Our Wall

As builders go, King Solomon had a sentimental streak.

He wanted the Holy Temple, which he built, to be the heart of the Jewish nation--a place where people felt inspired to talk to G-d, a place where no one would feel alone.

"Please, G-d," he said during the Temple’s inauguration, "hear the prayers that are said in this place."

With the Temple built, a new harmony flowed through creation. Solomon tuned in; that day he composed the Song of Songs; Rabbi Akiva later called it the Torah’s "Holy of Holies."

But in Songs, Solomon described G-d’s presence in a way that wouldn't become fully clear until after the Temple was destroyed. "Behold!" he wrote, "He stands behind our wall, looking from the windows, peering through the crevices."

The wall that Solomon was referring to was the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, which was the only part of the Temple left standing after the Destruction. Two thousand years later, the wall still stands. "The Divine Presence," says the mystical Book of the Zohar, "has never departed from the Western Wall."

The Western Wall is gloriously close to where the Temple's innermost chamber, the Holy of Holies, stood, where the spirituality of the Temple was strongest. There, the windows to heaven are wide open. The crevices in Solomon's wall are stuffed with notes and prayers that people have written to G-d.

Let the Western Wall bear witness--the heart of the Jewish nation is indestructible.