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There are many customs whose purpose is the same: to remember Jerusalem. In small and large events, personal and national, we mention Jerusalem. But what is the “remembrance of destruction” of Jerusalem itself?
It has been over a hundred years since the Western Wall area has been excavated. During the excavations, remnants of the ancient city and its vibrant life, which existed here thousands of years ago, were discovered. In the excavations of the Western Wall Tunnels, which exposes the full length of the original Western Wall, stone fragments of the Wall were found on the floor. The dimensions of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus were revealed through the excavations.
After the burning of the Temple and the massacre of the city’s inhabitants, the Roman soldiers turned to the destruction of the city itself, its walls, and towers, leaving behind devastation and ruin. The remnants of the destruction of the Wall and the Temple Mount can still be seen today in the excavations of the Western Wall, both on its southern and northern sides.
This destruction is consistent with the description of the destruction of the First Temple, which occurred on the exact same date, six hundred years earlier, as described by the prophet Jeremiah: “Is this the city that they called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
These testimonies of destruction, these silent stones, allow us to touch an ancient longing for a city of complete beauty, which we rebuild every day through memories and small acts.
