the western wall and yad vashem as pilgrimage site
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The Western wallTHE KOTEL/ WAILING WALL
The Western (wailing) Wall Though the temple
was rebuilt, the religion became more and more what it ultimately would become, a religion of synagogues, where worship consisted of study of Scriptures without sacrifices.
Formerly known as the `Wailing Wall` - a reference to Jews lamenting the loss of the Second Temple - is the holiest site in Judaism.
To Jews around the world it is a link with the heritage of a people whose recorded history stretches back to the promised land more than 4,000 years ago.
The Wailing Wall
All Jews aspire to visit the Wailing Wall in the belief that it is the one place where God will listen to their supplications.
Jews believe the `gateway to heaven` lies beneath the ancient stones.
Jewish men and women, separated by a barrier, are to be seen praying along the wall at every hour of the day.
As directed in the talmud they stand close to and facing the wall as though they were standing in front of the Kodesh Hakadosim, Holy of Holies in the sanctuary itself
The site
Devotions at the wall have taken place continuously (rabbinic belief that ‘the Divine Presence` never departs from the Western Wall, i.e the shekhinah of God).
It is a tradition for worshippers to wedge pieces of paper with written supplications into the crevices
between the stones and all along the length of the wall people are to be seen pushing petitions into the cracks beseeching
the Divine to bestow on them good fortune, a happy marriage and healthy children
What happens there
What happens there
• Bar Mitzvah ceremonies celebrating a boy`s maturity are held there
• while newly married couples, still wearing their wedding finery, arrive to say special prayers for their future together.
As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future
generations.
Can be found on the outskirts of Jerusalem and it means 'lasting memorial
It is a memorial to the Jews who were murdered during the holocaust. Between 1933 and 1945 six
million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
The Authority also commemorates the heroism and fortitude of the Jewish partisans and the fighters in the Ghetto revolts
Established in 1953, as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust
Yad Vashem
Everyone should visit the memorial so that the world never forgets. The task of Yad Vashem is to perpetuate the memory and lessons of the Holocaust for future generations
The museum combines contemporary visual and textural documentation with artifacts and brief written explanations, to tell the story of the Holocaust from the Nazis’ rise to power through the first post-war years. It is situated in Jerusalem.
The site
The Hall of Remembrance: - A solemn tent-like structure that allows visitors to pay their respects to the memories of the martyred dead. Memorial ceremonies are held here.
The approach to the Hall of Remembrance is lined with trees planted in honor of non-Jewish men and womenThe Hall of Names: - It houses pages of testimony commemorating the names and biographical details of Jews who perished during the Holocaust. Martyred dead are remembered not as anonymous numbers but as individual human beings.
Memorial to the deportees: - It is a monument to the millions of Jews herded onto cattle-cars and transported from all over Europe to the extermination camps. An original cattle-car appropriated by the German Railway authorities and given to Yad Vashem by the Polish authorities stands at the centre of the memorial site. It symbolizes the journey towards annihilation and oblivion.
The site cont.
The Valley of the Communities is a 2.5 acre monument that was dug out from the natural bedrock.
Engraved on the massive stone walls of the memorial are the names of over five thousand Jewish communities that were destroyed and of the few that suffered but survived in the shadow of the Holocaust.
The Memorial to the Deportees is an original cattle-car which was used to transport thousands of Jews to the death camps.
Nearly 100,000 photographs, film footage and the videotaped testimonies of survivors. The library contains more than 80,000 titles, thousands of periodicals, and a large number of rare documents.
Garden with sculpture of the events of the holocaust.
The site cont.