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JERUSALEM – A huge stone fallen from the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, which was barely missing from a worshiper, was removed Wednesday as experts took the incident as a sign from above to examine the stability of the old structure. Two millennia after thousands of workers set it up, the fallen stone was hoisted by an unbaduming crane operator named Yossi.
About a meter tall and wide and weighing about 400 kilograms (880 pounds), the stone fell on prayer platform on Monday and just missed a woman.
On Wednesday, the crane gently placed the stone on two wooden planks at a nearby zoned clearing. Three smaller rocks that were detached from the stone during its dislocation were also moved. Neither the professionals of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) nor the rabbis of the Western Wall Administration remember such an event.
It took place in a part of the less traveled wall where men and women are allowed to pray together. Orthodox Jewish practice on the main square near the sacred site
Believers offered interpretations of what they saw as a divine sign, with theories ranging from discontent over recent parliamentary legislation to allusions of a imminent redemption. "No one can understand divine reasoning, but we are ordered to be awake," said Shimshon Elboim, an ultra-orthodox Jewish activist. The wall, located in East Jerusalem, is the holiest place where Jews have the right to pray.
They venerate it as the remains of a supporting wall of their second biblical temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
There are millions of visits a year.
Immediately above is the shrine known as the Temple Mount, the holiest of Judaism, revered as the place where once were the two biblical Jewish temples
For Muslims, c & rsquo; Is the enclosure of Haram al-Sharif, the third holiest of Islam after Mecca and Medina, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
At Amit Reem, the IAA Jerusalem District archaeologist, the rare incident was "a wake-up call" to inspect the many antiquities and archaeological sites in the Old City of Jerusalem.
To badess the condition of the wall, the IAA had to build scaffolds through it, with teams of professionals using radar, ultrasound, and lasers to examine "every stone," says Reem.
The experts could then understand why the stone – in fact a part of one of the mbadive stone blocks of the wall – is detached and offers solutions to avoid future accidents.
"We think the reason is a natural reason – perhaps the water that has infiltrated the stone, perhaps the roots of the plants that have grown in the stone," said L & # 39; archaeologist
method "according to Reem.
The ruler of the Roman era built the walls to extend the surface of the mount on which he built the sumptuous second Jewish temple, he said.
He used limestone extracted from what is currently north. Jerusalem, with bricklayers who meticulously cut each block "with millimetric precision" to fit tight ranks, before being rolled on the building site
The blocks of stone, weighing up to a maximum of to hundreds of tons each and up to four meters
The experts do not know how they were put in place, but perhaps with the help of cranes or land ramps.
Each row of blocks has slightly moved back from the previous one, creating a subtle pyramidal structure. Yossi Algrabli, owner of a crane company who came with his most trustworthy employee to raise the stone, praised Herod's work
"You see holiness here", was -he says. says while maintaining remote control of the mbadive crane.
"Whenever I come here, my heart melts."
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