Jews should be allowed to pray wherever they want, especially in Israel, and especially at Judaism’s most holy place.
Yes but…
Even more holy than the remnants of the outer wall of the courtyard that contained the Temple that contained the Holy of Holies… is the exact place where the Temple stood, the Temple Mount.
[In the above picture, the Kotel is situated at the wall between Barclay’s Gate and Robinson’s Arch.]
The exact place where Abraham held Isaac ready to sacrifice him…This area is known as the Temple Mount, and the sacrificial stone is traditionally understood to be the rock at the center of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, sometimes known as the Dome of the Rock.
In 1967 Israel did not only conquer the area of the Western Wall. Israel also conquered the Temple Mount.
Jews could do more than pray at an outer wall of the former courtyard of the Temple – we could pray at the remnants of the Temple itself. The holiest place in the Jewish world.
But we don’t. There is a beautiful golden-domed Mosque in what was the center of the Temple Mount.
If you ever went up to the Temple Mount and identified yourself as Jewish, you would be arrested if you so much as mumbled to yourself in a “prayer-like” way.
There are Israeli Jews who protest about this.
They argue that if women should be allowed to pray by the Kotel, why can’t all Jews pray at the Temple Mount?
How do we align the right of women to pray at the Kotel with the refusal of Jews’ right to pray at the Temple Mount itself?
Should we support both rights?
Why? Why not?
