In recent weeks, we have read in synagogue that when the Israelites in the desert longed for a symbol of their worship of G-d and when Moses was late in supplying one, i.e. the Ten Commandments and the Torah, they created their own, the Golden Calf.
The result of this decision and action was that they lost the Torah. Today Jews and Judaism are faced with a similar choice.
In 1948 Jews and Judaism accepted a state without its holiest city, the Old City of Jerusalem, and holiest site, the Temple Mount. When Israel acquired the Old City and the Temple Mount in 1967, for historic, political and religious reasons Israel’s government officials gave the mount to the Arabs and in its stead we chose our own Golden Calf to focus our worship — the Western Wall or Kotel Ha-Ma’aravi.
The historic reason was that since the 16th century Jews prayed at the wall. The political reason was that the Temple Mount was a holy site to Muslims and Israel did not want to anger them.
The religious reason was a midrash that the “Divine presence never leaves the Western Wall of the Holy of Holies” (Exodus Rabbah 2:2).
All of these reasons are fallacious. The Jews in the 16th century did not willingly choose the wall over the Temple Mount, they were forced to by their Muslim rulers.
While the Temple Mount is the third holiest site of Islam, it is the number one holiest site of Judaism.
The Midrash quotation referred to the Western Wall of the Holy of Holies, but the Kotel was not even part of the Temple. It was built about 2,000 years ago by Herod the Great, a Roman client king of Israel and a cruel despot.
Herod remodeled the Temple and to fortify the new construction he built a retaining wall around the mount. The Kotel is the western part of this retaining wall. As such, it has no connection to the Temple and has no religious significance.
All this is not just an intellectual exercise. It has major consequences.
In the peace negotiations of 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was willing to give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount (according to “The Missing Peace” by Dennis Ross). It is likely he made this offer because we have already accepted the new Golden Calf as our holy place and have given our Temple Mount to the Arabs.
But if we tell ourselves, our children and the world that the Temple Mount means nothing to us, but the Kotel means everything, then what does this say about our allegiance to Judaism and G-d?
We must denounce the Golden Calf and give our full attention to our real and true holiest site, the Temple Mount.
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