Western Wall or the Wailing Wall (called in Islamic tradition Ha’et El-Buraq and by the Jews Hakotel Hama’aravi) is a focus of Judaism, a symbol of a people and a nation. The massive stretch of wall seen today by visitors and Jewish pilgrims, is believed to be a large segment of the sustaining wall of the Western side of the Temple Esplanade, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed by Titus in 68 BC. The Talmud (Brachos 32) mentions that when the Temple was destroyed, all the Gates of Heaven were closed except for one, that is the Gate of Tears. The Western Wall therefore also become known as the Wailing Wall, because of all the tears Jews have shed there. Jews come here from allover the World to bemoan the destruction of their Temple. Among the customs observed by Jewish pilgrims who pray below this great, two thousand years old, stone blocks is that of leaving, in the cracks between the stones, little pieces of paper with vows and prayer written on them.
