Trick Question...

What is the holiest site of the Jewish People?

Easy. No sweat.

Of course, everyone knows, the holiest site to the Jewish People is the Kotel (Western Wall), right?

Of course, that answer is incorrect, as the holiest site of the Jewish People is in fact the Temple Mount, of which the Western Wall is merely a supporting wall (and it is only from its connection to the Temple Mount that the Western Wall derives its sanctity). Yet, if one were to read today's Ha'aretz, he would come across the following:

In 1985, when the design of the newly opened Western Wall Tunnel excavated along a buried section of the wall was being debated among rabbis, archaeologists and architects, the main point of debate was how the place of the Temple would be presented during tours of the site. In those days, the chief rabbi of the Western Wall was Rabbi Yehuda Meir Getz, to whom kabbala was very significant. Twenty years on, another controversial figure, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, now holds the post, and the Temple is hardly mentioned in the visitor’s center adjacent to the tunnel, which runs beneath the present-day Muslim quarter of the Old City.

Discussion revolves these days around a more modest goal: bringing the Jewish public, especially the younger generation, to the Western Wall.

It has been found that a significant percentage of Jewish youth in Israel have a minimal connection with Jerusalem and the Western Wall, and as such, a new exhibit is being designed to reach out to this population:

For many young people today, the Western Wall serves as a backdrop to the Memorial Day ceremony they watch on television once a year," he says. "This presentation tries to reach young people in the language and tools of the 21st century, but with content that will make it clear to them that they are links in a magnificent chain that began in the days of the patriarch Abraham and continues to our time."

I think that the motivation behind this project is terrific, and long overdue, but if we are already investing the money, why not connect these Jewish youth to the real deal - the Temple Mount - where the two Holy Temples stood, where Abraham bound Isaac, the true focus of all of our prayers relating to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Holy Temple.

The Western Wall is great, don't get me wrong. But why settle for 2nd best, when you can have it all?

If the goal is to inspire Jewish youth in Israel today, then why not given them a vision, both of a glorious, royal past, and of what the future holds in store for the Jewish People... and it's all happening on the Temple Mount.

Israel
Zionism
Judaism