Ancient boulder dislodges from Western Wall

Rock off Western Wall July 2018.jpg

A large boulder from the Western Wall was dislodged from the ancient structure on Sunday morning, tumbling down onto an egalitarian prayer platform, which was empty at the time. There were no reported injuries in the incident near Robinson’s Arch, south of the main prayer plaza. The smaller of two platforms designated for mixed-gender prayer there was closed until further notice.

“Israel Antiquities Authority officials are dealing with the incident,” said Masorti movement head Yitzhar Hess in a statement posted on Twitter, alongside dramatic footage of the stone coming loose and crashing onto the platform, revealing dirt behind the wall. “This is a wake-up call — we must check the entire Western Wall, both parts, so that heaven forbid there is no disaster in the future,” he added.

The fallen boulder weighed about 220 pounds (100 kilos), Israel Radio said.
The incident came a day after the platform was filled with worshippers marking the Tisha B’Av fast, which honors the destruction of the two Jewish temples in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis also flocked to the main prayer plaza of the Western Wall between Saturday night and Sunday evening to solemnly mark the day.

Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinowitz. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The rabbi of the main Western Wall plaza called for public “soul searching” after the incident. “This is an unusual and most rare incident that has not occurred for decades,” said Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. “The fact that this powerful incident happened a day after the 9th of Av fast, in which we mourned the destruction of our temples, raises doubts and questions which the human soul is too small to contain, and requires soul-searching.” “I thank the creator that a heavy disaster was averted,” he added.

Following the stone’s fall from one of the original Herodian courses of the Western Wall, a team of IAA experts, including archaeologists, engineers and conservationists, began careful examination of the affected area.

A team of professionals is deployed to the Robinson’s Arch egalitarian prayer platform next to the Western Wall on July 23, 2018, following the fall of a Herodian stone. (Courtesy the Masorti Movement/Rabbi Valerie Stessin)
In a statement, the IAA said there were a number of possibilities that may have led to the stone’s fall, such as vegetation growing in the wall’s cracks, or entrapped moisture that may have led to the stone’s wear. There is also the possibility of a still unknown engineering failure.

“With the help of advanced technological methods, IAA experts will begin careful monitoring in the area of the fall, as part of a survey of the entire area and the formulations of recommendations for the elimination of such danger,” said the IAA. “The Israel Antiquities Authority is aware of the sensitivity required in handling this case and will work in cooperation with all the relevant bodies.”

Anyone visiting the site will note that there are already several gaps in the Western Wall, where large Herodian stones have crumbled in the past. In a notable case in 2004, large pieces of Western Wall stone fell in the mainstream prayer plaza — slightly injuring a Yom Kippur worshipper — due to erosion caused by foreign metal objects inserted into the wall’s cracks by birds.

One of the original archaeologists at the site told The Times of Israel that some minor patch work was done during the Western Wall’s excavation in the 1970s.
Al-Aqsa Mosque director Omar al-Kiswani denied that anyone on the Temple Mount pushed the rock down to the bottom.