Judaism is also a major faith in Jerusalem. The Jewish
Quarter is situated in the south-east corner of the Old City. Jerusalem
has long been embedded into Jewish religious consciousness and Jews have always
studied and personalized the struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem
and his desire to build the Holy Temple there, as described in the Book of
Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Many of King David's yearnings
about Jerusalem have been adapted into popular prayers and songs. Jews believe
that in the future the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem will become the center of
worship and instruction for all mankind and consequently Jerusalem will become
the spiritual center of the world.
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Jerusalem has
also been mentioned several times in the Torah too, Judaism’s holy book. In Talmud: Kiddushin
49b, it says, "Ten
measures of beauty descended to the world, nine were taken by Jerusalem." In
many ways, Jerusalem is the very heart and soul of Judaism, Jewish history, and
the Jewish people. Many events in Jewish history have happened in Jerusalem,
these include: (1738)
BCE The first Jew goes to Jerusalem, (1948) The Jordanians destroy the Jewish
Quarter of Jerusalem and (1967) The Six-Day War and Jerusalem-Yom Yerushalayim.
In this Judaism section, we hope to inform you about two of the most important Jewish places in Jerusalem; the Western Wall and Hezekiah’s tunnel. |
the western wall
The Western Wall is the last remaining piece of
an ancient wall that surrounded the area on which the Jew’s Holy Temple once
stood. Jewish people believe that Temple Mount is built upon the hillside of Mount
Moriah. The Western Wall is also called the Kotel by Jewish people. Jews
believe that the creation of the world was from the Foundation Stone at the top
of the mountain and that Adam, the first human, was also created atop this
mountain. The Foundation stone is also where Abraham was commanded by God to
sacrifice his son Isaac, a story that Judaism shares with Christianity. In the
Torah, it says that Solomon’s temple was built on top of what is now known as
the Temple Mount (but was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BC)
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Many
people, then AND now, come to the Western Wall to put prayers for grief, hopes
and thanks in the wall. Jews also came here during WW2, a horrible time for
Jews across the globe who were being massacred because of their religion, to
pray to God. Click here http://english.thekotel.org/SendNote.asp?icon=1 to send your own note to the Kotel. According to the Kabbalah, it is where the divine
presence of God rests and prayers are answered there. No wonder, then, that
people travel from all over the world to partake in the long-standing tradition
of placing inside the cracks of the Western Wall a slip of paper containing a
prayer, a request, or a personal wish. The Western Wall is not directly
mentioned in the Torah, but IS mentioned in the Bible; Revelation 11:1-19.
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Hezekiah's tunnel
In the 7th Century BC,
there was a powerful nation growing in the Middle East: the Assyrian Empire.
The Assyrians had conquered much of the land around Israel, including modern
day Iraq, parts of Turkey and Egypt. At this time, Jerusalem was home to a
large Jewish population and was ruled by King Hezekiah.
In 701BC, the Assyrian army was ordered to capture Jerusalem. However, because the city’s walls were so strong, they knew they wouldn’t be able to attack the city using force. Instead they decided to lay siege on Jerusalem – they stood guard around the city day and night to stop any food, water, or supplies from entering or leaving the city – they wanted to starve the people out! Hezekiah began preparations to protect Jerusalem. In an effort to deprive the Assyrian army of water, springs outside the city were blocked. Workers then dug a 533 meter tunnel under the city walls to the Spring of Gihon. The tunnel provided the city with fresh water. The Assyrian army couldn’t cope without a water supply and so eventually they surrendered. Jerusalem and the Jewish people survived! |
Hezekiah’s tunnel is mentioned in
the bible in 2 Kings
20:20 and 2 Chronicles
32. In June of 1880, some
school boys wandered into the tunnel and one of them discovered strange
markings on the wall about twenty feet in from a pool of water. The writing consisted of six lines of ancient
Hebrew script which described the triumph of the ancient engineers’ remarkable
feat in constructing the tunnel. The importance of this discovery may be
summarized as follows:
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