THE KOTEL:

MY ISRAEL:

THE KOTEL: also known as the WESTERN or WAILING WALL.

Besides the Temple Mount & more specifically the location of a room within the Temple named the Holy of Holies, which housed the tablets inscribed with 10 commandments, the Kotel is Judaism’s holiest site. It was Herod (37 B.C.E. – 4 B.C.E.) who initially built the 4 retaining walls that define the Mount, namely the Southern, Eastern, Northern & Western walls, the latter of which also known as the Kotel or Wailing wall. In 70 C.E., the Romans under the command of Titus destroyed the 2nd Temple & the surrounding walls, with the exception of a prominent segment of the Western wall & some layers of the other three walls.

One of the reasons attributed to the partial destruction of the Western Wall is as follows: Titus assigned the destruction of the four walls to four dukes. Except for Pangar, duke of Arabia who was tasked with the destruction of the Western Wall all the other dukes successfully destroyed the walls assigned to them. When confronted by Titus, Pangar In his defense said “I did it for the glory of the empire: Had I destroyed the wall in totality, people would never know what you vanquished”. His response cost Pangar his life.

The Midrashim however provided the real reason as to why the Western Wall survived. Midrashim are biblical interpretations by ancient Judaic Authorities using a mode of analysis prominent in the Talmud. The Talmud comprises of the Mishna & Gemara. The Mishna is the Oral law in written form, & the Gemara is a commentary on & analysis of the Oral Law. The Midrash in question states that heaven decreed that the Western Wall would always survive because the Shechinah (the Divine presence) resides in the west and has never departed. Why the west & not the north, south or east ?; The entrance to the Temple was from the east & the location of the most sacred room within the Temple known as the Holy of Holies was located in the in the west, close to the Western Wall.

As mentioned previously, the Western Wall was only partially destroyed, hence the upper courses (layers) of the wall seen today are post-Herodian, & were rebuilt by later occupiers of the Holy land. There is a lot more wall than meets the eye. There are an additional 17 courses (layers) below the prayer level, & approximately half of the above ground Kotel we see today was only unearthed in 1967, with the liberation of Jerusalem in the 6 day war. REFER TO SKETCH 1.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE WALL(S):

Without the availability of modern machinery, extracting stone blocks from bedrock, transporting them to the site & placing them in position, was a major problem faced by the ancients. Consequently, methods had to be devised to achieve the desired results & were dependent on man-power, rollers (circular logs), oxen, wagons, cranes, wheels & ramps. To separate the stone from the bedrock, stonecutters would use a pickaxe to create a channel in the bedrock. Once achieved, logs were stacked horizontally into the channel & water poured over them. The logs absorbed the water causing them to expand, thereby creating a lateral pressure that resulted in the block separating from the bedrock. Due to limestone being a layered sedimentary rock, the underside of the block remained relatively smooth after separation from the bedrock. REFER TO SKETCH 2.

Once separated from the bedrock, engineers devised a number of strategies for the transport of the stone blocks, the choice of strategy being dependent on the block size. Most of the stones weighed between 2 to 8 tones. Others were much heavier, the largest weighing 530 tons. How this 530 ton stone was transported and positioned within the wall, remains a mystery to the present day.

Smaller stone blocks had wheels attached to each end. The block thus acted as a joining device in the same way as an axel connects to the front or back wheels of a car. The block could thus be wheeled into place. REFER TO SKETCH 3.

Cranes were required when dealing with heavier blocks. While shaping the blocks, the masons left 30-centimeter-long projections on opposite sides, thereby facilitating the lifting of the blocks. By lifting one side of the block, workers would place circular logs (rollers) beneath the block. Once sufficient rollers were in place, the crane lowered the block onto the rollers & the hauling could begin. Once the blocks were set within the wall, stonemasons removed the projections. REFER TO SKETCHES 4 & 5.

Before positioning the blocks within the wall, stonemasons had to ensure the block ends were smooth, thus ensuring that joints between blocks were razor thin.

How then did the builders adjust the stone courses within the wall in order to achieve a perfect fit as the stone blocks were certainly too heavy to move by hand? To overcome the problem, engineers came up with a brilliant solution. By covering the surface of the block below with small lead balls that acted as “ball bearings” friction was considerably reduced, thus facilitating the positioning of the blocks. The weight of the next stone course above would then crush the “ball bearings” & secure the block within the wall.

Additionally, each stone course was set back a few centimeters from the course below thereby strengthening the wall.

Once in position, stonemasons chiseled frames around each stone to create what is referred to as ashlars, characteristic of, but not exclusive to Herodian structures. REFER TO SKETCH 6.

Stone quarries located 38 meters above & 1.5 kilometers north of the Temple mount platform provided the material for the walls and resident buildings. This north-south downhill slope facilitating the transport of stones to the site. REFER TO SKETCH 7.

Ron Traub (Tour Guide & Architect) Website: rontraub-tours.com Photo’s: Rimonah Traub. Sketches: Ron Traub.