Rabbi debunks myth, calls for peace

The Western Wall in Jerusalem is not part of Solomon’s Temple, announced the former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Reuven Hammer, in an article published by The Jerusalem Post on July 3, 2016.

Hammer accused some religious groups of attempting to monopolise Jewish life in Israel and endeavour to give sanctity to places that are not sacred in the Jewish religion.

In his article, he says that the wall is part of Herod’s, rather than of Solomon’s, Temple.

“I am astonished at the exaggerated statements concerning the
sacredness of the wall. Judaism has very few places that are
considered sacred. Looked at objectively, the Kotel, after all, is not a wall of the temple at all. It is a retaining wall created in order to enlarge the top of the mountain and provide a large platform for the glorified temple that Herod wanted to create. That makes it extremely important logistically, but does not make it holy.”

Haredi groups that want to accelerate the return of the Messiah and to rebuild the Third Temple claim that the two Muslim sanctuaries, the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, are built on the same site as Solomon’s Temple and should be demolished.

Such an action would result in an immediate religious war between Muslims and Jews, not only in Jerusalem, but all over Palestine.

In his lengthy article, Rabbi Hammer concludes: “As for the temple itself, since rebuilding it now would require demolishing the Dome of the Rock and would spark a terrible war, even
to contemplate it is unthinkable and the height of irresponsibility.

“The temple must be a place of peace, the Holy Book says. And that they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war” (Isaiah 2:2-4).

“That is a vision of a messianic time of peace and human unity that I can hope will come to pass some day, but it is not a call to rebuilding the temple under present conditions.

“The battles now waging concerning the Kotel are important because they are part of the struggle for religious pluralism and religious freedom for Jews in the state of Israel. They have nothing to do with the holiness of the place.”