“But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O LORD my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day. May your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, this place of which you said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that you will hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place. Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.”
1 Kings 8:27-30 (Part of Solomon’s prayer of dedication for the Temple)
The Temple Mount is the focal point of Jerusalem, both historically and today. In Hebrew it’s called Har HaBayit (Mount of the House) and in Arabic Haram Ash-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). This is the place where God instructed David and Solomon to build his house, replacing the tabernacle as the place where God would dwell among his people. That temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and rebuilt again after the exile. The platform visible today is from the Second Temple, which was expanded by Herod the Great a couple decades before Jesus was born. The Temple was built on this retaining platform. There’s a hill underneath it, but the platform made a larger artificial hill about 37 acres in size.
The Western Wall is one of the retaining walls of the platform (on the west). According to Jewish tradition, God’s presence left the Holy of Holies in the Temple and went into that wall, making this an important place of prayer throughout the ages. The Western Wall Plaza opened up after Israel captured the Old City from Jordan in 1967.
Once on top, we wandered around the large platform. It’s open to non-Muslims Sunday-Thursday mornings and early afternoons. Non-Muslims aren’t allowed in the Dome of the Rock at the center anymore. That place is the main candidate for where people think the Holy of Holies used to be given the bedrock that is exposed inside.
