Showing posts with label Kotel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kotel. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 26, 2023




Here is how the UN's OCHA described Rosh Hashanah in their biweekly Protection of Civilians report:
On 16 and 17 September, large groups of Israelis, including settlers, entered the Old City of Jerusalem during the Jewish New Year. Israeli authorities deployed police officers and restricted Palestinian movement in and out of the Old City, during which they physically assaulted and injured an elderly Palestinian man and arrested at least two others. On 17 September, Israeli forces restricted Palestinian access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing entry only to those over the age of 50 for the dawn prayers. That morning, about 400 Israelis, including settlers, accessed the compound accompanied by Israeli police, who evacuated Palestinian worshippers to secure the entry of Israelis.
Let's take this apart:

large groups of Israelis, including settlers, entered the Old City of Jerusalem during the Jewish New Year.

Why is this newsworthy to begin with? It is, only if you believe Jews have no right to visit the Old City including the Kotel. 

And why do they call out "settlers" specifically? What difference does that make - unless the purpose is to incite hate?

Israeli authorities deployed police officers and restricted Palestinian movement in and out of the Old City

Which is what one would expect on a national and religious holiday. What they don't mention is that numerous Palestinian groups threatened any Jews who wanted to celebrate the holiday and "desecrate Al Aqsa."

On 17 September, Israeli forces restricted Palestinian access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing entry only to those over the age of 50 for the dawn prayers.

Because terror organizations called on Palestinians to go to the area en masse to block any access by Jews.  For some reason, those threats aren't mentioned.

That morning, about 400 Israelis, including settlers, accessed the compound accompanied by Israeli police, who evacuated Palestinian worshippers to secure the entry of Israelis.

And how many Muslims were there that day? Thousands. 

Israel schedules the Jewish visitors for times outside Muslim prayer times. 

The entire subtext of the report is that Jews have no right to the Temple Mount, Jews have no right to visit the entire Old City, and Israeli attempts to protect Jewish civilians are framed as a means to harm Muslim civilians. 

Also, "Israelis" is apparently used as a euphemism for "Jews." 





Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Monday, September 11, 2023

Palestine Today published this poster warning about all the upcoming Jewish holidays and how Jews use them as excuses to defile Al Aqsa Mosque.

And when they say "Al Aqsa Mosque," it is obvious that they are referring to the Kotel (Western Wall) as part of it.


The photo is a Photoshop, showing the twin threats that Palestinians see: Zionists and religious Jews. 

The poster gives a description of how Jews supposedly celebrate their holidays, some of which are mysteries to me. They know some amazing things about Judaism.

Jewish holidays
An imminent danger that violates the sanctity of Al-Aqsa

Hebrew New Year's Day
From  September 15-17, includes major raids with the participation of occupation leaders, during which the trumpet is blown.

Yom Kippur
From September 24 - 25, it includes massive raids into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, during which bird sacrifices are offered.

Throne Festival
From September 30 to October 5, massive raids take place, plant sacrifices are made, and a canopy of palm trees is set up.

Eid Simchat Torah
On October 7, the Torah scrolls are brought into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa and circulated around them

Feast of Isru Hag
On October 8, its most prominent pillar was the dining table, which is a Talmudic ritual performed by settlers in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa.

The feast of Hosea, our Lord
On October 10, the settlers hold a Talmudic ritual in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa

The Feast of Prostration 
is on November 13, during which Al-Aqsa is stormed and Talmudic prayers are performed

Hanukkah
From 8 to 12 December, Al-Aqsa is stormed in large numbers, and lit by candles with huge candlesticks
Interestingly, they do not mention the tens of thousands of Jews who have gone to the Kotel every day this Hebrew month to say Selichot prayers.



It is clear that to Palestinian Muslims, a Jew worshiping at the Kotel is just as offensive as one worshiping on the Temple Mount. 



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

The American Jewish Yearbook for 1916 described several events about the Kotel that year, all of which were ascribed to Djemal Pasha, the military governor of Syria (which included Palestine) at that time.

JUNE 11 1915. Djemal Pasha examines reports of various Zionist congresses and other Zionist literature, and warns Jewish colonists that despite their success in the past the Government would in future make establishment of colonies more difficult.

JUNE 18 - Djemal Pasha prohibits Jews to pray at the Wailing Wall, because their prayers include plea for the re-establishment of Jewish State.

AUGUST 13. Djemal Pasha announces that the Government has become convinced of the necessity of destroying the entire Jewish colonization work in order that the colonies should not become a danger to the integrity of Turkey.

NOVEMBER 2. Jaffa Hebrew weekly, Hapoel Hazair, reports that Djemal Pasha, commander of Turkish Army, orders barricade to be placed across approach to Wailing Wall, thus preventing Jews from visiting it. Order said to be based on sanitary grounds.

MARCH 3 (1916) . Djemal Pasha offers to give Jews free access to Wailing Wall for from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand francs.
Pasha was a monster, killing Arab leaders right and left, and possibly involved in the Armenian genocide. But I hadn't heard abut restrictions at the Kotel in the 1910s, and notice that he gave different reasons to bar Jews - both because they always pray for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and then the bogus "sanitary reasons," before deciding to shake down the Jews to pay for the privilege of praying there.

I confirmed a couple of these incidents:

This December 1915 article adds that Pasha considered all Jews in Palestine to be spies, and his Turkish authorities stole charity funds intended for impoverished Jews:


Also December 1915:


March 1916 news articles in Jewish newspapers confirmed the desire to charge an exorbitant fee to visit the Kotel in Jerusalem:


100,000 French francs in 1916 was worth about $17,000 US dollars at the time - which is equivalent today to $470,000, a truly exorbitant amount. 

I don't see any indication that this was paid. I see photos of Jews at the Kotel in 1917 before the British took over. Either that particular story was a rumor,  Djemal Pasha didn't enforce it or somehow an amount was paid quietly.








Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Sunday, April 09, 2023

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement today saying that the holiest site in Judaism must never have Jews.

The Ministry condemned the "storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif." which it says "constitutes a violation of the historical and legal status quo existing in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and a violation of the sanctity of the holy places."

The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Sinan Al-Majali, stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of ​​144 dunums, is "a place of worship for Muslims only."

Majali added "the Israeli government bears responsibility for the escalation in Jerusalem and in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and for the deterioration that will worsen, if it does not stop these incursions into Al-Aqsa."

What are the boundaries of Al Aqsa? Well, they include the Kotel. The Jordanian government considers the Kotel to be a part of Al Aqsa Mosque, and therefore they are saying that Jews have no right to be there, either, except perhaps for very limited times that the Ottoman Empire allowed Jews to visit since 1852, which they consider the beginning of the "status quo."






Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Sunday, December 11, 2022




Egyptian Salafi preacher Hatem Al-Howaini, who has 229,000 Twitter followers, tweeted his displeasure at Muslims supporting soccer star Lionel Messi.

Tweeting photos of Messi when he visited the Kotel in Jerusalem, Al-Howaini complained, "Unfortunately, most of the Muslim youth (except for those who have mercy on God) love this Jew Messi!!"

He continued, "Pay attention guys; This love strikes the doctrine of loyalty to Muslims and disavowal of polytheism and its people in killing, and one is with the one he loves; as the Prophet, peace be upon him,"

"May we not forget; Your love for him betrays the purity of your faith," Al Howaini followed up.

His followers tried to politely tell him that Messi is a Christian, and some said that they liked him as a player, not as a human, comparing Messi to admiring a non-Muslim military commander's strategy.

One explained that Messi, like all visitors, put on a kipah as a sign of respect to visit the Kotel, and that "Football, like every other thing in the world, is managed by the Jews, unfortunately."





Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Palestinian routinely claim that the Kotel, or Western Wall, is really a Muslim shrine - the Buraq Wall, where Mohammed supposedly tethered his flying steed during his miraculous "night journey."

It turns out that most Muslims never believed that until the 1929 riots and after Israel built the plaza in front of the Kotel in 1967.

The Shaw Commission report of 1930, about the riots that started at the Wall in 1929, describes the competing religious claims to the wall - and does not mention the legend of the Buraq at all, only that it is part of the Haram esh Sharif like all the other walls. 

One of the Holy Places in connection with which it has not infrequently been necessary to give rulings of the character indicated above is the Western or Wailing Wall; in Jerusalem. This Wall; forms part of the western exterior of the ancient Jewish Temple; being the last remaining vestige of that sacred place it is regarded with the greatest reverence by religious Jews, whose custom of praying there extended back to at least the Middle Ages. ....The Wall is also part of the Haram-esh-Sherif, which is an Islamic place of great sanctity, being reckoned next to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina as an object of veneration to Moslems.

If the Kotel was considered the holy "Buraq Wall" by Muslims at the time, certainly that would have been mentioned here. Although it must be mentioned that the testimony included the idea that the Muslims had exaggerated the importance of the Buraq Wall:
Merriman introduced part of Chancellor’s statement to the Permanent Mandates Commission in July, in which he stated that the Moslems are trying to invest El Burak with a sanctity never before attached to it. Merriman implied that the Government was as skeptical as the Jews regarding the sacredness of the pavement to the Moslems.
Wikipedia points to an obscure German source from the 1860s that appears to say that the Muslims claimed the entire Western wall of the Temple Mount to be the Buraq Wall. 

A 1932 academic paper in the Journal of Biblical Literature, by C. D. Matthews, discusses the topic of where Muslims believe Mohammed tied the steed and entered the Temple Mount:

Among the orthodox who maintain the legends of Islam as historic truth, the famous "Night-Journey" of the Prophet sanctifies, as could nothing else, Jerusalem as a city of Muslim shrines, especially the Rock itself, from which Mohammed ascended into Heaven, and the Wall of al-Buraq, where Gabriel, the angelic conductor, tied up the divine steed on the arrival at the "further mosque" from Mecca.  Unfortunately, this last spot is identified as the same as the "Wailing Wall," involving a clash of religious sentiments which has often led to tragic results. Of course, the factious can always find factors. But is the Wall of al-Buraq the same as the Wailing Wall? The spot of contention is the southern end of the western wall of the Haram area. Muslim tradition is now well established that this is the holy station of their Prophet. Some accounts of the Night-Journey, as for instance our own author, say that Mohammed entered through a "gate through which the sun and the moon incline"--or shine at setting. This would indicate, of course, a western or southwestern gate. It agrees with the ordinary identification as the now walled-up Bab an-Nabi underneath the Gate of the Moors, Bab al-Maghribah, just south of the Place of Wailing, in the western wall of the Haram. 
He's saying that the Muslim consensus in Jerusalem was that the Buraq was tethered to the south of the Kotel, under the Mughrabi Gate - not where the Kotel is, north of the gate.

But that's just the beginning:

Further, Ibn al-Fakih (903) says the place of the tying up of al-Buraq is in the angle of the southern minaret-which was at the southwest corner of the Haram. And Ibn 'Abd Rabbih (913) says it is under the corner of the masjid-which Le Strange (in his book Palestine Under the Moslems) takes to mean the Aqsa but which can as well refer to the entire Haram and therefore Aqsa, mean the same as the statement of Ibn al-Fakih. 
But Muqaddasi (985), a citizen of Jerusalem and a most careful writer, speaks of the "two gates" of the Prophet, in such terms as positively to identify his choice as the ancient double gate in the south wall of the Aqsa. There used to run here a large entrance which is still a subterranean opening from within the mosque. The location of the former double gate is just as near the southern minaret on the southwestern corner as is the Gate of the Moors in the southern portion of the western wall. 

Further, Nasir I Khusrau (1047), despite the earthquake which came between Muqaddasi and him, resulting in changes of structure and name, still speaks of this gate under the Aqsa as the gate of the Prophet. He says (as quoted by Le Strange, P. M., pp. 178-9): "The gate of the Prophet... which opens toward the kiblah point-- that is, towards the south... The Prophet... on the night of his ascent into heaven, passed into the noble sanctuary through this passageway, for the gateway opens on the road from Makkah." It is only when we come to Mujir ad-Din, as late as 1496, an author whose work was almost entirely of secondary material, that we have a definite change of reference to the southwestern gate in the western wall as the gate of the prophet; and even here the author is speaking mainly of the Gate of the Moors over the walled-up gate which he says incidentally is also called Bab an-Nabi. (See Le S., p. 182.)

Finally, Le Strange (p. 182), who had studied thoroughly all the Arab geographers and historians on Palestine, takes the gates of the Prophet as named (not in order) by the two earliest writers Ibn al-Fakih and Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, to be identifiable with those named in the southern wall by Muqaddasi and Nasir. This places the weight of testimony on the western portion of the southern wall of the Haram area, not the southern portion of the western wall, as the proper Wall of al-Buraq of Muslim tradition.   
The blue section is where the Kotel is, the green is where the Buraq Wall was accepted as Muslim tradition as of 1932, possibly at the southern corner, and the orange outline covers areas where the original Muslim traditions placed the Buraq Wall.


So when Palestinians today claim that the Western Wall is really a holy Muslim Buraq Wall, they are lying. And it is a lie about Muslim tradition itself, meaning that they are willing to change their own history and legends just to take away any Jewish claim in Jerusalem.

That is what hate looks like. 




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Sunday, October 16, 2022

The Kotel last week during Sukkot


The official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa, which reflects the official Palestinian Authority positions, reported about Jews worshipping at the Kotel, the Western Wall on Saturday. 

Not on the Temple Mount - but the Western Wall that Jews visit and pray at every single day.

The article says:
Hundreds of settlers performed today, Saturday, racist Talmudic rituals, at Al-Buraq Wall (the western wall of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque) .

Our correspondent reported that hundreds of settlers stormed the western area of ​​the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Talmudic rituals, on the sixth day of the Hebrew "Sukkot", under the strict protection of the Israeli occupation forces, which launched a reconnaissance plane in the sky of the city .
There is no difference between the Shabbat prayers yesterday at the Kotel from the prayers at every traditional synagogue on Earth.

The official position of the Palestinian Authority is that every Jew who visits the Kotel is a "settler."
The official position of the Palestinian Authority is that every Jew who visits the Kotel is has no right to be there and is "storming" a Muslim site.
The official position of the Palestinian Authority is that the term "Talmudic," which is the source for virtually every detailed Jewish law from kosher to Chanukah, is an epithet.
The official position of the Palestinian Authority is that everyday Jewish prayer said daily, worldwide, is considered "racist Talmudic rituals."

Wafa has previously used the phrase "racist Talmudic rituals" to describe Jewish prayer, but up until now it was always in the context of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. This is the first time, as far as I can tell, that they are mimicking the same antisemitic language attacking Jewish worship on the Temple Mount to apply to the Kotel as well. 

By extending its bigoted language to apply to mainstream Jewish worship at the Western Wall, the PA is saying that all Jewish worship is racist and therefore immoral.

This is officially sanctioned antisemitism, and officially sanctioned antisemitic incitement, by the Palestinian Authority.

It is undeniable - and indefensible. 

Which means that it will be almost certainly be roundly ignored.





Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Friday, September 23, 2022

Hamas is threatening war if any Jew manages to blow a shofar on the Temple Mount.

Palestinian media has been obsessed with Jews blowing the shofar for weeks. It began when Yehuda Glick played a recording on his phone of a shofar blast while visiting the Temple Mount, an event that was widely reported in Arab media as if he played the shofar itself.

Glick was banned from the Temple Mount as a result - something the Arab media did not report - and he therefore decided to blow the shofar from outside, near the eastern wall.

Muslims objected to that as well, and the Israeli police arrested Glick again. But Israeli courts ruled that there is no reason not to blow the shofar outside the Mount. 

Yet when Jews returned to blow the shofar again, they were arrested anyway, for "violating public order."

Five times a day, the loudspeakers on the Temple Mount blast the call of the muezzin at a decibel level 10 times higher than what the most accomplished shofar blower couldn't approach. (The numbers I see are 95 decibels maximum for the shofar but ss high as 110 decibels for muezzin loudspeakers in India, which I suppose are comparable to those on the Temple Mount.) Each muezzin call takes minutes, while the shofar blast takes seconds (except on Rosh Hashanah itself.)

Palestinian fear and anger at shofar blasts is antisemitism, and as if often the case, the proof can be seen in history.

Today, the Palestinians are saying that the spot that Glick blew the shofar is an Islamic cemetery. But back in 2006, they stopped shofar blowers at the Kotel HaKatan - not a Muslim holy place and not a cemetery .

I'm not certain whether Jews blew the shofar at the Kotel before the twentieth century, but I have news articles from 1914 and 1919 about shofar blasts for specific occasions (not on the holidays) to call attention to major events. Apparently, though, the shofar was blown routinely at the Kotel.


In 1929, just as today, Muslims managed to get the police (then British, now Israeli!) to acceded to their demands not to blow the shofar by threatening violence.

But brave Jews risked certain arrest every year from 1930 through 1947 to blow the shofar at the Kotel.


 The Mufti's objection to the shofar was his objection to Judaism. And the Palestinian objection to the shofar today is the exact same thing. 

Hamas says that Jews visiting the Temple Mount with shofars (and the lulav and etrog) will "lead to a battle nobody wants." But what they are really saying is that they hate the idea of Jewish human rights so much that they will go to war to try to prevent them.



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Friday, July 01, 2022

Iran's Mehr News describes "What does the word 'Zionist' mean?"

Written by Hezbollah's "foreign relations official" Khalil Rizk, it is a bizarre description of Judaism from someone who has never met a Jew in his life.

Here is what I learned about Judaism/"Zionism":

* The followers of the Zionist idea believe in their faith that the Messiah, the Savior, will come at the end of time to lead his people to Zion, the “holy land” and rule the world.

* Not every Jew is necessarily a Zionist. An example of this is Orthodox Judaism, which forbids the collective return of the Jews to Palestine and considers it heretical.

* Sephardic Jews they look down on the Ashkenazi Jews, and therefore they were forbidden to marry them.

* Dancing in prayer gained great importance for the Jewish groups in Eastern Europe, and it became a part of their daily lives. It became a kind of religious ritual through which the dancer reaches a state of ecstasy and religious joy, as they dance in circles. The dance begins slowly, then gradually increases in rhythm until it reaches a state of ecstasy, accompanied by swaying movements, movements of hands and feet, jumping in the air and applause, and so on until the Jewish dance with prayer became one of the sacred duties, and there is a special prayer that they recite right before the dance.

* Among the prominent landmarks in Al-Aqsa Mosque is the Al-Buraq Wall; It is the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, or the "Wailing Wall," as the Jews call it, because their prayers there take the form of weeping and wailing.  The wall was not part of the alleged Jewish temple, and there is no evidence that the temple was located at the Al-Buraq Wall. It became for the Jews a place of worship after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

Jews praying at the Kotel, 1880

We can learn so much about Judaism from Iranians and their allies!

If nothing else, this article proves that when Iranians and Hezbollah say "Zionist" they really mean "Jewish."








Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Friday, June 03, 2022

Arabic media is upset at this tweet from Mohammed al-Dhirabi, a trainer in the Council of Arab Economic Unity of the League of Arab States,  who is visiting Israel.


Watanserb reported it this way:

Bragging about his Zionization, the Bahraini coach accredited to the Council of Arab Economic Unity of the League of Arab States, Muhammad Al Dhirabi, published a picture of him performing a Talmudic prayer next to a number of Jewish extremists at the Al-Buraq Wall, which the Zionists call “the Western Wall.”

Al-Dhirabi appeared in the photo, wearing a white cloak and a red shemagh, next to the wall, accompanied by a group of extremist Jews, performing their prayers.

The tweet is a greeting of Shabbat Shalom to all Jews. 

Notice that the Jews have no problem with a Muslim praying at the Kotel with them. The contrast with the Muslim insistence that no Jews pray (or even visit) the Temple Mount could not be more striking. 




Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Monday, September 25, 2017


The "Jews for Justice for Palestinians" website reproduces an article from Middle East Quarterly that calls into question the traditional holiness of the Western Wall.

Middle East Quarterly's article is entitled "Is the Western Wall Judaism's Holiest Site?" We all know the answer to that - no, of course not. The site of the Holy of Holies in the Temple on the Temple Mount, widely assumed to be in the area of the Dome of the Rock, is.

The anti-Israel site however retitles the article "There is no Western Wall tradition" in an attempt to delegitimize the importance of the Kotel, because the article argues (fairly persuasively) that the current site of the Kotel was not even available for prayer before the 16th century, when an earthquake leveled the houses that were built up against that section of the retaining wall of the Temple Mount, and Suleiman the Magnificent created an area for Jews to worship that became the site of today's Kotel.

But the article really proves that the Temple Mount was always the focus of prayer for Jews, and they only prayed at the retaining walls (from all directions) when Muslims barred them from worshiping on the Temple Mount itself.

This may be the best overview in English on the history of Jewish prayer that centered on the Temple Mount in the post-Temple period.

Excerpts:
Once the Second Temple was demolished by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., prayer replaced sacrificial worship. Most scholars agree that Jews offered prayers on the Temple Mount even after the destruction of the Second Temple. "During the first period after the destruction of the Temple of Herod, the Jews continued to go and weep at the ruins of it," read a report by the British Royal Commission, established in 1930 to determine the claims of Muslims and Jews at the Western Wall. The report also noted that "the Jews' wailing-place at that time seems to have been the stone on Mount Moriah where the Mosque of Omar [in the Christian Quarter] now stands."[3]

But before long, all this changed. Early in the second century the Roman emperor Hadrian prohibited Jews from worshipping on the Temple Mount. They were permitted to assemble for prayer only on the Mount of Olives from where they had an unobstructed view of the ruins of the Second Temple. The prohibition to ascend the Temple Mount was strictly enforced during Hadrian's lifetime, but the periodic need to re-issue the decree by subsequent emperors suggests that enforcement was often lax after his death. In fact, Jews did pray on the Temple Mount during the remainder of the second and most of the third centuries, but even when they were prohibited from doing so, there is no indication that they chose instead to pray at today's Western Wall.[4]

Once the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official state religion in the fourth century, the situation of Jerusalem's Jewish community became precarious. During most of the next three hundred years, Jews were not permitted to live or visit Jerusalem, but there were periods when this anti-Jewish policy was relaxed, and Jews were permitted to live in or visit the city. Yet there are no records of Jews praying at the Western Wall during those years. After the Persian and Arab conquests of the city in the seventh century, Jews were again allowed to reside in Jerusalem. They chose to live on Mount Zion where they had a number of synagogues. They even had a synagogue on the Temple Mount but no prayer services were conducted at the Western Wall.[5] 
An eleventh-century document, found in the Cairo Geniza describes how Jewish pilgrims frequently circled the Temple Mount (from the outside), stopping at each of the gates to recite specific prayers. Moshe ben Yitzhak, a mid-11th-century pilgrim, is reported to have prayed daily at one of the Temple Mount gates. At that time, Jews prayed at all of the retaining walls of the Temple Mount. The Western Wall was not accorded any preference. When they prayed at the Western Wall, they did not worship at the site that nowadays is known as the Western Wall Plaza but rather north of this area because, at that time, buildings prevented access to the area currently used. This same geniza manuscript from 1057 confirmed that the Jews paid special taxes for the privilege of praying at the Temple Mount gates and on the Mount of Olives.[6]

Until the thirteenth century, prayer on the Temple Mount was sporadically possible. Benjamin of Tudela (1130-73 C.E.), the famous Jewish traveler who visited Jerusalem during the Crusader years, wrote in his travelogue:

In front of the [Dome of the Rock] is the Western Wall. This is one of the [remaining] walls of what was once the Holy of Holies. ... All the Jews come there to pray before this wall.[7]

The wall that Benjamin described was not the present Western Wall (which, as previously noted, is part of the outer retaining walls of the Temple Mount) but the ruins of the western wall of the Second Temple, which were apparently still standing in his days. Maimonides, who arrived in Jerusalem in 1165, also prayed on the Temple Mount, but his letters make no mention of praying at the site where the Western Wall is now located.

Rabbi Shmuel ben Shimshon, who arrived in Jerusalem in 1211, describes in great detail his first days in the city. He ascended the Temple Mount soon after arriving and often prayed on "the Mount of Olives, the place where they used to burn the [Red] Heifer."[8] But on "Shabbat we prayed the afternoon prayer [on the Temple Mount], on the very place where the uncircumcised used to erect their idols."[9] Again, no mention is made of praying at the Western Wall of our days.

Early in the fourteenth century, Jews were barred from entering the Temple Mount by the Mamluks, who ruled Jerusalem from 1250 to 1516. Ishtori Haparchi (1280-1366), author of one of the earliest books of the geography of the Holy Land, Kaftor v'Ferah, wrote that in his day, Jews prayed at the eastern wall and outside the gates of the southern wall. He describes the geography of Jerusalem in great detail but makes no mention of a holy site at the western wall.[10]
This is a strong case that Jews continued to ascend to the Temple Mount to pray up through the 13th century, and when that was not possible only then would they pray at whatever site afforded them proximity or a view of the holy spot on the Temple Mount.

The Kotel is just as holy as any other part of the retaining wall of the Second Temple, although the western part is closer to the Holy of Holies and therefore more desirable. This is why so many (usually women) are found reading Psalms all day at the site of the Western Wall tunnels nearest the Holy of Holies.

It is also why the "Kotel HaKatan," the "Little Western Wall" to the north of the Kotel, is actually a holier spot than the Kotel itself. But that wasn't available for prayer, apparently, until much more recently, while the Kotel was been a gathering spot for prayer since the 16th century.

This article, rather than taking away from the holiness of the Kotel, actually proves the holiness to Jews of the entire surrounding areas of the Temple Mount in all directions, and how the scores of existing Muslim structures on those holy walls are actually a desecration of the Jewish holy site.  The article shows the veneration that Jews have always shown towards the Temple Mount.

The author's earlier article on the synagogue on the Temple Mount itself is even more fascinating:

Did the Jews build a synagogue on the Temple Mount in the century immediately following the Muslim invasion? All historians agree that the Jews played a prominent role in identifying the holy areas on the Temple Mount; these same Jews subsequently worked as servants and cleaners of the mosques that were erected there. The medieval Arab historian Mujir al-Din al-Ulaymi (1456-1522), born in Ramle but a lifelong resident of Jerusalem where he was buried, described the role that the Jews played on the Temple Mount in the early Muslim period in his comprehensive history of Jerusalem and Hebron, as follows:
The Jews who served as servants [in the mosques] were exempt from paying poll tax, they and their descendants forever. At first these numbered ten, but later their number rose to twenty. Their job was to clean the mosques. Other Jews were engaged to manufacture and attach the glass and the candelabras and other things. They also supplied wicks. Most interesting is Mujir al-Din’s suspicion that the Jews consented to engage in these jobs in order to gain a foothold on the Temple Mount so that they could offer prayers in the place where their Temple once stood.14 At this time Muslims did not consider a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount problematic because they had not yet designated the mount as a sacred site.
Several scholars wrote that Jews received permission to build a synagogue or prayer-and-study hall on the Temple Mount. Some have even suggested that the first wooden structure built on the site of the Temple was meant originally to be a synagogue, but that before it was completed the Muslims expropriated the building and gave the Jews another site on the Temple Mount as a substitute location for their synagogue. Sebeos, a 7th-century Armenian bishop and historian, wrote about the existence of a Jewish prayer hall on the Temple Mount as follows:
After the Jews enjoyed the aid and protection of the Arabs for a long time, they conceived the idea of rebuilding the Temple of Solomon. They identified the location of what they called the “The Holy of Holies” and there they built a prayer hall, using the foundations and the remnants of the original building. Once they had started to build, the Arabs became jealous and banished them from there. Instead, they gave the Jews another area on the Temple Mount for a synagogue.15
Solomon ben Jeroham, a Karaite exegete who lived in Jerusalem between 940 and 960, wrote in his commentary on the Book of Psalms that the Muslims had permitted the Jews to pray on the Temple Mount for many years.
When, with the mercy of the God of Israel, the Romans were thrown out [of Jerusalem] and the Islamic kingdom appeared, permission was given to Israel to enter [the city] and live there. Furthermore, the courtyards of the Temple were turned over to them and they prayed there [on the Temple Mount] for many years. Afterwards [slanderers] told the Muslim king that they did bad things there, that they drank intoxicating wine and desecrated the place. He therefore ordered them expelled to one of the many gates and there they prayed for many years. But they continued to do bad things and there came a new king and he expelled them from the Temple Mount completely.16
The 11th-century letter written by the Elder of the Jerusalem Jewish community that we cited earlier also stated unequivocally that from the time of the Arab conquest of Jerusalem until the present time (tenth or eleventh century) Jews were allowed to pray without interference on the Temple Mount or at its gates.17
Petachiah of Regensburg, a Bohemian rabbi who set out from Prague to Palestine in 1175 and arrived in Crusader Jerusalem no later than 1187, reported that in his days it was “common knowledge” that the Dome of the Rock (he called it the ‘Umar-mosque) was designed originally to serve as a synagogue.18
The midrash collection called “Nistarot de-Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai” [The Esoteric Teachings of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, believed to have been compiled at the time of the Crusaders] brings the following account:
… the second king who arose to Ishmael was friendly to Israel, and he mended their breaches and the breaches of the Heikhal, and dug up Mount Moriah... and he built there a place for prayer [lit., a place for bowing down] on the Foundation Stone [that is, on the site of the Temple].19
Many years ago Professor Dinur wrote a comprehensive article on “A Jewish synagogue and study hall on the Temple Mount during the Arab period” in which he summarized all the evidence available at that time concerning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount during the Muslim period.20 He suggested that the building that eventually became known as the mosque of ‘Umar was originally built by Caliph ‘Umar as a synagogue or prayer hall for the Jews. He cited evidence of the existence of a synagogue on the Temple Mount from the 9th century on.This synagogue, known as the Mahkema, was located on the southwestern side of the Shalshelet Gate. After the Fatimid rulers conquered Jerusalem in 969, this synagogue was rebuilt and used until the Jews were banished by Caliph alChakim in 1015. Jews returned to this synagogue on the Temple Mount after a subsequent ruler cancelled al-Chakim’s ban. 21
While there is disagreement about where the synagogue was located on the Temple Mount, most scholars agree that there was a functioning synagogue on the Temple Mount during the first century after the Muslim conquest—and perhaps even later. Subsequently (the exact date is not known) the permission for Jews to have a synagogue on the Temple Mount was cancelled.  
There are two conclusions that these articles point to:

One is that Jews have the right to pray on the Temple Mount, both halachic and historic, and that  for centuries this permission was actually granted by Muslims themselves.

The other is that the entire area surrounding the Temple Mount is holy, and when some non-Orthodox Jewish groups want to stake their claim to the right to pray at the Kotel, they actually have no reason not to accept any prayer area around the retaining walls, since the holiness of all of those areas are roughly the same.

(h/t Richard Landes)



We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016



On Monday, thousands of Jews went to the Western Wall for the annual Passover blessing by Kohanim.

Palestine Times complained that the sounds were loud enough to be heard at the Al Aqsa Mosque where it caused "confusion" among worshippers during their daily noon prayers.

Yes, the people who use ear-splitting loudspeakers day and night to call people to prayer or to broadcast their services - without the least regard for any non-Muslims - are bothered that a couple of times a year they hear some Jews making a blessing.



We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

AddToAny

EoZ Book:"Protocols: Exposing Modern Antisemitism"

Printfriendly

EoZTV Podcast

Podcast URL

Subscribe in podnovaSubscribe with FeedlyAdd to netvibes
addtomyyahoo4Subscribe with SubToMe

search eoz

comments

Speaking

translate

E-Book

For $18 donation








Sample Text

EoZ's Most Popular Posts in recent years

Hasbys!

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

Donate!

Donate to fight for Israel!

Monthly subscription:
Payment options


One time donation:

subscribe via email

Follow EoZ on Twitter!

Interesting Blogs

Blog Archive