The Chief Rabbis of Israel sent a letter to several officials demanding the return of a stone that had fallen from the Western Wall. This rabbinic outcry comes as the same rabbis ignore wood timbers from the Jewish Temples that lay rotting in plain sight.
The Rishon LeZion and Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Yosef, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Kalman Ber, and the Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, sent the letter to the Minister of Heritage Haiom Katz, Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, and the Director of the Israeli Antiquities Authority’s, Eli Escusito.
“It has been brought to our attention that five stones were taken from the area of the Western Wall and placed in the Presidential Residence, the center in Tel Aviv, in the Knesset, the Israel Museum, and storage of the Israel Antiquities Authority,” the letter read. “The stance of the Rabbinate is that these stones were sanctified, and we do not have the right to use them. The require geniza.”
According to Jewish law, anything sanctified for use in the Temple is holy and may not be used for personal or secular purposes. Such items may only be used for the Temple and the Temple service.
Items or texts used for ritual purposes or containing the name of God may not be simply disposed of. They must be deposited in a genizah (literally, hiding place), a repository prepared for this purpose.
“The place of their geniza is alongside the rocks that fell from the Temple Mount, whose original source is unknown, that are resting in a pile on the southern side of the Western Wall,” the letter continued. “
“We will welcome your acknowledgment that you will adhere to these according to the guidelines of the Chief Rabbinate. May it be His will that from the darkness that covers the land, and the fog that the nations are shrouded in, God will be for us a light unto the world, and we will merit to see a new light shining on Zion.”
Rabbi Josh Wander,a resident of the Mount of Olives, responded with cynicism to the episode.
“The religious world is all up in arms about five stones that were removed from the Western Wall’s southern plaza and put on exhibition at different locations around Israel,” Wander wrote. “The chief rabbis have condemned this desecration with the strongest of words and have demanded the stones be returned to their proper location immediately.”
“What irks me to no end is the great sanctity and reverence placed on stones of the retaining wall, while the Temple Mount itself lay in ruin. While everyday the Holy Mount is desecrated by [Palestinianas] who use this sacred land as a garbage dump and a football field.”
While Wander’s assertions may sound absurd, they are in fact accurate, and the Palestinians are afforded unrestricted and largely unmonitored access to the holy site, frequently using it for non-holy purposes.
“While the actual wooden beams from our destroyed holy temple sit in a corner on the Mount and rot, not a peep, not the slightest word of being disturbed by these atrocities are heard from almost any of the mainstream rabbinic leaders,” Wander continued.
Indeed, adjacent to the Sha’ar HaRachamim (Gate of Mercy, also known as the Golden Gate) is a pile of timber covered in a blue tarpaulin. Though they appear to be debris and are treated as such by the Muslims, some of these timbers are from Solomon’s Temple.
“How twisted is this situation in which the outer retaining wall is given more attention than the inner sanctum that it surrounds!,” Wander wrote. He then described a creative solution.
“Allow all the western wall stones to be removed and moved to Jewish communities in the exile,” Wander suggested. “Maybe they can be auctioned off to Lakewood and Monsey, Boro Park, and LA to raise funds for the building of the actual Temple.”
“This will accomplish several things simultaneously…First, the Jews who only came to Israel to visit the wall will no longer need to trouble themselves; they can have the Kotel right in their shuls. It will also allow the clearing out of the Kotel plaza, which we will soon need for VIP parking. We need to start preparing the lot for the Melech HaMoshiach and his entourage, the Kohain Gadol and the Mishmarot haKehuna and Leviim and, of course the Sanhedrin.”
“Most importantly, it will open up Jewish minds, for those who are willing to hear the truth. That the western retaining wall’s entire significance is what lays beyond it! Let us stop worshiping the wall and recognize the importance of God’s presence behind it, waiting patiently for her children to remember her.”
