The Western Wall – The Remains Of The Herod’s Temple Article

	1888 Articles Home \| Business Articles \| Online Business Articles	Business RSS
The Western Wall – the remains of the Herod’s Temple

This article is regarding Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in the world, its history and one of the Major Israeli Conflicts.

Author: Sara Khan

Article Tools:

The Temple of Solomon (the first Temple) was built on top of Temple Mount in the 10th century BC, but in the year 586 BC, it was destroyed by the Babylonians. Under the command of Herod the Great, the Second Temple was then completed in 516 BC. Later, Herod the Great implemented a massive expansion project on Temple Mount, but in the year 70 CE, Herod’s Temple was destroyed by the invading Romans. The remains of Herod’s Temple, is the perimeter wall known today as the Western Wall.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Wailing Wall or simply Kotel, is not only the Jewish holiest site, but for Jews is the remaining symbol of Jewish identity as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For many years, the Western Wall has become the Jewish pilgrimage site and the holiest spot for Jews. Today, the Western Wall is also a Jewish national symbol where most important ceremonies, both religious and secular, are celebrated at the Western Wall Plaza. Jews gather at the western wall (also called the Wailing Wall) to remember, pray and cry over their history. More specifically, they recite the seventy ninth psalm, which was written at the destruction of Jerusalem.

It should be noted that the Western Wall is the only site part of Temple Mount that Jews visit for religious purposes and worship. Jews are not allowed to visit other areas of al-Aqsa for religious purposes. The background for this is that after the 1967 war, Moshe Dayan who was also the Foreign Minister of Israel negotiated with the local Muslim leaders that the Aqsa site will be administered by Muslims and thus also ordered the removal of Israeli flag from the Temple Mount (Aqsa site). His view was that Jews should look to Temple Mount as a historical site that was tied to Judaism and not a religious site. He had stated: “We must view the Temple Mount as a historic site relating to past memory”.
Some Palestinian clerics however have questioned the holiness of even the Western Wall. One of them was Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, who was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine from October 1994 to July 1, 2006. In an interview to a German magazine, he reportedly said the following:

“There is not a single stone in the Wailing Wall relating to Jewish History. The Jews cannot legitimately claim this wall, neither religiously nor historically. The Committee of the League of Nations recommended in 1930, to allow the Jews to pray there, in order to keep them quiet. But by no means did it acknowledge that the wall belongs to them.”

—Interviewed by German magazine Die Welt, January 17, 2001

About Author

Sara works for Hilal Plaza that provides Islamic ebooks & clothing.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com

The Western Wall – the remains of the Herod’s Temple