הכותל המערבי
HAʾKOTEL HAʾMAARAVI
(Western Wall).

הכותל המערבי HAʾKOTEL HAʾMAARAVI in ירושלים YERUŜALAYIM preserves the western retaining wall of the enlarged Temple Mount platform. Its stones belong to the architecture surrounding the sanctuary; Jewish prayer and sacred memory give this surviving structure a place in the continuing life of עם ישראל AM YISRAʾEL.[[[ footnote־cite://schwartz־כותל־2013 KOTEL 14. ]]]

What did the wall support?

Joshua Schwartz, a scholar of historical geography and archaeology, identifies the structure as:

> the western retaining wall of Herod’s Temple Mount platform.[[[ footnote־cite://schwartz־כותל־2013 KOTEL 14. ]]]

Herod enlarged the platform around 19 BCE, enclosing it with massive retaining walls. Schwartz describes construction by Herod and his successors. The Western Wall was not a wall of the Temple building itself, and parts of the other retaining walls also survive. This distinction identifies the physical structure without diminishing the sanctuary to which it belonged.[[[ footnote־cite://schwartz־כותל־2013 KOTEL 14. ]]]

The familiar prayer section is only part of the whole western wall. Schwartz gives the full length as 1,601 feet and the prayer-plaza section as 187 feet; other portions lie underground or in the southern archaeological area. Large dressed limestone blocks, fitted without mortar and set slightly inward in successive courses, supplied the ancient wall’s stability.[[[ footnote־cite://schwartz־כותל־2013 KOTEL 14. ]]]

How did Jewish sacred memory sustain attachment to the wall?

The early Hebrew account <i>חרבות ירושלם</i> (<i>The Ruins of Jerusalem</i>) places the wall within an appeal to sustain Jewish life in ירושלים YERUŜALAYIM. The following short passage follows the Western Wall Heritage Foundation’s modern excerpt of the introduction. It is an excerpted textual witness, not a new transcription checked against every letter of the early printed edition:

> {lang=he dir=rtl} > ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟ: > > לא זזה שכינה מכותל מערבי להשגיח על כל צרכי בני ישראל בכל מקום שהם[[[ footnote־cite://horvot־כותל־excerpts KOTEL introduction, sixth reason; cited there as fol. 2b. ]]]

> ᴛʀᴀɴꜱʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: > > The Divine Presence has not departed from the Western Wall, watching over all the needs of the children of Israel wherever they are.[[[ footnote־cite://horvot־כותל־excerpts KOTEL introduction. TJD translation, excerpt. ]]]

The introduction turns this sacred attachment into an argument against abandoning the city over financial hardship. Its language joins the people abroad to those sustaining Jewish life in the homeland. The separate account of Ibn Farrukh’s departure examines the persecution, settlement and appeal at greater length. This theological statement establishes the author’s understanding of Jewish attachment; it does not date the wall’s construction or establish when prayer there first began.[[[ footnote־cite://horvot־כותל־excerpts KOTEL introduction and narrative excerpts. ]]]

How did access and the prayer space change?

Authority over the site could constrain Jewish worship. Moshe Segal’s account of his 1930 arrest describes British enforcement of a restriction on sounding the shofar and his decision to sound it despite that restriction. The episode makes control over a Jewish rite visible within the history of this place.

The broad prayer plaza belongs to the period after the 1967 war, when מדינת ישראל MEDINAT YISRAʾEL liberated the Old City. Schwartz records that its construction followed the razing of the Mughrabi Quarter. The ancient retaining wall and the later open plaza therefore have different histories; a photograph of the familiar plaza cannot stand for the site’s layout across the centuries.[[[ footnote־cite://schwartz־כותל־2013 KOTEL 14. ]]]

Guided reflections