Some people feel that the lord makes the Western Wall holy. Other people cannot see the lord in the wall. But it is there. If you look towards the upper center of the exposed part of the Western wall you can very clearly see a capital L. You have to ignore it. Right next to the ignored letter there is a lower case l, which may look like an uppercase I to the untrained eye. After the lowercase l there is an obvious O. right after that is a lowercase r. The r has a little hook on the bottom, and that is to give reward to those who see it anyways and punishment for those who scoff and say it is not an r. This is similar to the reason why God made nature seem so natural, so that scoffers have the ability to say, there is no lord. If it were obvious, there would be no freedom of choice. Finally, after the r is an upper case D.
Tradition has it, that this is the spot that the lord's presence was felt the most during the time after the bais hamikdash was destroyed, but before the mosque was built. There are 2 traditions as to how the word lord appeared on the wall, in the exact spot that the lord's presence was felt. On commonly held view is that it was chiseled by Reuven ben Chaim, a known sculptor in the second temple era, as the second temple was burning. He felt that as God's house was burning, he would make a new temporary home for the lord close by until he could have a new house built. The second tradition is that it appeared miraculously one day as a beaten and battered woman was standing at the wall pouring out her heart to the lord. She finally cried, lord, show me your sign. When she looked up, she felt some light debris fall on her face and then she saw the word lord engraved in the wall. There were eyewitnesses to both accounts, so it is possible that they are both true, and that after the second temple was burnt, the word lord was covered by dir and debris, which wasn't knocked off until after the woman's prayer.
Until Eliuyahu Hanavi comes and clarifies, I suspect that it will remain a question in some people's minds of the exact significance of the lord's name.
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2 comments:
Excellent and informative post.
My son took a picture of the Kotel with a man sitting in front praying. I had the picture enlarged and hung it inside the house. There is a place where many letters and papers are placed inside, and it looks like the outline of the Star of David.
Be well.
Just checking in on my friend to make sure all is well.
I cannot sleep. (see my post.) At least I can blog with the Israeli's who are experiencing the middle of the morning at this time.
Be well.
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