The Western Wall, in Hebrew, HaKotel HaMa’aravi, is the remaining wall of the Jewish Second Temple, the most sacred building in Judaism. It was built on the site of the first temple, also called Solomon’s Temple, which was erected in the tenth century BCE. The Gate of Heaven is said to be located directly above HaKotel. Because it is so near to heaven, people inscribe prayers and wishes on pieces of paper and place them in the cracks in the walls in the hopes that their requests will be granted.
The Dome of The Rock, built in 691 CE, is directly above HaKotel. It contains the rock which is considered the foundation from which God created the universe and, later, where Abraham prepared to slay Isaac. Jacob is said to have slept on this rock and dreamt of a ladder leading to heaven, with angels going up and down on it. In Islamic belief this is the rock from which Muhammad ascended to heaven.
HaKotelis also sometimes referred to as “the Wailing Wall,” a derogatory term that refers to...
Bibliography
Skolnik, F. (Ed.). (2006). Encyclopedia Judaica. New York: Macmillan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Somerstein, L. (2020). Western Wall. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_741
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_741
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24347-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24348-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences