Posted on 04/28/2008 1:56:22 PM PDT by NYer
For thousands of years it has withstood fires, floods and earthquakes. But now a portion of one of Judaism's holiest sites, Jerusalem's Western Wall, is crumbling.
The rabbi charged with watching over the structure, which the faith believes to be the last remnants of a retaining wall from the ancient Second Temple, has warned that a section repaired more than a century ago is again at risk of falling.
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Because the weakened stonework is high on the 60ft wall, the danger from any falling fragment to the crowds who pray at its foot each day is particularly acute.
"We found that the stones at the bottom of the wall, the stones from the Second Temple period, were strong and stable," said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. "However, we discovered that there are problems with the smaller stones, those at the top of the wall."
His warning came as Israel hosted record numbers of tourists for the Passover holiday and prepares for high-profile visitors for the 60th anniversary of its founding, next month. World leaders including the American President, George W Bush, the former prime minister Tony Blair, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, are to be joined by others such as the Google founder, Sergey Brin, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerman at a conference hosted by Israel's president, Shimon Peres.
A pilgrimage to the wall is a standard part of dignitaries' visits and it receives an estimated six million visitors each year, including Israeli army recruits and tour buses of young Jews on their first visit to the Holy Land. Last week, the grand limestone plaza in front of it, also known as the Wailing Wall or in Hebrew as Ha Kotel, was crowded with families holding bar mitzvahs for excited young sons, tour groups and visitors from around the globe.
The damage was discovered just before Passover as religious leaders cleared thousands of written prayers tucked into the stones of the wall, according to Jewish tradition. Twice a year, thousands of such entreaties, which also arrive by email and post, are gathered and buried on the Mount of Olives so as not to desecrate the contents.
The Western Wall is believed to date from 20BC, when King Herod the Great first ordered the construction of the Second Temple, a project that took 46 years to complete. Roman legions razed the temple in AD70, and today the wall that remains is thought to be the only surviving portion of Judaism's holiest site.
Along with the massive stones commissioned by Herod, the wall contains stones placed by the Umayyad dynasty in an eighth?century restoration. But the section crumbling is at the very top, where a series of smaller, uniformly sized stones were added in the 1800s under the financing and supervision of British financier and philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. Restoration experts say the more modern cement used as mortar to hold those stones together has been eroded more quickly by wind and rain than the ancient preparations used on the lower levels. The result is that several are now poised to fall.
Israel's Antiquities Authority has said there is no immediate risk to visitors, since the heavy winter rains have passed. But the repair work is to begin almost immediately, to ensure it is completed before the return of worse weather in the autumn.
"We know it is old stone and we have some crumbling," said Raanan Kislev, head of the conservation at the authority. The repair will be a delicate operation: Jewish religious law forbids the removing of any stone from the wall, and rabbis are divided over who is even permitted to carry out such work.
Traditionally, Jews are forbidden to set foot on the ancient site of what they believe to be the Temple Mount, so the rabbi said much of the work would have to be conducted using cranes rather than scaffolding. Jewish workers on the project will also have to undergo ritual baths.
Interesting.
I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this, and I have nothing but respect for Judaism, but it would be a good thing if all of the man-made objects that people worship were destroyed. There would be a lot less suffering in the world.
People don't worship the wall. They worship at the wall.
Christians also do not worship churches.
I visited there 30 years ago. Our guide told us that sometimes the rabbis in charge would get into protracted arguments about whether the weeds and bushes growing out of the cracks in the wall should be removed or not. I wonder how much arguing in going on about actually adding reinforcement?
“Traditionally, Jews are forbidden to set foot on the ancient site of what they believe to be the Temple Mount,”
The tradition of. . . Allah?
In theory, that is true. Yet, the way people react when these places get destroyed, or occupied by another country, suggests to me that at some level the walls themselves at some level become and object of worship.
My thought exactly...it would be one less man-made symbol for them to fight about in the Middle East.
Ultimately it's the people, not the stuff.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Oh, thank you, goldstategop. That makes sense.
So right. As Scripture says:
John 4:21-24 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Ping!
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Your contention,conclusion that there would be a lot less suffering in the world if all the man-made objects of worship would be destroyed is egregiously specious, fallacious.
The suffering you contend is the result of religion is not a result of, via, the intrinsic objects themselves. Destroying any objects of worship (would) have no bearing on (the) suffering.
You know that the real Ron Jeremy is Jewish don’t you?
He also holds a degree in early child development, used to be a teacher in New York State many moons ago (I think, or he might have just held the degree).
Just for (as they say) sh*ts and giggles, are you the real one, or is that just a creative screen name?
Shalom.
If you got flamed, it would be well-deserved.
First of all, as has already been pointed out, Jews don't worship the wall, they worship at the wall.
Secondly, I'm getting pretty tired of the moral-equivalence BS. Jews and Christians in the Holy City are getting along just fine, thank you--so why do some people think that blowing up our holy sites will somehow make the Muslims suddenly play nice? Do you really want to be numbered among those who have raised the age-old cry, "Blame the Jews!"
Matthew 24:1-2
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.”
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