Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jews and Israel (8/12) Previous Document: Question 14.14: I want to move to Israel. Can I become a citizen? Next Document: Question 14.16: Questions on aliyah, military service for olim and more See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Answer: The term "wailing wall" is not used by Jews, who instead prefer the term "kotel/kosel hamaaravi," Western Wall. The Western wall is a remainder of the wall on the outer perimiter of the mountain (although some people mistakenly believe it was the only remaining structure from the second temple left standing after the Roman destruction). Since the Jews are currently considered to be in a state of "ritual impurity" until a special ritual/procedure can be performed (notably the ashes of the red heifer), the traditional view is that no Jew may set foot on the actual site of the temple and this is the closest they can come to praying at the temple site. [Note: According to Rav Shlomo Goren, Jews can go on the southest 120 meters of the temple mount. This is the result of intersecting all the ideas of all the POSKIM.] User Contributions:Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Jews and Israel (8/12) Previous Document: Question 14.14: I want to move to Israel. Can I become a citizen? Next Document: Question 14.16: Questions on aliyah, military service for olim and more Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: SCJ FAQ Maintainer <maintainer@scjfaq.org>
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
|
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: