Editing Western Wall (section)

===History as place of prayer===
Jews were banned from Jerusalem by the Roman authorities after the [[Second Jewish revolt]] (2nd century CE) and, although there are intermittent accounts of limited [[9th of Av]] services on the Temple Mount, no sources from before the 7th-century Islamic conquest attest to any other Jewish services allowed near the Mount and many report that none were permitted. Sources conflict with regard to the Mount's status under Islamic rule, but Karaite commentator [[Salmon ben Jeroham]] ({{Circa|950}} CE) reports that Jews were initially granted wide access to the Mount, then restricted to gathering near "one of its gates", then banned entirely before his own time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neubauer |first=Adolf |title=Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek: Beiträge und Documente zur Geschichte des Karäerthums und der karäischen Literatur |trans-title= From the Petersburg Library: Contributions and Documents on the History of the Karaites and Karaite Literature |page= 109 |date=1866 |publisher=Oskar Leiner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lUFDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA109}} Document in [[Judeo-Arabic]], Hebrew script.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Jacob |title=Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature: Ḳaraitica |date=1972 |publisher=Ktav Publishing House |isbn=978-0-87068-085-4 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6muQAAAAIAAJ}}</ref>

====10th–12th centuries====
However, a synagogue was apparently founded by the Western Wall (in the broader sense) shortly after the time of Salmon. The [[Ahimaaz ben Paltiel#Chronicle of Ahimaaz |Scroll of Ahimaaz]], a historical chronicle written in 1050 CE, describes:<blockquote>Samuel his son arose to replace [Paltiel], and this great man filled his father's place [in {{Circa|980}} CE] ... [He] dedicated 20,000 golden [[Ancient drachma| drachmas]] to the One Who Dwells on High, to entreat the favor of the Rider of Clouds. These were alms for the poor...; oil for the synagogue in the western wall, for [the lamps on] its ''[[bema]]'' ...<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Yahuda |first= Yitzhak Yehezkel |date= 1928 |title= כתל המערבי |trans-title= The Western Wall |lang= he |journal=[[Zion (journal) |Zion]] |volume= 3 |pages= 120–121 |jstor= 23539724 |issn= 0792-528X |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23539724}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last= Dinaburg |first= Ben-Zion |author-link= Ben-Zion Dinur |date=1928 |title= 'בית תפילה ומדרש' ליהודים על הר־הבית בימי הערבים |trans-title= 'A House of Prayer and Study' for Jews on the Temple Mount in the Days of the Arabs |lang= he |journal=[[Zion (journal) |Zion]] |volume=3 |pages= 62–63 |jstor= 23539722 |issn= 0792-528X |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23539722}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= מגילת אחימעץ |trans-title= The Scroll of Ahimaaz |lang= he |website= HebrewBooks.org  |page=47 |url= https://hebrewbooks.org/38867 |access-date= 2024-02-15}}</ref></blockquote>This account of Jewish prayer at the edge of the Mount in confirmed by [[Daniel ben Azariah]], who writes ({{Circa|1055}} CE) that Jews were then permitted to "pray near the Mount's gates".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Jacob |title=The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine Under the Fāṭimid Caliphs: A Contribution to Their Political and Communal History Based Chiefly on Genizah Material Hitherto Unpublished |date=1920 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=46  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3ra5sWmaqkC&pg=PP7}}</ref>

In 1099 CE the Crusader army [[Siege of Jerusalem (1099)| captured Jerusalem]], killing almost every Jew inside, and banned Jewish pilgrims from approaching the Mount. In his ''Scroll of Revelation'' ({{Circa|1125}} CE), [[Abraham bar Hiyya]] records that:<ref>{{Cite web |author=[[Abraham bar Hiyya]] |title=מגלת המגלה |trans-title= Scroll of the Revealer (Megilat ha-Megaleh) |lang= he |website= hebrewbooks.org |pages= 99–100 |url= https://hebrewbooks.org/6263}}</ref><blockquote>... the Romans who destroyed the Temple in the days of the evil [[Titus]], though they despoiled its sanctuary, never claimed any ownership of the holy Mount or any need to pray there. But ever since the evil [[Constantine the Great| Constantine]] converted to Christianity, they have begun to make these claims ... Since [1099 CE] the Christians have desecrated the Mount, made the citadel their church, brought their idols within it, and prevented Jews from praying there. Ever since those villains took over the Mount, no Jew has been allowed to enter it, and none are to be found in all Jerusalem.</blockquote>
[[File:Western_Wall_in_Florence_Scroll.jpg|thumb|Western Wall in the "Florence Scroll", a {{Circa|1315}} Jewish pilgrimage guide. The Gates of Mercy are shown adjacent or perhaps as part of the wall.<ref>צרפתי, רחל, ואלחנן ריינר. ''מגילת פירנצה : ייצוג מוקדם של המסורת החזותית של תיאור המקומות הקדושים''. אוניברסיטת תל-אביב, 2016.</ref>]]
In another reversal by {{Circa|1167}} CE, during the later [[Kingdom of Jerusalem |Crusader period]], the Western Wall was reopened to Jewish prayer. [[Benjamin of Tudela]] attests:<blockquote>. . . and the Gate of [[Jehoshaphat]], which faced the Temple in ancient times. There is the ''[[Templum Domini |Templi Domini]],'' which is the site of the Temple, and on it is a large and very beautiful dome built by [[Umar]] bin al-Khataab. Although they come to pray, the gentiles do not bring any images or effigies onto the site. And in front of this place is the western wall, which was one of the walls in{{Efn|The exact meaning of this phrase (אחד מן הכתלים שהיו [נ"א +במקדש] בקדש הקדשים ''which was one of the walls'' [1 MS: +''in the Temple''] ''in the holy of holies'') is obscure, confused by the preposition ב ''in''. Most translators emend to "of the [[Holy of Holies]]," but Yisrael Ariel argues that the meaning of ''Qodesh haqQodashim'' ({{lit|Holy of Holies}}) had expanded to include a larger portion of the site, just as had those of ''haBayyit hagGadol'' ({{lit|the Great House}}) and ''haAzarah'' ({{lit|the court but see following note}}).}} the Holy of Holies; this is called the Gate of Mercy{{Efn|Today [[Golden Gate (Jerusalem)|"Gate of Mercy"]] refers to a literal gate on the eastern side of the platform. According to Samuel Rabinowitz (2012), ''The Western Wall'' [in Hebrew], p. 262, Benjamin intends "gate of mercy" as a [[term of art]] meaning "place where prayer is received favorably" (cf. Talmudic idiom "he knocked on the gates of mercy" viz. "he prayed"); others, however, assume the reverse: that the Gate of Mercy was once known as the "western wall".}} and hither come all the Jews to pray before the wall in the courtyard{{Efn|The term ''azara'' in its technical sense refers only to the inner court of the Temple, including the central building and the altars. However, Benjamin's contemporaries used it loosely to refer to a different part of, or even the whole of, the Temple site. See Yisrael Ariel, "Prayer on the Temple Mount" (1995) [in Hebrew] in ''Memorial Volume for Rabbi Shlomo Goren'', ed. Yitzhak Alfasi, p. 268. Similarly, [[Al-Biruni]] (c. 1000 CE) refers to a ritual on [[Simchat Torah]] in which the Jews would "assemble in the ''harhara'' of Jerusalem" for a procession (''[[The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries |The Chronology of Ancient Nations]]'', ed. [[Eduard Sachau]] (1879), p. 270), and one [[Cairo Geniza]] letter refers to "Rabbi Musa who was killed in the ''azara'' by the [[Karaite Judaism|Ananites]]" (''JQR'' V p. 554).}}.<ref name="itinerary222">Adler N. M. (1907), ''The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela'', London; p. 23 (English) and p. 24 (Hebrew).</ref></blockquote>

====17th century====
In 1625, David Finzi reported to the Jewish leadership of [[Carpi, Emilia-Romagna|Carpi]] that:<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Benayahu |first=Meir |date=1987 |title=ספור דברים מורגלים בירושלים |journal=Asuppot |volume=1 |pages=215–242 |via=Otzar}}</ref><blockquote>. . . from there we went up to the Temple Mount, passing mundane structures until we reached the peak of the Mount, where once the Temple stood, which was destroyed for our sins. Now a mosque is built upon it, and Jews are prohibited from entering it; only outside it, near the Western Wall, are Jews allowed to gather, and even this only in peaceful times—in difficult times, such as these, the Jewish community has decreed that no one go there.

But in the first week of our visit, before this decree, we went all the way in, and kissed it, and I prostrated myself before its base, and there I said the ordered prayers, and also entreated God to bless all the Jews of Carpi ... Though it is called the Western Wall, nothing of the Temple whatever survived the destruction, the looting by thieves, and the construction of the mosque. They built a [[Dome of the Rock|citadel]] on the site of the [[Foundation Stone]], surpassingly lovely ...</blockquote>Tensions eventually calmed again. Gedaliah of [[Siemiatycze]], who lived in Jerusalem from 1700 to 1706, records that:<ref name=":1" /><blockquote>Only Muslims are permitted to enter the Mount and not Jews or other peoples, unless they convert to the Muslim faith. They say that not just any faith is worthy of the Mount, and they continually remind us that the Muslims have superseded the Jews in the eyes of God. When we go to pray at the Wall, we press right up against it, like the lover in [[Song of Songs]] who "standeth behind our wall". On the [[Rosh Chodesh|eve of the New Moon]], on [[Tisha B'Av|Tisha ba'Av]], and on other [[Ta'anit|fast days]], we go there to pray, and the women to raise their plangent cries, but no one challenges us, and even the ''qadi'' who lives there does not object. Though the Arab youths sometimes come to prey on us, they are easily bribed to leave us alone, and if caught by their own elders they are rebuked ... Prayer by the Wall usually meets with God's favor ... . Once in olden times, or so I heard, there was a terrible drought. The Jews declared a day of fasting, and they went with a Torah scroll to the Western Wall to pray, and God answered their prayers so readily that they had to wrap the scroll in their clothes on their return to the synagogue. Every Sabbath morning, after the services at the synagogue, we immediately set off for the Western Wall ... every single one of us, [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazic]] and [[Sephardic Jews|Sephardic]], old and young ... there we recite those Psalms that mention Jerusalem, and ''Pitom haQtores'', and ''[[Aleinu|Aleinu l'Shabeach]]'', and the [[Kaddish]], and we bless those in the diaspora who fundraise for [[Land of Israel|Eretz Yisrael]] ... .</blockquote>

====18th–19th centuries====
{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#f9f9f9; width:30em; max-width: 27%;" cellspacing="5"
| style="text-align: left;" |"On Friday afternoon, March 13, 1863, the writer visited this sacred spot. Here he found between one and two hundred Jews of both sexes and of all ages, standing or sitting, and bowing as they read, chanted and recited, moving themselves backward and forward, the tears rolling down many a face; they kissed the walls and wrote sentences in Hebrew upon them... The lamentation which is most commonly used is from [[Psalm 79]]:1 "O God, the heathen are come into Thy inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled."
(Rev. James W. Lee, 1863)<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|1863|p=147}}</ref>
|} The writings of various travellers in the Holy Land, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, tell of how the Wall and its environs continued to be a place of devotion for the Jews.<ref name= report1930/> Isaac Yahuda, a prominent member of the [[Sephardic]] community in Jerusalem recalled how men and women used to gather in a circle at the Wall to hear sermons delivered in [[Judeo-Spanish|Ladino]]. His great-grandmother, who arrived in Palestine in 1841, "used to go to the Western Wall every Friday afternoon, winter and summer, and stay there until candle-lighting time, reading the entire Book of Psalms and the Song of Songs...she would sit there by herself for hours."<ref>{{cite book
| last= Deutsch
| first= Nathaniel
| title= The Maiden of Ludmir
| year= 2003
| publisher= [[University of California Press]]
| isbn= 0-520-23191-0
| page= 199
| chapter= In the Holy Land
}}</ref>

====20th–21st centuries====
In the past{{dubious|This is not an acceptable definition. I presume it refers to C20. If (also) C19, place it there - if the source gives clear indication for it.|date=March 2020}} women could be found sitting at the entrance to the Wall every Sabbath holding fragrant herbs and spices in order to enable worshipers to make additional blessings. In the hot weather they would provide cool water. The women also used to cast lots for the privilege of sweeping and washing the alleyway at the foot of the Wall.<ref name= SLC/>

Throughout several centuries, the Wall is where Jews have gathered to express gratitude to God or to pray for divine mercy. On news of the [[Normandy landings]] on June 6, 1944 thousands of Jews went to the Wall to offer prayers for the "success of His Majesty's and Allied Forces in the liberation of all enemy-occupied territory."<ref>{{cite book
| last= Gilbert
| first= Martin
| author-link= Martin Gilbert
| title= Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century
| year= 1996
| publisher= [[Chatto & Windus]]
| location= London
| isbn= 0-7011-3070-9
| page= 167
| chapter= The Second World War, 1939–1945
}}</ref> On October 13, 1994, 50,000 gathered to pray for the safe return of kidnapped soldier [[Nachshon Wachsman]].<ref>{{cite book
| last= Gilbert
| first= Martin
| author-link= Martin Gilbert
| title= Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century
| year= 1996
| publisher= [[Chatto & Windus]]
| location= London
| isbn= 0-7011-3070-9
| page= 353
| chapter= Towards the Twenty-First Century
}}</ref> August 10, 2005 saw a massive prayer rally at the Wall. Estimates of people protesting [[Israel's unilateral disengagement plan]] ranged from 50,000 to 250,000 people.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}<ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3125587,00.html
| title= 70,000 protest pullout at Western Wall
| last= Marciano
| first= Ilan
| access-date =December 26, 2007
| date= August 10, 2005
| work= [[Ynet]]
}}</ref> Every year on [[Tisha B'Av]] large crowds congregate at the Wall to commemorate the destruction of the Temple. In 2007 over 100,000 gathered.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123174
| title= 100,000 Jews At Western Wall for Tisha B'Av 5767
| last= Ratzlav-Katz
| first= Nissan
| access-date =December 26, 2007
| date= July 23, 2007
| publisher= [[Arutz Sheva]]
}}</ref> During the month of [[Tishrei]] 2009, a record 1.5 million people visited the site.<ref>Judith Weil. "Kosel Visitors record", ''Jewish Tribune'', October 22, 2010.</ref>