WAILING WALL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1938, Page 8

WAILING WALL

LAST OF JEWS’ THREE TEMPLES. HOW CUSTOM CLINGS. It is reported from Palestine that Jews visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and partook of the Passover during Easter. The Wailing Wall is part of the western wall of the Haram AshSharif, and is also the only remaining portion of the last of -the Jews’ three temples, that of Herod. It is sacred to the Moslems because it is part of their Mosque and also because of the winged steed which brought the Prophet from Messa on the night of the vision is said to have been stabled within the thickness of the walls. The Jews have for centuries regarded this wall as the most sacred relic of their past history; for centuries they have used it as an openair place of worship, reciting their litanies and whispering their prayers into its age-worn surface and pushing their petitions into the crevices between the huge blocks of stone. USE OF SCREENS. This custom was allowed by the Moslem Turks and by the present owners of the wall, and the pavement before it, but on certain conditions. The Turkish Government forbade the use of screens and seats which the worshippers used to bring on the pavement, but made no objection to the usual form of worship when the congregation stood on the pavement. The wall belongs to the Moslems; the alleyways and some houses near belong to the Mughrabi, Africans, who are said by the Arabs to have formed part of Saladin’s bodyguard and to have received the premises as a reward for their services. It is asserted as being clear that the place belongs to the Arabs and that the Jews are there by courtesy. There was never any trouble with the former inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Ashkennazim and Sephardim Jews; it only arose after the Zionists began to assert themselves. The first of many succeeding incidents occurred in 1925.