The Virtue of the Western Wall

The Holy Temple was destroyed twice; the Sitra Achra prevailed twice to destroy the Holy Temple, but Hashem never abandoned the Foundation Stone, Hashem never abandoned the Wall, and the Shechinah never departed from the Western Wall. A person must feel a yearning for the Foundation Stone, a yearning to reach the Wall, as it is written: 'My soul yearns, indeed it faints, for the courtyards of Hashem.' The courtyards of Hashem are the Foundation Stone; the courtyards of Hashem are the Wall. When a person loves someone, they strive to be in their presence! It is the same if a person loves the Wall and feels that it is their root; they will strive to be at the Wall as often as possible. Why does a person not feel the holiness of the Foundation Stone? Why does a person not feel the holiness of the Wall? There are those who, for years upon years, do not come to the Wall. Half a million Jews live in Jerusalem, yet one barely sees them at the Wall. The Chasam Sofer says: by not coming to the Western Wall, to the Foundation Stone, we insult the Wall, which is the place of the Shechinah. It is an insult for which there is no forgiveness. When Hashem sees that Jerusalem is being neglected, that the Wall is being neglected and people do not make the effort to arrive, it arouses anger and wrath, as it is written: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.' 'The stone that they rejected' is the Foundation Stone. The greater and more exalted a thing is, the more it is rejected and hidden. The Satan knows what is good for a person; he knows exactly what is beneficial for them, and therefore he acts to distance them as much as possible from that thing. Everyone rejected the Foundation Stone; all the tzaddikim who are called 'the builders' rejected the Foundation Stone, except for King David, who was the only one to merit knowing the secret of this stone. He merited to know that without this stone, without its holiness, it is impossible to attain any service; no service is accepted in its completeness. All of David’s efforts were directed solely toward that stone. All his searches, all his yearnings—'My soul yearns, indeed it faints, for the courtyards of Hashem'—were all for the Foundation Stone, for the place of the Holy Temple.

Before Hashem created the globe, the world of action (Olam HaAsiyah), He created the Foundation Stone; He created the Temple Mount; He created the Wall. Reb Noson explains that the Foundation Stone is the root of creation; from this stone, the world was created (Yoma 54b), and there is the root of free will. By the very fact that a person goes to the Wall, they can emerge from their own free will and choose the path of good. The Wall is the crown of creation; it is the tenth level of holiness, the Sefirah of 'Keter,' and therefore, free will is completely nullified there; there, one receives only good choices.

When a person goes to the Wall, they are not standing in this world at all; they are not in this world at all. The Wall is the Holy of Holies; it is an entirely different world. Even if it seems to you that you are standing in this world, that you are here in this world, know that the moment you arrived at the Temple Mount, at the Wall, you are already in the World of Atzilut! You have ascended directly to the World of Atzilut, and it only seems to you that you are here in this world because you are in such a fog, in such an illusion. But in truth, you are now in the World of Atzilut. Every time you arrived at the Wall and kissed the Wall, you immediately entered the World of Atzilut. When one comes to the Wall, nature changes! Even the body changes; everything changes. A person receives a different nature, a holy body. Every time a person comes to the Wall, they merit that all the lights from the World of Atzilut immediately shine upon them.

The Wall is truly the Holy of Holies; it is truly the Foundation Stone. A person who goes to the Wall is going truly to the Garden of Eden! Especially at midnight and in the early morning hours, because the 'river that flows from Eden' flows beneath the Temple Mount, beneath the Wall. Therefore, when a person comes to the Wall, they feel the very taste of the Garden of Eden; they see the Garden of Eden; they smell the Garden of Eden; they feel that they are now in the Garden of Eden, just as Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.

Reb Noson says (Likutey Halachot, Hoda'ah 6:50): 'And therefore, when they left Egypt with wondrous miracles and He split the sea for them with a wondrous and awesome miracle, they said in the song: "You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance," which is the Holy Temple, from where the essence of the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea originated, for the main purpose was to arrive there, as it is written: "And He brought us out from there to bring us..."' We must know that the Wall is the root of all the miracles in the world; all the miracles from the days of old are drawn from the Western Wall. Abraham performed miracles, Moses performed miracles; even the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt were drawn from the Wall. All the miracles that occurred in Egypt, the ten plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea—it all was drawn from the Holy of Holies; it all was drawn from the Wall. This is the innovation of Rebbe Nachman: 'You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance'—that Moses our Teacher connected himself to the 'mountain of Your inheritance,' to the Holy of Holies, connected himself to the Wall, to the Foundation Stone, and thus drew down all the miracles and wonders. So how can a person not go to the Wall?! After all, it contains all the miracles! The miracles of the splitting of the Red Sea, the miracles of the ten plagues, the miracles of the Clouds of Glory, the miracles of the pillar of fire. Miracles that flew through the air—the Wall is the root of all miracles, the root of all wonders, the root of all salvations, all healings, all rescues, all livelihoods; everything comes from the Wall. If a person reaches the Wall, they will be able to bring about any miracle in the world.