HebdoSyna

Parshath Noa’h (נח – Noah from the root נוח (to rest): “he is resting” or “he rested”), Genesis 6:9-11:32.

Genesis 7-6
. וְהַמַּבּוּל הָיָה, מַיִם עַל-הָאָרֶץ …
…and the Flood came, waters covered the earth

In 1879, in Szeged, Hungary, a flood of unprecedented magnitude broke out. Nearly 350 m³ of water per second breaks over the city. Almost the entire city is destroyed. The old synagogue built in 1843 by Henrik and Jozsef Lipovszkyego is one of the few buildings to have remained standing. Located on Hajnóczy Street, it is one of the most remarkable neoclassical buildings in Hungary.

Deemed too small for the community, a new synagogue designed by Leopold Baumhorn^₁ opened in 1903 nearby.

This new synagogue is one of the largest in Hungary^₂. Based on new construction techniques from the beginning of the 20^th century, its frame is entirely metallic. Designed in a mixture of styles: Byzantine (the dome), Romanesque (the columns), Gothic (the starry vault above the organs) and Baroque (the exterior dome), it is considered to be of the secessionist-historicist style (one of the branches of Art Nouveau in vogue in the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

^₁ Lipót (Leopold) Baumhorn (1860-1932) was a Hungarian architect. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery on Kozma Street in Budapest. Over the years, he created his own style of architecture and built more than twenty synagogues (Brașov, Esztergom, Szolnok, Szeged, Budapest, Angyalföld, Gyöngyös, Újpest, Zrenjanin, Murska Sobota, Novi Sad, .. .).
^₂ 48 m long, 35 m wide and 48.6 m high, it has 1,340 seats (740 for men and 600 for women in the galleries.

Parshas Bereshit (בראשית – in a beginning), Genesis 1:1-6:8.
Gd creates the world and sanctify the seventh day. A little before this first Shabbat, he creates Adam and Eve and places them in the middle of the Garden of Eden. Gd commands them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The snake convinces Eve to eat it and she urges Adam to eat it too. As a result of this fault, Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden.
Gd decrees that henceforth man will live by struggle, hardship and woman will give birth in pain and humans will experience death. Eve gives birth to Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel. Gd punishes him for his crime. A third son is born of Adam, Cheth, ancestor of Noah.

Genesis 3:6 – בראשית ג ו
 וַתִּקַּח מִפִּרְיוֹ, וַתֹּאכַל
and she gathered of its fruit and ate it

The first Jewish community was established in 1563. In 1761, a Baroque-style synagogue was built on the site of the wooden one destroyed by the fire of 1733. The 8 bays of the main hall are exceptionally large for a Polish synagogue; Professor Krinsky¹ thinks this reflects the sense of security felt by the Jews who lived under the protection of the castellans of Lancut. In the 19^th century an external staircase was built allowing women to access the gallery.
In 1939, the Jews were expelled from the city. In 1940, Jews from Krakow took refuge in Łańcut. But, in 1942, they were locked up in the Szeniawa² ghetto or killed in the cemetery. The Nazis set fire to the synagogue, but thanks to the action of Count Alfred Potocki (1886-1958) the fire was brought under control. After the war, the synagogue was used as a grain storage. Between 1983 and 1990, a major restoration project was undertaken. Today, the synagogue houses a museum of Judaism.

¹ Carol Herselle Krinsky, born in 1937 in Brooklyn, she is a professor of history at 20th Century Architecture at New York University and Fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians.
² Southwest of Poznań, Central Poland

Parashat Vezot Haberakha (וזאת הברכה – And here is the blessing), Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12.
The text is essentially the blessing of each tribe by Moshe.
Of the twelve tribes? The tribe of Shimon is not mentioned. The tribe of Shimon would have had only one hidden blessing because of Chitim¹ and Shechem². However, in the blessing to Yehudah (33:7) the word Shema would refer to Shimon (שמעון): Shema (שמע) Hashem Kol³ Yehuda (שמע יי קול יהודה) – Hear, HaShem, the voice of Judah. When dividing Eretz Yisrael, Shim’on receives his portion in the midst of Yehuda.

Joshua – Chapter 19 – יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
^_א וַיֵּצֵא הַגּוֹרָל הַשְֵׁנִי, לנִ׹ –לְמַטֵּה בְנֵי-שִׁמְעוֹן, לְמִשְׁפְּחוֹתָם; וַיְהִי, נַחֲלָתָם, בְּתוֹךְ, נַחֲלַת בְּנֵי-יְהוּדָה
^₁ from that of the children of Yehouda.

In Jerusalem’s major hospital, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, is the Abbell Synagogue. This place of worship serves patients and hospital staff. It is here that the famous stained glass windows by Marc Chagall representing the tribes of Israel are installed. In 1959, Doctor Miriam Freund, the president of the hospital and Joseph Neufeld, the architect of the hospital commissioned Marc Chagall to design the stained glass windows of the synagogue representing the tribes of Israel. Chagall and his assistant, Charles Marq, worked on the project for two years. Chagall was inspired by the blessing of Jacob (Genesis, 49) for each of his sons and that of Moshe (deuteronomy 33) on the twelve tribes. Each window is dominated by a specific color and contains blessings. Before their final destination, on February 6, 1962, the stained glass windows were exhibited in Paris and New York.

“all the time I was working, I felt my mom and dad looking over my shoulder; and behind them were Jews, millions of other Jews who had disappeared – from yesterday and a thousand years ago.

¹ Ibn Ezra in his commentary on Bamidbar (The Numbers) 25:1-9.
Numbers 25:1: Israel settles in Shittim. There the people indulged in debauchery with the daughters of Moab. וַיָּחֶל הָעָם, לִזְנוֹת אֶל -בְּנוֹת מוֹאָב: במדבר ככה
² sichem (chkhem – שכם ) city where Chimon and Levi massacred the population. Jacob when he blesses his sons (Genesis 49) rebukes the anger and violence of Shimon and Levi. Although Levi and Shimon were associated in the massacre of Shechem, the Levites proved their attachment to Hashem because they did not participate in the making of the golden calf.
³ Sound similarity between קול (Kol – voice) and כל (kol – all): All of Judah, including the tribe in the middle.

Parshas Haazinu (האזינו – Listen!), Deuteronomy 32:1-52.
Moses exhorts the people to remember the blessings they have enjoyed. He encourages her to remain faithful to Gd and to give thanks to Him. In this parsha there are many allusions to the end times.
The haftarah is read in Samuel II 22:1-51

Samuel II – 22 – שְׁמוּאֵל ב
^_ד מהלל , אקרא יי {ס} ומאיבי, אושע {ר}
^₄ Glory I cried to the Lord, who delivers me of my enemies!

מְהֻלָּל (root הלל): let all glorify and praise Him, famous for good (שהכול מהללים ומשבחים אותו, מפורסם לטם). The Hallel (הלל – Praise [to God]) is a prayer consisting of Psalms 113 to 118. It is recited on most holidays, especially during the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot. There are two prescriptions specific to Sukkot: the obligation to take the four species¹ and that of abiding in the sukkah (סכה or סוכה). According to the Halakha, the sukkah is a structure consisting of 4, 3, or 2 ½ walls² and a roof of cut plants³. For a week, we swap our usual home to live in a sukkah that leaves us at the mercy of the elements, demonstrating our trust in divine protection.

Sukkah of 200m² designed in 2016, by KPF⁴, at Canary Wharf⁵, a district of business, of about forty hectares, developed on the banks of the Thames.

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¹ Etrog (citron), lulav (date palm), hadass (myrtle branch), and the arava (willow branch).
² Haim Yossef David ben Isaac Zeharia Azoulay (חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי) abbreviated as H”ida ( חיד”א), rabbi, kabbalist, Talmudist and Sephardic ruler of the 18th century (Jerusalem, 1724 – Livorno, 1807). writes in the Devach Lefi Midbar Quedamot (דבש לפי מדבר קדמות – The honey of the ancient words) that the shape of each letter of the word Sukkah (סכה) alludes to the number of walls (four walls = ס , three walls = כ or two walls and ½ = ה ) for that a sukkah is kosher.
³ The Skhach (סכך) must be thick enough to provide more shade than light in the sukkah.
⁴ architecture office aiming to design buildings towards carbon neutrality.
⁵ District developed from the 1980s, which has become the most important business center in L waves after the City.

Parash VaYelekh (וילך – he went), Shabbat Shuva¹, Deuteronomy 31:1-30.
At 30 verses, this is the shortest of the weekly sections.

Moses recalls his old age and entrusts Joshua with leading the people. He gives the text of the Torah to the Levites, so that they place it in the Ark of the Covenant.
The haftarah consists of 2 (or 3 passages)² from the Prophets: Hosea 14:2–10 [, Joel 2:11–27] and Micah 7:18–20

Hosea 14 הושע
^ב שובה, ישראל, עַד, יי אלקיך : כי כשלת, בעונך.
² Return, Israel, to the L-rd your Gd; for you have only fallen by your sin.

From the 18^th to the 20^th centuries, the tsarist autocracy made state anti-Semitism reign. It is often the cause of pogroms. In 1917, with the advent of Bolshevism, new forms of anti-Semitism, on a communist ideological background, appeared.
In the years 1928-1938, in response to the Jewish question, Stalin moved around 40,000 Jews³ to an uninhabited territory at the eastern end of Russia, Birobidjan⁴ . From 1947 to 1953, state anti-Semitism raged there with virulence, when Jews represented nearly 40% of the population. Jewish schools, synagogues and all specifically Jewish places are closed. In 1978, a decree from the Central Committee again authorized Jewish culture in the region. But it was not until the advent of perestroika and glasnost⁵ in 1985, under Mikhail Gorbachev⁶ that Jewish life was revived in the region.

In 1986, the Beit T’shuva Synagogue in Birobidjan opened in a simple Siberian-style wooden house. At first, elements of Jewish and Christian traditions mingle. In 2005, the cult became strictly Jewish. In September 2017, the synagogue was renovated and Rav Eli Riss sounded the shofar there.

¹ Shabbat before Yom Kippur
² Depending on communities: Sephardim or Ashkenazi
³ Currently about 3,000 Jews live in Birobidjan.
⁴ The Jewish autonomous region of Birobidjan, named after its capital located at the confluence of the Bira and Bidjan rivers. The official languages ​​are Russian and Yiddish.
⁵ Perestroika (reconstruction): economic, cultural and social reforms and glasnost (transparency): politics of freedom of expression
⁶ Head of state of the USSR (1985-1991), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1990), born in 1931, died on August 30, 2022 in Moscow.

Parashat Nitzavim (ניצבים — standing), Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20. It is always read on the Shabat preceding Rosh Hashana.

Deuteronomy chapter 30 – דְּבָרִים פרק ל
^ו’ ומל יי אלוסקיך את-לבבך, ואת-לבב זרעך:  לאהבה את-יי אלוסקיך, בכל-לבבך ובכל-נפשך–למען חייך
⁶ you love the Eternal, your Gd, with all your heart and with all your soul, and ensure your existence.

Rashi: When you repent, Gd will help you overcome the obstacles that the evil inclination seeks to place in your path. בא להיטהר מסייעים אותו. God helps those who seek to purify themselves (Talmud Bavli, tractate Shabbat 104a:13).

The Talmud¹ by Daniel Bomberg : Circa 1530, an edition of the Talmud printed by Daniel Bomberg² reportedly commissioned by Henry VIII, fascinated by the wisdom of Jewish law in a land forbidden to Jews³. Following his politico-theological dispute⁴ with Pope Clement VII, he proclaimed himself in 1531: supreme head of the Church and clergy of England. In 1546, he founded the Regius chair of Hebrew at the University of Oxford and placed there the following year Richard Bruerne (~1519-1565) who would take possession of the famous Talmud which he bequeathed to his death to the Church of Oxford . A few years later, the Talmud became the property of Westminster Abbey (before 1629). In 1980, Jack Valmadonna Lunzer (1924-2016), a manufactured diamond industrialist and great collector of rare Hebrew books ⁵ acquired the copy of the Talmud from Westminster Abbey in exchange for a medieval copy of the charter of the said abbey. In 2015, the Talmud was put up for sale by Sotheby’s. Leon Black, American investor and art collector, buys it for 9.3 million dollars.

In January 2017, the remaining works from the Valmadonna Trust Library were handed over to the National Library of Israel.

¹⁾ Printed in 9 volumes (393 x 266 mm), it includes the treatises of the first (1519/20-1523 ) and the second (1525-1539) editions. see the detail of the book on the site of Sotheby’s (see the site). We only count, nowadays, only 14 copies of this edition.
²⁾ Daniel van Bomberghen, Flemish publisher-printer of the Renaissance, born in Antwerp around 1483, settled in Venice in 1516, specialist in printing of texts of Hebrew religious literature. Died in this city in 1549.
³⁾ Jews have been forbidden to live in England since their expulsion in 1290 by King Edward I. In 1656, Oliver Cromwell put a definitive end to this prohibition.
⁴⁾ The sovereign wanted his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, widow of his brother Arthur Tudor, to be annulled by the papacy. Controversy based on Leviticus 18.16: prohibition against marrying his brother’s wife, Deuteronomy 25:5: Levirate and Deuteronomy 22:13-21: Repudiation.
⁵⁾ Library of Valmadonna Trust: 13,000 books and manuscripts.

Parashat Ki Thavo (כִּי-תָבוֹא – when you will come), Deuteronomy 26:1-29, 8.

Deuteronomy – 26 – דְּבָרִים
:^_ה וְעָנִיתָ וְאָמַרְתָּ לִפְנֵי יי אֱלֹקיךָ, אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי, וַיֵּרֶד מִצְרַיְמָה, וַיָּגָר שָׁם בִּמְתֵי מְעָט; וַיְהִי-שָׁם, לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל עָצוּם וָרָב
^₅ And you will say aloud before the L-rd, your Gd: An Aramean has [wanted] to annihilate my ancestor. He went down to Egypt and resided there in small numbers and there they became a great, mighty and numerous people.¹

The Aramean is Laban² (לבן), brother of Rebecca, father of Leah and Rachel, uncle and father-in-law of Jacob. He is a devious character who deceived Jacob, then pursued him with the intention of destroying him (see Genesis 31, verses 29 and 30).
The name Lebanon comes from the same root LBN (לבן) meaning white, in reference to the snowpack that covers the mountains in winter.

The first signs of Jewish presence in Lebanon date back to 132, following the Bar Kokhba³ revolt against the Roman Empire. In 1920, the Lebanese State was created by France⁴ following the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. In 1926, a constitution was adopted. It gives equality and freedom of worship to all Lebanese⁵. During the Second World War, Lebanon welcomed some Ashkenazi families fleeing the genocide. In 1948, when the State of Israel declared its independence, many Jews fled the belligerent Arab countries (Syria, Iraq, Jordan) and some emigrated to Lebanon. Currently, there are about 4,000 Lebanese Jews, half of whom work abroad, notably in Cyprus and Greece.

The Maghen Abraham Synagogue⁶ is known to have been the most beautiful in the Middle East. Abandoned and damaged during the Lebanon War (1975-1990), its renovation, undertaken in 2010, was completed in 2019.

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¹ According to Rashi’s translation and the interpretation of the Sifri, and this is also the version found in the Hagada.
² לבן הארמי – Lavan (white) ha-arami (the Aramean).
³ Ben Kozevah” (בן כוזבה) or “Ben Koziva” (בן כוזיבא). Thanks to archeology, we know that his name was actually Shimon Bar (or Ben) Koseva (שמעון בר כוסבא or בר כוסבה).
⁴ Mandate of the League of Nations.
⁵ Chapter 2 of the Lebanese Constitution (in french):
Article 7 All Lebanese are equal before the law. They also enjoy civil and political rights and are also subject to public offices and duties, without distinction of any kind.
Article 8 Individual liberty is guaranteed and protected. No one may be arrested or detained except in accordance with the provisions of the law. No offense and no penalty can be established except by law.
Article 9 Freedom of conscience is absolute. By paying homage to the Most High, the State respects all faiths and guarantees and protects their free exercise provided that public order is not undermined. It also guarantees to the populations, to whatever rite they belong, respect for their personal status and their religious interests.
⁶ shield of Abraham

Ki Tetze (כי תצא — when you leave), Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19.

According to the Sefer HaHinukn¹ (ספר החינוך – Book of Education), parsha Ki Tetze has 47 negative prescriptions and 27 positive prescriptions, including the one levirate².

Deuteronomy – 25 – דְּבָרִים

ה כִּי-יֵשְׁבוּ אַחִים יַחְדָּו, ּמֵת מֵהֶם וּבֵן אֵין-לוֹ- לֹא-תִהְיֶה אֵשֶׁת-context הַחוּצָה, לְאִישׁ זָר:  יְבָמָהּ יָבֹא עָלֶיהָ, וּלְקָחָהּ לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וְיִבְּמָהּ.

⁵ If brothers remain together and one of them dies without issue, the widow cannot marry a foreigner abroad; it is her brother-in-law who must join her. He will therefore take her as his wife, exercising levirate over her.

Levirate and the renunciation of levirate play an important role in the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis chapter 38), as well as that of Boaz and Ruth (Book of Ruth chapter 4)³. Before a quorum of ten men, Boaz acquires all that belonged to Mahlon and marries Ruth, his widow so that the name of the deceased does not die out.

Ruth – 4 – רוּת

^י וְגַם אֶת-רוּת הַמֹּאֲבִיָּה אֵשֶׁת מַחְלוֹן קָנִיתִי לִי לְאִשָּׁה, לְהָקִים שֵׁם-הַמֵּת עַל-נַחֲלָתוֹ, וְלֹא-יִכָּרֵת שֵׁם-הַמֵּת מֵעִם אֶחָיו, וּמִשַּׁעַר מְקוֹמוֹ:  עֵדִים אַתֶּם, הַיּוֹם.
^ט וַיֹּאמֶר בֹּעַז לַזְּקֵנִים וְכָל-הָעָם, עֵדִים אַתֶּם הַיּוֹם, כִּי קָנִיתִי אֶת-כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לֶאֱלִימֶלֶךְ, וְאֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר לְכִלְיוֹן וּמַחְלוֹן–מִיַּד, נָעֳמִי

⁹ Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people: You are witnesses today that I acquire from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, and also to Kilion and Machlon.
¹⁰ And Ruth also, the Moabite, wife of Machlon, I acquire as a wife to maintain the name of the deceased in her patrimony and to prevent the name of the deceased from becoming extinct among his brothers and in his native town. You are witnesses to this on this day.

The Rutland Jewish Center is a synagogue and community center housed in a Richardsonian Romanesque building⁴. Originally, it was a library built in 1889 by Brunner & Tryon in honor of Horace Henry Baxter, New York financier and co-owner of the Rutland Marble Company. Then in 1927, the building was bought and converted into a synagogue by the Adath Israel Congregation. In 1978, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

¹ Sefer haHinukh, Book of Education is a medieval text published in Spain in the 13^th century, featuring the 613 commandments of the Torah.
² Formed from the Low Latin levir “brother-in-law” and the derivational suffix “ate”.
³ Boaz and Ruth had for son Obed, father of Jesse, himself father of King David.
⁴ Style of historicist American architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson.

Tu Be-Av (ט”ו באב)

The Talmud in the treatise Ta’anit (26b), reports that Av 15 is one of the happiest days of the year. That day meetings for marriage were organized.

Va’et’hanan (ואתחנן – and I pleaded) Deuteronomy 3: 23-7:11

Moshe exhorts the children of Israel to remain faithful to the covenant contracted at Sinai, insists on the uniqueness of the Torah, reiterates the Ten Words and proclaims the Shema; שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל: יי אֱלֹכֵינוּ, יי אֶחָד. The two large letters ^{_{(in red)}} of the verse form the word עד (Ed – witness).

Israel a consecrated people, a people apart.

Deuteronomy Chapter 7 – ז’ דְּבָרִים
^ו כי עם קדוש אתה, לַיי אלכיך:  בך י יי אלכיך, להיות לו סגלה, מכֹל העמים, אשר על-פּני האדמה.
⁶ Because you are a people dedicated to the L-rd your G‑d: he has chosen you, the L-rd your G‑d, for him to be a special people among all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.

Since antiquity the Jewish presence in Rhodes is attested². In the 12^th century, Benjamin of Tudela³ attests to the presence of 400 Jews in the city. At the beginning of the 14^th century the Hospitallers⁴ conquered Rhodes. Gradually the community diminished (earthquake, plague) and at the end of the 15^th century, the Hospitallers expelled the twenty Jews still present in Rhodes. At the beginning of the 16^th century, they brought more than 2,000 Sephardic Jews there, exploited as slaves. In 1522, the island was conquered by the Ottomans. Under their rule, the community thrives. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the island was occupied by the Italian fascists and most of the Jewish⁵ community of Rhodes, feeling threatened, emigrated to the Belgian Congo⁶. In September 1943, the Italians having signed the armistice⁷, Rhodes was occupied by the Nazis. On July 23, 1944, 1,673 Jews from Rhodes were deported to Auschwitz. A commemorative plaque, in French, is dedicated to members of the community who died during the Holocaust, but most of the plaques that adorn the synagogue are in Ladino⁷.

The Kal Kadosh Shalom⁸ Synagogue is the only one of the four synagogues in the Juderia⁹ not to have been destroyed by bombardment. It was built in Kislev 5338 (Nov./Dec. 1577), the date inscribed on the fountain located in the entrance courtyard. It is the oldest synagogue in Greece. Two holy arches, as if symbolizing the two tables of stone on which the Ten Words are engraved, frame a door leading to a courtyard. From this courtyard one once accessed the yeshiva¹⁰. On the ground, a mosaic of black and white pebbles.

¹ Roman decree, dated 142 _^AEC and reported in Book I of Maccabees.
² Rabbi, born in Tudela (circa 1130-1173), author of the Sefer massa’ot. He is a major figure in medieval Jewish geography and history.
³ Also called the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, is a hospitable and military Catholic religious order which existed from the time of the Crusades until the beginning of the 19th^th century.
⁴ During the census carried out in 1931, the Italians counted 4,372 Jews.
⁵ At the independence of the Belgian Congo, the Jews joined Belgium.
⁶ The armistice signed secretly on September 3, 1943 in Cassibile, by which the Kingdom of Italy ceased hostilities against the Allied forces.
⁷ Judeo-Romance language derived from 15th century Old Castilian and Hebrew. Ladino is also called Judeo-Spanish, judesmo, spanyolit, djudyo, tetuani, haketiya, spanyol depending on the place.
⁸ בית הכנסת קהל קדוש שלום – synagogue of the holy congregation of peace.
⁹ ‘לה ג’ודיריה’ – Jewish quarter in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of Rhodes.
¹⁰ Destroyed during the war.

Devarim (דברים – lyrics), Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22

At the end of the 40-year exodus, Moshe rebukes the children of Israel. He reminds them of their rebellious behavior. He insists on the fact that Lord thus offers them a country already built. Moshe also discusses the recommendations he gave to his successor, Joshua.
This parsha is always read on the Shabbat preceding the fast of 9 av. It is called Shabbat Chazon (שבת חזון – Shabbat of Vision) because of the Haftarah (Isaiah 1:1-27), which contains the prophecies of the destruction of the Temple.

Isaiah chapter 1-‘ישעיהו א
א חֲזוֹן , יְשַׁעְיָהוּ בֶן-אָמוֹץ, אֲשֶׁר חָזָה, עַל עַל עַל עַל -יְה וִירוּשָׁלִָם
בִּימֵי עֻזִּיָּהוּ יוֹתָם אָחָז יְחִזְקִיָּהוּ, מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה.
1 Oracle of Isaiah, son of Amos, who prophesied on Juda and Jérusalem,
of the time¹ of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The Western Wall (הכותל המערבי – HaKotel HaMa’aravi): The second Temple was destroyed² by the Romans³, but the retaining wall of its esplanade is still standing. It is made up of 46 rows of stones ranging from 2 tons to several hundred, like the one that can be seen in the underground part which is 14 meters long and weighs 570 tons. The wall is almost 500 meters long, but only a 70 meter section is easily accessible (of which 57 meters are in the open). A tunnel runs along the underground part of the wall for more than 200 meters. The initial height of the retaining wall is about 60 meters but it is 32 meters on the visible part of the place of prayer. The thickness of the wall is estimated at 4 meters at its base and 2 meters at its top. The closest place to Saint-des-Saints⁴ is called Kotel Hakatan. It is located in the undergrounds of the Kotel.

¹ VIII^th century BCE
² The First Temple, built in 970 BCE, was completely destroyed when Jerusalem was taken by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE. The Second Temple, built in 515 BCE, was destroyed by the Roman armies of Titus in 70; all that remains today are the retaining walls of the esplanade built by Herod and the remains of the arches that allowed access to the esplanade.
³ Flavius ​​Josephus, testifies to the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the second Temple by Ttitus in “The War of the Jews”, Book VII.
⁴ קודש הקודשים Kodesh Hakodachim, the most central part of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Muslims appropriated the place and built the Dome of the Rock (golden dome).