The stone that fell from the Western Wall six years ago on the night after Tisha B’Av was buried yesterday, Wednesday, alongside the stones of the Western Wall that fell during the destruction of the Second Temple
Yesterday (Wednesday), The Western Wall Heritage Foundation completed a significant process by burying the stone that detached from the 18th row of the southern part of the Western Wall six years ago alongside the stones of the Western Wall that fell during the destruction of the Second Temple.
On the 11th of Menachem Av, 5778, at 5:46 AM during the Netz Hachama prayer, the day after Tisha B’Av, a 400-kilogram stone suddenly detached from the Western Wall and landed on the ground. A woman who was standing nearby at the time was miraculously unharmed.
Following the incident, an engineering preservation survey was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the stones of the Southern Wall were reinforced according to halachic restrictions. After lengthy halachic discussions led by the rabbi of the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, and based on the halachic ruling signed by prominent Torah scholars of the time, including the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the late Rabbi Shalom Cohen of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, Rabbi Asher Weiss, and the chief rabbis of that time, it was decided not to return the fallen stone to its place but to bury it.
In parallel, Rabbi Rabinowitz accepted the recommendation of the structural engineer not to replace the fallen stone, as the engineers presented the need for extensive drilling around the stone’s area, which posed a halachic problem.
Thus, yesterday morning, the fallen stone was ritually buried alongside other stones that were forcibly pushed off the southern section of the Western Wall during the destruction of the Second Temple by Titus.
“And may our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy”
