was your nation, for wine is forbidden unto you.' Then the prophet of God departed to Mecca.”
The nature of this ascension is described by Mr. Maulvi Muhammad Ali of Lahore in the following terms:88
“Most commentators agree that the reference here is to the vision of Ascension, which gave the Holy Prophet promises of great success after his flight, because so the vision of Ascension to heaven is to be interpreted. There has been a difference of opinion among the learned as to whether the Holy Prophet's ascension was bodily or spiritual; the majority adhere to the first view, but among those who hold the latter view there are personages of sound opinion, such as 'Ayeshah and Mu'aviah. In view of the plain words of the Qur-a'n, however, which refer to the ascension as being 'the vision which We showed you,' the opinion of the majority must be rejected. The Qur-a'n on several occasion mentions even visions without describing them as visions. But when it is plainly called a vision, not the least reason exists to question its nature. The sayings of the Holy Prophet do not
88 The Holy Qur-a'n, Containing the Arabic Text with English Translation and Commentary. By Maulvi Muhammed Ali, M.A. LL.B. President Ahmadiah Anjaman-I-Ishaet-I-Islam, Lahore, India. The “Islamic Review” Office, Woking, Surrey, England. 1917. p. 572, note 1441.
[66] indeed, say whether it was a vision or not; circumstances related clearly show it to be a vision. Thus in a report received through Sharik, it is stated that the angel came to him: 'On another night when his heart saw (things) and his eyes slept but his heart did not sleep,' and the concluding words of this report are: 'And he awoke and he was in the Sacred Mosque (Bukhari, kitab ul Tauhid).' In another report the words describing the condition in which he was at the time of ascension are: 'Whilst I was in a state between that of one sleeping and one awake.' In fact, it is quite true that he was not asleep; he was in a vision though not in a dream, but at the same time it was not a corporeal ascension. He was actually carried to the Holy Presence, and he was shown great wonders, but it was in spirit that he was carried, and it was with the spiritual eye that he saw those wonders, not in body and with the physical eye, for things spiritual can only be seen with the spiritual eye. And this vision had an important significance. He saw it at a time when his condition was, to human seeming, one of utmost helplessness, and he was shown that a great future lay before him. His opponents, as usual, disbelieved in such visions, and laughed at them.”
To further indicate the varying statements of Moslem writers over a period of more than five centuries concerning the supposed place of the entering and tethering of the Burak, there are presented herewith extracts from Moslem writers gathered together and translated from the Arabic by Guy le Strange:89
Ibn al Fakih's description written in 903 says: “The place of the tieing up of (the steed) Al Burak is in the angle of the Southern minaret.”
Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's notice written in 913:90 “Of Holy Place of the Prophets in Jerusalem are the following: Under the corner of the (Aksa) Mosque is the spot where the Prophet tied up this steed Al Burak.”
“Mukaddasi's 91 (985) Bab Hittah (Gate of Remission) is the Bab al Hittah of Nasir, described as 'excavated in the ground.' Ibn al Fakih and Ibn 'Abd Rabbih both mention this Bab Hittah. After the Crusaders, however, it appears to have changed its name, and the old Bab Hittah can only be identified with the
89 “Palestine Under the Moslems” by Guy le Strange. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1890. pp. 161, 2.
90 ibid. p. 162, 3.
91 ibid. p. 181. See M on plan.
[67] present Bab al Burak, or Bab an Nabi Muhammad (often called 'Barclay's Gate'), which lies half underground, and which may now be entered beneath the modern Bab al Magharibah.”
Nasr-i-Khusrau's account written in 1057, says:92
“And again on the platform, is another Dome, that surmounts four marble columns. This too, on the Kiblah side, is walled in, forming a fine Mihrab. It is called Kubbat Jibrail (the Dome of Gabriel); and there are no carpets spread here, for its floor is formed by the live rock, that has been here made smooth. They say that on the night of the Miraj (the Ascent into Heaven) the steed Burak was tied up at this spot, until the Prophet--peace and benediction be upon him!--was ready to mount.
“One such as these is called Bab an Nabi93 (or the Gate of the Prophet)--peace and blessing be upon him!--which opens towards the Kiblah point--that is, towards the south. (The passage-way of this gate) is 10 ells broad, and the height varies by reason of the steps. In one place it is 5 ells high, and in others the roof of the passage-way is 20 ells above you. Over this passage-way has been erected the main building of the (Aksa) Mosque; for the masonry is so solidly laid, that they have been able to raise the enormous building that is seen here without any damage arising to what is below. They have made use of stones of such a size, that the mind cannot conceive how, by human power, they were carried up and set in place. It is said, however, that the building was accomplished by Solomon, the son of David--peace be upon him! The Prophet--peace and blessing be upon him!--on the night of his ascent into heaven, passed into the Noble Sanctuary through this passage-way, for the gateway opens on the road from Makkah.”
And in 1052 he writes:94
“Now regarding the stairways that lead up on to the platform from the court of the Noble Sanctuary, these are six in number each with its own name. On the side (south) towards the Kiblah, there are two flights of steps that go up to the platform. As you stand by the middle of the retaining wall of the platform (facing south) there is one flight to the right hand and another to the left. That lying on the right is called Makam an Nabi (the Prophet's Station)--peace be upon him--and that
92 ibid. p. 155. See P on plan
93 ibid. pp. 178, 179. See K on plan.
94 ibid. p. 158. See Q on plan.
[68] lying on the left is called Makam Ghuri (or the station of Ghuri). The stairway to the Prophet's Station is so called because on the night of his ascent, the prophet--upon him be peace and blessing--went up to the platform thereby, going thence to the Dome of the Rock. And the road hither from the Hijaz comes by this stair.”
Shams ad Din Suyuti writes about 1470:95
“Bab an Nadhir (the Gate of the Inspector) is a gate that is said never to have been restored. Anciently it was called Bab Mikail (the gate of Michael); and according to report, it is the gate to which Gabriel tied the steed Al Burak on the occasion of the Night Journey.”
Mujir ad Din (1496) notes as follows:96 “In the Eastern Wall of the Haram Area, to the south of the Gates of Mercy and Repentance, is a fine Gate now closed with masonry. It lies opposite the steps leading down from the Platform (of the Dome of the Rock) called Daraj (the Steps of) al Burak. Some say this was the Gate al Burak by which the Prophet entered on the occasion of his Night Journey. It was also formerly called Bab al Janaiz (the Gate of the Funerals), for the funerals went out by it in ancient times.”
SUMMARY
The statements above given from diverse sources covering over seventeen centuries make certain points quite clear:
(1) That throughout the ages and under all conditions the Jews regarded the site of the destroyed Temple as a Holy Place, and that whenever opportunity offered they gathered in its neighborhood for prayers and lamentation.
(2) That these were actual gatherings for definite and formal services as well as devotional prayers of individuals.
(3) That as early as the 3rd century in literature and as early as the 10th century in definite reports of travellers it appears that of whatever remained of the Temple, the Western Wall, regarded in tradition and accepted by archaeologists as of Solomonic origin, was the particular Holy Place before which the Jews congregated; that aside from any other services which may have been held on Friday night, on the New Moon, on the 9th of Ab, and
95 ibid. p. 187. See E on modern plan.
96 ibid. p. 183. See H or L on modern plan.
[69] in later years more frequently, there has been in existence since 160197 a printed form of prayers to be used before the Western Wall, a book of more than forty pages published at different times and in various countries indicating that the Wall was a place of pilgrimage for Jews outside the Holy Land as well as for the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine, who resorted to the Wall with a regular order of prayers.
(4) As the Jews in the Holy Land increased, the practice began of having regular daily services at the Wall with various religious appurtenances. And since these services were long, occupying from several hours to the entire day, depending upon the occasion, stones or chairs or benches were brought there from time to time for the convenience of the aged and sometimes a tent or awning spread to protect them from the sun.
(5) As among all orthodox Jews there is a separation of men and women at religious services, the women used to stand huddled in one corner of the alley way and the men distributed themselves along the rest. When these services became long a small screen or flat form of separation was set up to satisfy ritual requirements. Testimony is given from various authoritative sources for this practice, and in addition illustrations furnished from Palestine itself. The practice of separating the sexes at religious worship should not be viewed unsympathetically by the Moslems, as it is also their own practice.
(6) It ought be said that from the time of the Moslem conquest of Jerusalem and the building of the Mosques on the Temple Area, with only slight interruptions, no objection was made by the Moslem community to prayer before the Wall, although the usage was made the occasion of exactions of money by various authorized and unauthorized persons. No effort was made to keep the alley clean or the pavement in repair; in fact the Moslem attitude was one of tolerant neglect and indifference.
For more recent events we respectfully refer your Special Commission to the “Report of the Commission on the Palestine Disturbances of August, 1929,” presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament, March, 1930. A single sentence from this report bears upon the question under discussion: “It is our view that the Burak campaign--the term by which for convenience the activities of the several Moslem Societies have been described--had at its origin two objectives.
97 See p. 36, Comment, line 4.
[70] In part it was prompted by the desire to cause annoyance to the Jews; in part it was intended to mobilize Arab opinion in favour of the Moslem claims in connection with the Wailing Wall and its environs. The performance of the Zikr ceremony and the calling by the muezzin in the neighbourhood of the Wailing Wall were primarily designed to annoy the Jews. From this origin the campaign developed into something more serious.”
At the meeting of the Permanent Mandates Commission held October 26, 1928, His Majesty's Government presented to the Commission certain comments on the memorial presented by the Zionist Organization, dated October 12, 1928. In this document--and similar statements are scattered through many documents--the declaration is definitely made that “the Jewish Community have established a right of access to the pavement for the purpose of their devotions, but the Turkish authorities repeatedly ruled whenever protests were made by the Moslem authorities that they would not permit such departures from the established practice as the bringing of screens to the pavement.”
This statement is vague in the use of the term “Turkish authorities.” Upon the occasion in 1912 the decision on the part of the local Moslem religious authorities was against the Jews--the first and only time at which the issue had been definitely joined of which we have been able to attain record. But it should be noted that the decision was rendered by a local Moslem religious authority, and perfunctorily confirmed by the local governor. The Sultan of Turkey, as the Caliph of the Moslem world, was then the head of the Moslem Community throughout the world, and moreover at that time Palestine was within his domains. The appeal to him was never heard and hence the decision never rendered. So that it can hardly be said that the matter was decided by the Turkish authorities.*
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It may be observed that the supreme Turkish Authority in Palestine during the War, Ahmed Jamal Pasha, published in 1918 a book entitled “Alte Denkmäler aus Syrien, Palaestina und West-arabien,” which contains a picture of the Western Wall (Tafel 21) showing chairs and benches, with a suitable description.
It is also worth noting that the Turkish Military Mobilisation Authorities issued to the beadle of the Western Wall a certificate of release from Military Service during the War, in view of his public religious occupation.
[71] It seems quite safe to assert that from the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Moslems, and thus for thirteen centuries or more, no claim was set up that the open space in front of this wall, where the Jews pray, was a holy place to the Moslems.
As a matter of fact, such documents as could be examined indicated that the fear was that the placing of chairs and benches and screens might serve the purpose of giving the right of possession or acquisition.
That this fear was not always present and that the claim of property right over the alleyway was not so insistent as to render it an obligation to the Moslems to keep it in repair or not to use it for purposes of filth is indicated by the following:
PAVING OF ALLEY NEAR THE WAILING WALL.
(The following is a statement made by Mr. Joseph ben Akivah Goldschmit, an old resident of Jerusalem, known as Jossel Kires, and confirmed by him in substance in his evidence given before the Palestine Commission of Inquiry 1929):
“Formerly the Alley near the Wailing Wall was paved with thin tiles, red in colour and cracked. This was about 43-45 years ago; at that time they were repairing the sewerage. I was accustomed to pray at the Wailing Wall every Sabbath eve (Friday night). There were about 8 to 10 minyanim (80 to 100 persons), Sephardim and Ashkenazim. Once it rained hard and I went down to the Wailing Wall to pray. I saw that they were digging a large aqueduct along the full length of the Wailing Wall for installation of sewerage. The dirt that they dug up they would throw to the side of the Wall. I was very much provoked over this,--that they threw the dirt to the side of the Wall and not to the yard opposite it. Because of the rain there was no one at the Wall. I found nine persons, however, who were praying in the yard at the left, and I completed the Minyan [quorum required for prayer--Translator]. I roused Reb Zalman Nahum and Reb Itzhak Rokach to give the matter their attention. Reb Itzhak Rokach was on friendly terms with Salim Effendi, who was then Mayor of the Municipality, and indeed Reb Itzhak Rokach visited Salim Effendi (father of Muza Kazim) and he agreed to discontinue the digging in the Wailing Wall Alley and to repave the alley 'at the very earliest possible hour.' I was the person who bought the thick and plain tiles at Bethlehem and brought them. I was the shamash (sexton, beadle) of the public [72] burial society at the Vohlin Kolels, and used always to bring grave-stones from Bethlehem; hence this matter was also entrusted to me.”
In a pamphlet entitled “Shemesh Zedakah,” being the financial statement of the Supreme Committee of the Kolelim in Jerusalem for the year 5655 (1894-5), there is an entry for a sum of 10 napoleons for the repair of the Wailing Wall pavement. The amount in question is also recorded in the account books of this institution: the ledger, the journal, etc. The Vaad Haklali Knesseth Israel books, in which the payments are actually recorded, were produced before the Palestine Commission of Inquiry, 1929. While this is not introduced for the purpose of setting up any claim of property rights, we think it would be apparent even to a layman that the paying of the cost of paving a street, a permanent improvement, would be a much stronger claim than the temporary placing of portable articles like tables or chairs. It can be said unhesitatingly that no claim has ever been set up by any Jewish authority to any property right to the Wall. Both sides recognized, the one with indifference, the other with devoted zeal, that the Wall is a place holy to the Jews and that they might pray there even though the surroundings were unlovely. The claim that the Wall known as the Kotel Maaravi is the Burak and therefore of peculiar sanctity to the Moslems is a very late and, it may be feared, political development, as is indeed suggested by the Report of the Inquiry Commission which on pages 73, 74, and 82 speaks explicitly of the “Burak Campaign.”
There has been a good deal of discussion about a new building erected on the top of the Wall and this new building was allowed by the British Government on the ground that they had no right to interfere since the Wall, was the property of the Moslems; but it should be pointed out that the wall is a Holy Place, and a Holy Place cannot be called property in the ordinary and common sense. It cannot be demolished to make way for another construction, it cannot be sold; hence, even as property, it is subject to special restrictions. One of these might obviously be that nothing shall be taken away from it and nothing shall be added to it, and to this extent we feel that the decision of the Palestine Government was wrong and should be reversed by your Commission.
The White Paper of November, 1928, further says that:
“His Majesty's Government regard it as their duty, and it is [73] their intention, to maintain the established Jewish right of access to the pavement in front of the Wall for the purpose of their devotions and also their right to take to the Wall those appurtenances that they were allowed to take to the Wall under the Turkish regime. It would be inconsistent with their duty under the Mandate were they to endeavour to compel the Moslem owners of the pavement to accord any further privileges or rights to the Jewish community.”
While it is readily granted that it is not within the duty of the Mandatory to compel the Moslem owners to accord enlarged privileges, still if it should appear, as has happened on a number of occasions in the past ten years, that the privileges claimed by the Moslem owners make it virtually impossible to conduct orderly and decent devotion, then it is within the purview of the Special Commission appointed by the League of Nations to make such arrangements as will render possible the free exercise of worship which is the duty of the Mandatory under the Mandate.
From the same point of view, we are also of the opinion that the opening of the door, which has recently been allowed by the Government permitting access from the Haram to this small pavement, thus causing the probability of collisions, was an error, and that the door should be closed.
ACTION REQUESTED.
We now come to the requests that we shall make of your honourable body:--
That you give recognition to the immemorial claim that the Kotel Maaravi is a holy place to the Jews,--not only to the Jews who reside in Jerusalem or Palestine, but to the Jews of the entire world;
That they should have the right of access to it for devotions, and for prayers to be conducted in accordance with their ritual without interference or interruption;
That any necessary regulation of such devotions and prayers shall be entrusted to the Rabbinate of Palestine,* who shall assume the responsibility therefor, in the discharge of which responsibility they may consult the Rabbinate of the world.
The above requests, except that concerning the regulation of devotions and prayers, are based upon immemorial usage which has never been interfered with or questioned within some
____________________________________________________________________________________
- Who are now represented before your honourable body.
[74] thirteen hundred years, except during the recent political and racial excitement.
We should now like to come to the wider aspect of the subject. Great Britain as the Mandatory Power undertook all responsibility in connection with the Holy Places and religious sites in Palestine, including that of preserving existing rights and of securing free access to the Holy Places and sites, and the free exercise of worship, while ensuring the requirements of public order and decorum. In the White Paper of November, 1928, the British Government stated that they took the view that, as regards the Western Wall, “the matter is one in which they are bound to maintain the status quo,” and made no reference to their responsibility for “securing the free exercise of worship.”
The ascertaining of the existing rights presented certain inherent difficulties. A regular usage had been more or less established up to 1912-1913, when there was a controversy as to the bringing of chairs to the Wall. The older usage was re-established in the course of the next few years. Since 1922, there have been occasional disputes culminating in the incident of 1928, in regard to which it cannot be said that either the Jews or the Moslems or the British Government were really endeavouring to ascertain what the status quo had been over a sufficiently long period of years.
However, apart from the responsibility of the Mandatory as regards securing free exercise of worship in this Holy Place, the responsibility of preserving existing rights rested on the Mandatory until a Commission on the Holy Places had been set up, which would be entrusted with the final settlement of the rights and claims of the different religious communities in these places. Your honourable body is such a Commission as regards the Western Wall.
We would ask you, in the first place, to view this Wall as the most ancient of the sacred places in Jerusalem, and as one which would by its imposing character and its great history interest every civilized man. It would be natural that such a unique monument of antiquity, to put it only upon that plane, be so cared for and so placed that it could be approached by all with a feeling of reverence, and that its proportions and beauty might be seen. What do you behold? A narrow lane, 3.6 metres wide and 28 metres long, serving also as the entrance to a series of [75] alms-houses and hovels through which men, donkeys and sometimes even camels pass at any time of the day--such is the approach to an historic monument nearly 3,000 years old. Upon this ground in the first instance, we submit that your honourable body should request the Mandatory to see to it that the approaches to this Wall are decent and respectable, and that the site in front of the Wall itself should cease to be a thoroughfare such as it is now claimed to be. If such considerations apply with regard to any ancient monument, how much more are they applicable when the ancient monument is also a place of sacred resort to a whole people, which has seen almost all of its sacred places in its holy land handed over to others, and craves for the privilege of worship before this place in order, and in decency, and in respect, and without interruption, and without nuisance. For the claim laid before you is simply for the continuation under conditions of decency and decorum of a sacred custom which has been carried on by us for many centuries without infringement upon the religious rights of others.
And now we come to a suggestion, not a new one, but one made and considered more than once during the past hundred years. So long as the approach to the Western Wall is in a place less than four metres wide, and so long as that same approach is also the approach to a series of poor-houses and hovels, it is impossible to realise the condition recognised by the Palestine Government and by the Mandatory, that the services at the Wall be conducted . . . “in such a way as to satisfy normal liturgical requirements and decencies in matters of public worship.”
The proposal which we would renew before you, is that the properties now occupied by the Mughrabi Wakf should be vacated, and that the Wakf authorities should accept in place thereof new buildings upon some eligible site in Jerusalem, in order that the pious wish of Abu Median shall be carried out under the even more favourable conditions which modern buildings on a proper site could provide.
Your honourable body will observe that we are here not speaking of demands; we are not speaking of rights; we make no suggestions as to the legal form in which this proposal might be carried out. We trust, however, that if your honourable body accepts this proposal and places it before the Mandatory, with the goodwill of all concerned a solution may be found worthy of the religious and historical associations of this [76] Holy Place, and of the entire civilised world to which Jerusalem is and always will be a Sacred City.
We wish to state most explicitly that in this whole question we are not moved by any desire for aggrandisement. We reaffirm categorically that there is no intention upon our part to encroach in this way upon the Haram Esh-Sheriff. We are making a proposal in a religious spirit, which should be received by other men in a like religious spirit, and we are firmly convinced that with its acceptance, a long step will have been taken towards promoting good feeling between the Moslem and the Jews, and a firm foundation will have been laid for peace between the two communities.
PRINTED PRIVATELY AS MANUSCRIPT.
Attached please find a copy (copies) of the Corrigenda to the Memorandum on the Western Wall submitted to the
SPECIAL COMMISSION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
on behalf of the Rabbinate, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the Jewish Community of Palestine and Central Agudath Israel of Palestine, a copy (copies) of which Memorandum were sent to you.
CORRIGENDA
MAIN TEXT
Page 16, line 4: After “Midrash,” insert note 10a: Bacher: “Die Agada der Palestinensischen Amoraer” III, Strassburg, Karl J. Trübner. 1899, page 120, note 2, where there are more passages of the Midrash.”
Page 21, note 28: Should read: “Jerome, Commentary to Zephania, I. 15-16 Migne, Patrologie Latina, Vol. 25, column 1354, Paris, 1884.”
Page 23, note 22: Should read: “For original reference see Megillath ha-Megalleh. p. 99 Ed. A. Poznan-ski, J. Guttmann Berlin, 1924.”
Page 24, note 23: Should read: “Ed. J. Brill, 'Maimonides' Commentary on the Treatise of Rosh Hashanah' Paris 1865, page 1.”
Page 24: Insert note 23a: 'The Kotel Maaravi' by Isaac Ezekiel Yahudah, published in 'Zion' Vol. III. Reprinted with introduction, Jerusalem 1929 (in Hebrew) Citations are from the reprint, page 6.”
Page 29, note 30: Should read: “A. M. Luncz, Ha-Me'amer III. page 27 seq.”
Page 29, note 31 last line: Instead of “p. 750” read “p. 559.”
Page 30, note 33: Instead of “pp. 36-46” read “p. 37.”
Page 30, note 34: Should read: “Itineraires de la Terre Sainte, Traduits de l'Hebreu par E. Carmoly, Bruxelles, 1847. p. 237.
Page 31, note 35: Should read: “Ha-Me'amer” III p. 184, cf. 189 f.
Page 31, note 36: Should read: Carmoly p. 439; cf. “Ha-Me'amer” III p. 213.
Page 31, note 37: Should read: “'Jerusalem' Vol. V. p. 77.”
Page 32, note 39: Should read: “Second Edition, Eliezer Rivlin Jerusalem 1928. p. 8.”
Page 33, note 40: Should read: “Jonas Gurland, Neue Denkmaeler der Juedischen Literatur in St. Petersburg,” Lyck, 1865, p. 36.”
Page 34, line 25: After “Zohar,” instead of “8,” insert “part”
Page 34, note 41: Should read: “1 b. pp. 48-49.”
Page 35, note 45: After “Gedaliah of Sematizi” read as follows: “Berlin 1716. Reprinted in 'Reshu-mot' Vol. II page 477, 478. Tel-Aviv 1925.”
Page 39, line 13: After “Some” read “nearly.”
Page 39, line 18: After “Rabbi Meshil” insert “Gelbstein.”
Page 39, line 22: After “When he died” instead of “(1869)” insert “(1865).”
Page 39, note 53: Should read: “Yahudah p. 47.”
Page 40, note 54: Should read: 'Jerusalem,' Volume I. p. 30 f.
Page 41, line 1: After “And further,” insert note 54a: 'Jerusalem' I, p. 33.”
Page 41, line 7: After “Ezekiel Yahuda,” insert “note 54b: 'Yahuda,' pp. 49-50.”
Page 44, line 38: After “To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph:” Insert “Sept. 11, 1929.”
Page 46, line 23: After “of these are” insert “from French sources, but they are in the main . . .”
Page 47, note 60: Should be number 57a.
Page 47, line 9: After “He writes” insert “57a.”
Page 48, line 19: For “the 13th psalm” insert “the 137 psalm.”
Page 48, line 22: Insert before the paragraph beginning “Not a hundred yards” the word “Bartlett writes in 1842”
Page 49, line 11: For “hat” read “that.”
Page 51, line 8: After the word “sickness” insert “66a. ibid. page 118.”
Page 52, line 3: For “The first known” read “The well known.”
Page 52, line 9: Before “quadrangular” insert “small.”
Page 53, line 13: After “The Chief” insert “Rabbi.”
Page 70, line 1: For “promphed” read “prompted.”
COMMENT
Page 6, line 6 of note 2: Instead of “Rabbah 56:17”--“Rabbah 56:10”
On last line after “Vayerra” read “102.”
Page 7, line 10 of note 3: Instead of “14:9”--“14:8.”
Page 9, note 12: Should read: “Maimonides, Hilkhoth Beth Hab-Behirah. 6:15; 16.”
Page 15, note 20: After “24” insert “b.”
Page 16, note 24: Should read: “Genesis Rabba 81:3.”
Page 16, note 25: After “54” Insert “b.”
Page 16, note 26: Instead of “38b” read “35b.”
Page 17, note 29: Should read: “Mishna Berakhoth 9:5.”
Page 18, note 30: Instead of “4, 1.” read “4, 3 (54c).”
Page 20, line 5: After “because the Presence rests in the West” insert note “33.”
Page 20, note 33: Instead of “(17) 52.” read “5 (31).”
Page 20, note 34: Instead of “Bacher (266)” read “Buber, 266.”
Page 25, note 40: After “Zion, III” add “p. 54-87.”
Page 26, note 45: Should read: “Sukenik 'Zion' III, pp. 22-25. This article was also published in 'Journal of Palestine Oriental Society' 1929.”
Page 26, note 46: After “Hierosol” insert “Recueil d'Historiens des Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux, T. 554. Instead of “Roehricet” read “Roehricht.”
Page 28, note 48: After “Tachkemoni” insert “chap. 28.”
Page 31, note 51: After “Zion” add' III, p. 61, sq.”
Page 37, line 4: Instead of “1711” read “1771.”
JERUSALEM
PRINTED BY AZRIEL PRESS AND HAMADPIS LIPHSHITZ PRESS
JUNE 1930