of the Western Wall
During the almost 2,000 years of the Jewish exile and dispersion from Israel, many wars have been fought over Jerusalem. All told, the city has been destroyed and rebuilt no less than 9 times - with each conqueror further attempting to obscure the glorious Jewish past.
But through the centuries, one symbol has miraculously remained intact: the Western Wall. It represents the indestructibility of the Jewish People.
Song of Songs 2:8-9
The voice of my Beloved! Behold it came suddenly to redeem me, as if leaping over
mountains, skipping over hills. In His swiftness to redeem me, my Beloved is like a
gazelle or a young hart. I thought I would be forever alone. But behold! He stands
behind our wall, observing through the windows, peering through the lattices.
Midrash Rabba, Song of Songs 2:4
"Behold - He stands behind our wall" - this
refers to the Western Wall of the Temple. Why so? Because God has sworn that it will
never be destroyed.
Midrash Rabba, Exodus 2:2
Rabbi Eleazer said: The Divine Presence never departed from the Temple, as it is written,
'For now I have chosen and sanctified this house so that My name shall be there forever
and My eyes and My heart will be there all the days' (II Chronicles 7:16)... Even when
[the Temple] is destroyed, it remains in its sanctity... Even when it is destroyed, God
does not leave it.
Rebbe Acha said: The Shechina (Divine Presence) will never depart from the Western Wall, as it is written, "Behold - He stands behind our wall" (Song of Songs 2:9).
Midrash Rabba, Lamentations 1:31
When Vespasian had subdued the city, he assigned the destruction of the four ramparts to
the four generals. The Western Wall was allotted to Pangar. Now it had been decreed by
Heaven that this should never be destroyed because the Shechinah dwells in the west. The
others demolished their sections but Pangar did not demolish his.
Vespasian sent for him and asked, "Why did you not destroy your section?" He replied, "By your life, I acted so for the honor of your empire; for if I had demolished it, nobody would know (in the time to come) what it was you destroyed; but when people look at the Western Wall, they will exclaim, 'Behold the might of Vespasian from what he didn't destroy!'" From the Discovery Seminar Sourcebook
