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Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim סימן צד - צריך לכון נגד ארץ ישראל, ודין הרוכב או יושב בספינה
If you're facing the wrong way, then turn your head towards the correct direction.
ב אִם מִתְפַּלֵּל לְרוּחַ מִשְּׁאָר רוּחוֹת, יְצַדֵּד פָּנָיו לְצַד אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל אִם הוּא בְּחוּץ לָאָרֶץ; וְלִירוּשָׁלַיִם, אִם הוּא בְּאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל; וְלַמִּקְדָּשׁ, אִם הוּא ...
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According to Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv (quoted here), there is no basis at all in Judaism for this practice ("אין בזה שום עניין"). He says every prayer at the Kotel is accepted.
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The short answer is yes, non-Jews may enter the Western wall plaza and pray because it is not part of the temple mount sacred area. The restrictions according to halacha involve areas of the temple mount itself.
The western wall is not actually part of the temple area. There are areas on the temple mount where even Jews who are tamei meis may go and areas ...
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This article quotes Rav Yitzchak Herzog (Heichal Yitzchak OC 18). I do not have access to this source to confirm the accuracy of the following discussion, so take this with a grain of salt until it can be confirmed.
The Meiri (Kiryas Sefer, Hil. Beis HaBechirah, ch. 5) writes that the entire Har HaBayis has Kedushah. Since the Rambam (Hil. Karban Pesach 9:...
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According to this article (and this one), until not too long ago there was a practice of writing one’s name directly on the wall. This is where the modern practice of writing a note comes.
The first article quotes the twelfth-century traveler Benjamin of Tudela, who writes that in the central house of prayer in Jerusalem at that time, Shaar Rachamim - as ...
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There is no stone on the exposed kotel which is opposite the kodesh hakadoshim. However if you go to the tunnel tours there is a spot marked which is.
See this page for maps and pictures:
http://www.generationword.com/jerusalem101/38-western-wall-tunnels.html
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The Mishna on Megilla 28a rules that a destroyed synagogue retains holiness, and if grasses grew on it they should not be picked because they add to the feeling of despair. (The subsequent Gemara on 29b discusses picking the grasses and leaving them there, though the Rambam (Perush HaMishna 3:4) and the Mishna Berura (OC 151 sk 29) both understand this to be ...
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Like others, I couldn't think of a single halachic reason to forbid weddings. I know I've seen dozens of Bar Mitzvahs over the years there, but never a wedding. (On Monday and Thursday around mid morning it seems like there's a bar mitzvah every 20 minutes). I did some digging and eventually found the rabinate's rules for the kotel, and it is true that they ...
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Wearing torn clothing isn't the command. A tear for one event doesn't help at all for another later event. Even if another relative passes away during Shiva he would need to tear again (YD 340:21-23; see there for details about when one can add on to an existing tear and when one tear can count for two simultaneous events).
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When I went to the kotel with a bag, I usually put it near my legs or on a chair in front of me. I found this to be the best way to keep in touch with my stuff and to concentrate on the amidah.
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Note: 40 days of prayer at the wall is considered a "Segulah" and therefore relies more on tradition than the strict rationalist approach that the halachic process has.
An Article written by Rabbi Levi Friend, author of the book "Segulos HaBaal Shem Tov" for the Torah Journal "Ohr Yisroel" (Monsey) investigated this and other 40 day "Segulos" and came up ...
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This PDF file attributed to the teachings of R' Shlomo Aviner lists a couple of gedolim who practiced this, but doesn't give sources:
Q: Is it permissible to turn one's back to the Kotel?
A: It is permissible just as in a shul it is permissible to turn one's back to the Torah ark. When one leaves the Kotel, the custom is to walk backwards with his face ...
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Aish HaTorah says
It is a centuries-old tradition to place a note with a prayer or
request in the Western Wall.
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There are quite a few ways in which people avoid tearing, though I guess most don't do it simply because they are unaware of the Halacha.
The Kotel is not the best place to tear - one should try and see the makom hamikdash (Temple Mount).
See http://doseofhalacha.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/tearing-keriah-at-kosel.html
The Shulchan Aruch (OC 561:2) writes that ...
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According to the website IsraelDailyPicture, (which presents historical photos of Israel with explanations) those are memorial notices. Two such pictures can be seen here, and the text (names in the form X ben Y) is readable in at least one.
Further, in this post from the same site, it says, "The darkness of the writing suggests that it was written ...
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As mentioned in the comments above the bracha of "Barukh Ata Hashem Elokeinu Melekh Haolam Sheasa et Hayam Hagadol" when seeing the ocean for the first time in 30 days is relevant.
In addition highly relevant to your visit to the Old City (or the Mount of Olives) is the practice of kria (tearing your clothes) over the Temple Mount. See R Ari Enkin's very ...
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Firstly the Kotel wasn't part of the ruins of the Beit HaMikdash, according to popular opinion.
It's a retainer wall holding up the Temple Mount platform. The Bet HaMikdash ruins morphed into archeology a long time ago.
Secondly not every old wall is a ruin which the dictionary defines as a building or place in a state of decay, collapse, or disintegration....
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Eretz Chemda 28 says that the Western Wall / Kosel HaMaaravi was originally built by King David.
I sent an e-mail to Aish and received the following response.
As for the story about the angels saying "This Wall, the work of the
poor, shall never be destroyed" -- a book called “Agadot Eretz
Yisrael” by Ze’ev Vilnai records and notes that it is "a ...
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Several Midrashim address the "Western Wall" though it's not entirely clear what those midrashim are referring to. This includes the Bamidbar Rabba 11:2 as well as Shir Hashirim Rabba 2:9 (sometimes called Midrash Chazis), the early Tanhuma to Shemos 10, and Yalkut Shimoni to Kings I, ch. 8. The language in all of those midrashim is the כותל המערבי של בית ...
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I found in this sicho of Rav Yehudah Kreuzer
וכך כתב רבי יעקב עמדין זצ"ל: דע והבן, אף על פי ששכינה בכל מקום, מכל
מקום אין התפילה עולה בחוץ לארץ במסילה אחת דרך ישרה, כי צריך לשולחה
לארץ ישראל,ולירושלים, אל מקום בית המקדש, כנגדו שם שער השמים.
And so writes Rabbi Yaakov Emden: Know and understand that although the Divine Presence is everywhere, a ...
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They remove them from time to time,and they place them in genizah.
http://matzav.com/photos-kosel-undergoes-cleaning-for-pesach-kvitlach-removed-2
http://www.vosizneias.com/80339/2011/04/06/jerusalem-in-photos-kotel-undergoes-spring-clean-for-pessach/
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The Ohr HaChaim Quoted by Rav Palagi, and an even earlier source for this episode with the Ohr HaChaim. Both are quoted in sefer Hilchisa M'Dorayse .
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There is no source in the Talmud for the Western Wall being the place from where prayers "ascend". (Tractate Brachot 30a says we face toward the kodesh hakadashim when praying, traditionally and archeologically identified with the site of the Dome of the Rock.)
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There is such an idea from the Shu"t Bais Ridvaz siman 38 where he holds that the western wall is part of the Azarah,like the shitta of the Radvaz.
The Chachmas Adam Shaarei Tzedek Mishpatei Ha'aretz also held the same:
שערי צדק שער משפטי הארץ חכמת אדם פרק יא סעיף יג
ח) צריך לזהר מאוד שלא יכנס במקום המקדש שכולנו טמאים מתים, והנכנס בטומאה חייב כרת, ...
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I think the answer is written in an actual verse:
Psalms 137, 5-6
אם-אשכחך ירושלים-- תשכח ימיני.
תדבק-לשוני, לחיכי-- אם-לא אזכרכי:
אם-לא אעלה, את-ירושלים-- על, ראש שמחתי
137:5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
137:6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem ...
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Laolam lo zaza shechina mekotel hamaaravi! The Divine presence never left the Western wall! (See Midrash Tanhuma Exodus 10, Song of Songs 2:22, Exodus Raba 2:2, Zohar II:5b)
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As the question you linked to states, this is a recent custom and essentially it depends on why you are doing 40 days at the Kotel.
If you made a vow, then it would depend on what you had in mind. If you didn't think about this trick then it would go by how most people would interpret it. Most people assume (as far as I know) that 40 days at the Kotel mean ...
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I think that you've answered your own question based on your parenthetical remarks.
Combining mourning and joy at the same event or day is quite common, actually. In Israel, for example, almost immediately following the joyous Simchat Torah dancing, they recite Yizkor. At one wedding that I attended, they said "Kel Maleh Rachamim" for terrorist victims in ...
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This is based on my own surmisal:
Pirkei Avot 5 mishna 8:
Ten miracles were performed for our fathers in the Temple ...
No man said to his fellow, "There is no room for me to lodge in
Jerusalem."
Note that it states "lodging", and some commentaries explain that during the Bet Hamikdash, when people came for Regel (3 times / yr. "pilgrimage") ...
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There are opinions that one does not need to tear kria now that Jerusalem is in our hands. For instance, R Shlomo Aviner (in his book Rabbenu Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah Ha-Cohain Kook, p. 158) writes
The Halachah rules that one must tear his garment when seeing the spot
of the Temple in ruins (Moed Katan 26a and Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim #561).
Rav Yosef ...
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