The Temple Mount was closed to non-Muslim visitors as about 80,000 Jewish worshippers visited the Western Wall for Sukkot holiday prayers. Police clamped down on security in the Old City of Jerusalem on Sunday, adding extra patrols and closing the major streets around the area to traffic. Israel Police on Friday restricted entry of Muslim…
Workers at the Western Wall emptied the holy site of layers of notes from its cracks and crevices for the New Year. The notes were removed Wednesday morning under the supervision of the rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich. The notes will be buried in the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem. Visitors…
(Haaretz) — Some of the stones of the Western Wall are of lesser quality than others, according to new research, and may indicate that the contractors of the Second Temple were not above cheating their royal client, Herod the Great. “It started with a simple question. We looked at the Western Wall and saw that…
Thousands gathered at the Western Wall to pray for the safe return of three teens kidnapped in the West Bank. More than 25,000 people attended the Sunday evening service led by Chief Rabbi David Lau. Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef also was at the service, as were members of the Chief Rabbinate council and Knesset members….
A grand hall from the early 14th century was fully excavated in the Western Wall tunnels. Excavated for more than four years under the supervision of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the hall was inaugurated Sunday by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The hall, located underground adjacent to the Western Wall Plaza — including beneath the…
Pope Francis wrote the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish on a note he left in the Western Wall. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation released the contents of the note placed between the stones of the Kotel during the pope’s visit on Monday. The note, signed “Francis,” was written on papal letterhead. The Lord’s Prayer, also known…
Justin Timberlake landed in Israel and went straight to the Western Wall a day before his scheduled Tel Aviv concert. Timberlake avoided most of the paparazzi, landing at 3 a.m. on Tuesday and heading straight to the wall with his wife, actress Jessica Biel, and his parents. He posted a photo of himself at the…
The Western Wall was cleared of notes in advance of Passover. Workers used sticks Sunday to remove the hundreds of thousands of prayers and requests written on slips of paper that worshippers stuff into the cracks between the wall’s stones. The papers will be buried out of respect for their contents. The Western Wall also…
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