More than three thousand years have passed since the reign of King Solomon. A magnificent Temple was built under him, where relics sacred for the Jewish people were stored. The construction was erected on top of a high mountain. The architects who worked on this specific project came up with the idea to lay out a wide beautiful staircase of stone white monoliths to the Temple. The result was a real miracle!
The construction was not created as a monument to the king, but as a holy place of God, called to bring divine revelations to the people. Throughout state history, the Temple was destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed again. But the sacred place was still managed to be preserved - and to this day it identifies the heart of all Jews. And the Weeping Wall (Western Wall of the Temple) in the modern world is considered a symbol of the past and hope for the future.
It is worth saying that initially the Kotel did not possess special holiness. It was just a defensive structure around the
Temple Mount. Later, King Herod began to strengthen it, eventually creating a reliable and powerful fortification. Today the Weeping Wall in Jerusalem, erected by thousands of people more than two millennia ago, is a symbol of rebirth, the embodiment of all the desires of a people for which Israel is their native land. The sanctity of this place only increased over the years. Generations were replaced one after another, and the construction built for defense became a sign of the solid spirit of the Jews.
The Weeping Wall in Israel used to be part of a city street. People lived here, trade was carried out. Near her, no one prayed - believers preferred to do this at the walls in the southern and eastern parts of the city. That this place would become a shrine for the entire Israeli people, then no one could even think. The Weeping Wall gained universal recognition in the 16th century, at a time when Jerusalem became subject to the Ottoman Empire. It was then that a new story began for the construction. Today it is an object of pilgrimage for all Jews, according to tradition, they should come here three times a year.
In general, the Crying Wall has a very rich, somewhere even tragic story. In 1948, during the war for the independence of Israel, a sacred place was seized by the Jordanian legion. And although according to the conditions of the ceasefire achieved in 1949, Jews were allowed to visit it, in practice this was hardly observed. Only in 1967, paratroopers of
the Israeli army in the process of the
Six Day War liberated Jerusalem, and at the same time, the Wailing Wall. Finally, everyone had the opportunity to make a prayer near the sacred place. The Crying Wall has become available to all.
Today, you can see people praying here at any time. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit Israel to touch the shrine, ask the Almighty for the most intimate, leave a note between the stones asking God. According to tradition, for prayers, men approach the Wall on the left, and women on the right. The grand synagogue under the Israeli sky is also a place for all kinds of ceremonies and ceremonies of the Jewish people. State celebrations take place on the square in front of the Wall, and recruits from the Israeli army take the oath here.