Everybody’s Wall

LABOR OF LOVE For Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz and his cleaners attendants and translators maintaining the holiest site for all Jews is a constant labor of love. But it’s the quiet moments that they savor most (Photos: Courtesy of The Western Wall Heritage Foundation)

“The Kosel is a complex place” points out Rabbi Shmuel Ben Zion Rabinowitz who was appointed the official rav of the Kosel in 2000. “It’s the gateway of prayer for an entire nation. Many people consider this their primary home with their private abode coming a close second. They have a certain perspective on how the Kosel should look and how things should be run without always seeing the wider picture — that the Kosel is a place of connection between Am Yisrael and Hashem and even the nations of the world hold it in high esteem.” 

Whether halachic hashkafic political or social in nature serious dilemmas arise at the Western Wall on a near-daily basis. Rabbi Rabinowitz sorely misses the presence of Rav Elyashiv ztz”l who was his go-to gadol for every Kosel-related question. “Rav Elyashiv maintained that tefillah at the Kosel is more powerful than in any other place and the Kosel was very close to his heart. When I first I visited Rav Steinman shlita after Rav Elyashiv’s passing he told me: ‘You will feel his loss more than most people’— and I did.” These days Rav Rabinowitz brings most queries to Rav Avigdor Halevi Nebenzahl the rav of the Old City with whom he enjoys a weekly chavrusa and he continues to present complex issues to other gedolim as well. 

“Currently we are grappling with the issue of whether it is halachically permissible to place security cameras up on the Wall. Or whether we can fly patrol drones over the area — potentially problematic because it may be considered a show of disrespect compromising the tenet of mora Mikdash.”