Wailing Wall

Although I missed class on Tuesday and was moved to the group who will be presenting on the Western Wall, it presented me with the opportunity to look at some of the information that my group mates had gathered during their time in the library. Many of these sources they had compiled referred to the Western Wall as the Wailing Wall as well. Although I’ve heard this term my entire life (and have used it numerous times myself), up until this point I had not really taken into consideration the reason behind the alternative name of the Western Wall. I assumed it was perhaps simply because people wept (or wailed) at the wall, but I couldn’t be sure.

It was actually very surprising to me that the Jewish people today apparently call it solely the “Western Wall”, whereas everyone else uses it almost interchangeably, although “‘Western Wall’ predominates in contemporary non-Jewish usage too” (The western wall). Perhaps even more surprising, however, is that in the 19th century the Western Wall was referred to as “the Wailing Place", but the term “Wailing Wall” didn’t come about until the 20th century, and is the result of the British conquest of Jerusalem in 1917 in which they took the city from the Turks (The western wall). But the question still remained of why it is called, even occasionally, the Wailing Wall. 

It turns out that I was mostly correct in my assumption that the place is called this due to people crying at the wall. The Wailing Wall (which translates to "Place of Weeping" from Arabic (Becher, p 265)), received this description as a result of people crying over the destruction of the temple and the symbolization of the freedom that had been lost (The western wall). This isn’t to mention that many do use the wall to pray, although it isn’t recorded until the 16th century that it is used for this express purpose (The western wall). Nowadays, Jews and visitors from the outside world alike “press their lips against crevices in the masonry as though imploring an answer from some unseen presence within, others utter loud cries of anguish” (The western wall), which results in the common name remaining prevalent in non-Jewish communities.