As the sun sets, candles are extinguished. No smoking is allowed. No cameras, and phones must be turned off! The 'Modest Dress Code' is enforced. Men and boys, heads covered, lean in toward the ancient wall (built around 516 B.C.), chanting and swaying. Women are not allowed. But, things are not as somber as you think. People are singing and there is spontaneous dancing! It's the beginning of Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, and a day of celebration at the Western Wall.


I came through the security check . Everyone that enters the area will do that, but everyone is welcome at this Wall. This is the holiest place in the world where Jews are allowed to pray..There IS one place holier to the Jews, but they are not allowed to go there! I will take you there in the next entry!


Once you clear security, you are in a large open plaza. It's been described as an open air synagogue that has space for thousands of worshippers. Halfway between the security gate and the Wall is another fence-wall running parallel to the Wall, dividing the plaza in two. This half near the wall is divided with a separation wall, separating the men and women. It is tall enough that neither can see the others. So, men enter one side to approach the Wall, and women enter the other side.


To approach the Wall, men need a head covering. If you are not wearing one, a kappa (skullcap) is provided free of charge . The women can borrow a shawl and skirt-wrap, if they want to join the women in the section on the far right, screened from view of the men.


I have been here several times before. The Wall area is open 24 hours. But, this is my first time to come for Shabbat. Cameras are only prohibited during Shabbat from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. So my photos are from my other visits, not from the Shabbat celebration. Still, the Jews come here to pray at the Wall all hours of every day. There's just more celebrating during Shabbat, when hundreds gather here with friends and family.


WHAT IS THE WALL?

The Wall is all about the Jewish Temples, which I will write about in the next post. But, in short, the 1st Temple was built on a hill by King Solomon around 960 B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B .C. and all the Jews were exiled. Then, the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, and built the 2nd Temple in 515 B.C. and built the Wall around it. 


In 20 B.C., Herod the Great expanded the wall and filled the space in to increase the hill area to accommodate an enlarged Temple and other buildings. Jerusalem was ransacked and the 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. This wall on the west side of the Temple, "The Western Wall", is all that is left of the Temple and is the most holy place where Jews can pray in the world.


The wall looks very tall, and it is. It's about 62 feet high, with 28 layers of stone. But, there is about 43 more feet of wall and 17 stone layers you do not see.


Over time, as Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed, the debris became landfill, covering most of the wall . Then, the conquering empire built houses and businesses on top of it.


The Western Wall was captured by Jordan during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and recaptured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. For centuries, the Western Wall was located in a narrow alley just 12 feet wide. The Israelis immediately tore down all the Arab houses and mosques near the wall and created the large Western Wall Plaza. Then, started excavations to uncover the remaining wall.


You can see the excavated wall by going into a tunnel at the left end of the wall. The tunnel is 1500 feet long and only 4 feet wide in some places, running under the present city. (Jerusalem during the time of Christ is buried about 12 feet below present day Jerusalem!). In the tunnel you can see the bottom section of the wall built by Herod in 20 A.D. The stones used are enormous, bigger than any stone found in the pyramids . The largest is estimated to weigh about 570 tonnes (over one million pounds)!

THE WESTERN WALL OR WAILING WALL?

This one wall was all that was left standing in 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed the 2nd Temple. It was only a wall, not part of the Temple, so they didn't bother to destroy it. But, it became the holiest place to Jews, since it was all that remained of their holy Temple.

 
For centuries Jews from around the world made pilgrimages to Jerusalem to pray at the wall. Their prayers were so agonizing over the destruction of the Temple, that Gentiles began calling the site the “Wailing Wall.” 

 
For more than one thousand years Jerusalem was under Muslim rule, the Arabs often used the Wall area as a garbage dump, so as to humiliate the Jews who visited it.

 
From 1948 to 1967, the wall was under Jordanian Arab rule, and not one Israeli Jew was ever permitted ro visit it . Then, in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Jews won control of Jerusalem and the wall back.

 
The Gentile name “Wailing Wall” was never used by the Jews. They found it offensive and used the name "Western Wall".

 
MY NIGHT AT THE SHABBAT (Sabbath)

 
There is no start or stopping time. It starts at sundown on Friday and people come and go anytime until Saturday sundown. It's time for the Friday evening prayers known as Kabbalat Shabbat, the joyous Jewish ritual of welcoming the Sabbath. But, some Jews visit the wall daily to recite the entire Book of Psalms.

 
A group of maybe 10-12 young men, either high school or college age were near me. They were in a circle with arms interlocked over their shoulders. Jewish boys with white shirts, dark pants and wearing kappas. They would rotate one way singing and then kick, or shout, and rotate the other way . At first it sounded like mellow hymns. But, it was in Hebrew, so how do I know? Eventually, as the night wore on, the singing picked up in tempo and they rotated faster with a lot of shouting! 

 
All around me, men with full beards and dressed in black (Orthodox Jews), read and prayed from the Torah, bowing their heads and rocking back and forth. All branches of Jews come here, though, not just the Orthodox. Many men were alone reading or praying, and there were lots of groups. The groups seemed to be age specific, young boys with their age group, older boys with theirs, men with theirs. I'm thinking they are friends that meet here every Friday. But, regardless of the ages, they are all reading or chanting or singing together. It's really quite joyous! But, everything is in Hebrew! Visitors of all religions are welcome to approach the Wall and pray or just walk around.

 
Of course, there are non-Jewish men here also, (like myself). I can tell them because they are always chasing their borrowed kappas through the crowd . The wind blows it off their head and they take off, chasing it through crowd of worshipers. Then, after a couple of times of this, they walk around with one hand on top of their head, holding their kappa in place the rest of the night! The Jews are dancing and hopping around, but their kappas never move. I see them all around town riding bikes, running, playing games, with never a thought about losing their kappa!

 
I didn"t have a kappa on because I was on the other side of the dividing wall, looking in! I had been to the Wall several times before and decided to leave the crowded space for the worshippers. I would have been good at the singing and dancing, but the Hebrew language might be a problem!

 
While looking in, I got to chatting with a woman tourist. We were commenting on what a wonderful time everyone was having, but neither of us really knew what was going on. A woman on the other side of me spoke up. She was a tour guide from America (but without a group tonight) and she started explaining things to us .

 
"Have you noticed how each group or individual is singing to a different tune? Some are serious, some joyous, some full of song, and some quite and introspective?" she asked.

 
Then, she startled us with this: "They all are reciting the same prayers from the book of Psalms, but with their own tune and rendition! The songs have been adopted around the world as the songs for welcoming the start of the Shabbat.

 
"Now, can you hear the women singing on the other side?" No, we couldn't! "That's because the women must not only not be seen by the men, they must not be heard. They will be engaged in individual prayer, not in boisterous groups. They cannot sing or pray loud enough to be heard by the men on the other aide of the separation wall."

 
She was a wealth of information, and so many questions were answered for me that night. But, as she prepared to leave, I knew it was my last chance to ask the most important question on my mind: "How do these Jewish men and boys keep their kappas on all day?" ..... And another kappa came blowing by with a tourist in hot pursuit!

 
Scripture: 
 Solomon builds the Temple: 1 Kings 5-6
 Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple: Mark 13:1-8

 
NEXT: "CLIMBING TEMPLE MOUNT"