The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, has been sacred to Jews for centuries as it is situated on the Temple Mount and dates back to the reign of Herod the Great in the first century BCE. Herod commissioned the wall as part of major renovations and expansions to the Second Temple in Jerusalem to replace the destroyed First Temple. The Second Temple shared the fate of being sacked by the Romans in 70 CE, though they left the Western Wall intact. Originally towering 90 feet high and stretching 60 feet into the ground, the Western Wall once supported the plaza of the Second Temple, and today Jews travel from around the world to pray at the sacred site, placing written prayers in the cracks of the wall.

1. A HISTORICAL GLIMPSE AT
JERUSALEM’S WESTERN WALL
By Leib Tropper

2. Introduction
 A co-founder of the Kol Yaakov Torah Center, Rabbi
Leib Tropper has spent his life in service to the
Jewish community. Over the course of his career,
Rabbi Leib Tropper has spent more than a decade
in Israel, where he studied at the Yeshivas Torah
Ore in Jerusalem.

3. About the Western Wall
 The Western Wall, sometimes referred to as the Wailing
Wall, has been sacred to the Jewish people for centuries.
Situated on the Temple Mount, the Western Wall dates to
the reign of Herod the Great, who commissioned it during
the first century BCE as a major structural improvement to
the Second Temple of Jerusalem. Herod the Great
refurbished and expanded the Second Temple, which had
been built about 500 years previously to replace the
destroyed First Temple that had been constructed under King
Solomon circa 1000 BCE. Shortly after Herod’s
improvements were complete, the Second Temple shared a
similar fate to that of the First Temple: it was sacked by the
Romans in 70 CE, who left only the Western Wall intact.

4. Conclusion
 This sacred structure once towered some 90 feet
high and stretched 60 feet into the ground. It
originally supported the massive plaza upon which
the Second Temple stood. Today, Jews travel from
around the world to pray at the Wall. Many also
place prayers written on small pieces of paper into
the wall's cracks.