In a rare document published today and dated to the beginning of the month of Tevet, exactly 100 years ago, a committee of rabbis and experts on behalf of the leadership of the Jewish community in Israel determined that the sanctity of the Western Wall applies to all its territory - including the southern plaza, which they wrote that an integral part of the Western Wall and is at the center of the dispute over the Western Wall layout.
The document, which was found in the State Archives, was composed by members of the Committee for the Preservation of the Holy Places, appointed by the Provisional Committee for the Jews of Eretz Yisrael, who served as the leadership of the Jewish community at the time.
The committee was headed by David Yellin and its members included Rabbi Zerah Epstein, Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Chai Uziel, who served as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv at the time.
Within five days of the appointment of the committee, it submitted its summaries of its discussions on the list of "our historic places in Israel" around Jerusalem, the first of which was the Western Wall.
"The Western Wall, up to the Dung Gate in length, and up to the 'Robinson Arch' to the west and east (all the Emek HaHarutz Street and the square)," the document states. The expression "Robinson's Arch" apparently referred the remains of arches from the western base of the Robinson Bridge, which is now located in the Jewish Quarter. The "square" is probably the area at the foot of the Dung Gate in front of the wall, which was then filled with ash.
With regard to the length of the Western Wall site, the committee sought to include the entire length of the Western Wall from the Machmeh area (now the Border Police base at the entrance to the Temple Mount) to the Dung Gate, and the southern extension, which is currently the focus of the dispute over the egalitarian prayer area, is included as part of the Western Wall.
According to the position of the rabbinate, there is no difference in the sanctity of the Western Wall and the southern section, and in any case, everything is under the authority and responsibility of the Chief Rabbinate, both according to State law and according to Jewish law.
Ariel Grinbaum of the LIBA Center said that the document reveals the situation at the Western Wall: "The Reform attempt to invent a new and detached wall that can be taken over suffered another blow, with the disclosure of the committee's decision from 100 years ago, reinforcing the clear and correct position that the Holy Wall spans the entire length and the custom of the place which was the same, throughout all the years, until today. [The demand for an egalitarian section] is meant to tear up the wall and divide the people."
This Sunday, exactly 100 years after the establishment of this committee, a festive Rosh Chodesh prayer will take place as part of efforts to strengthen the call to refrain from changing the arrangements customary at the Western Wall for groups that demand it.
Bezalel Zinni, head of the joint headquarters for the preservation of the sanctity of the Western Wall and one of the organizers of the prayer, said that it has already become routine.
"As in every Rosh Chodesh, we will all arrive this Sunday to pray at the Western Wall, the remnant of our Temple, and say what the committee said a hundred years ago: The Wall is holy throughout its length and it is inconceivable to divide it, and also what the Maccabees said thousands of years ago - that no foreign spirit and no provocation will break the spirit and tradition of the people of Israel. Just as the Maccabees won and purified the Temple of its disgrace, so the people of Israel will prevail and overcome all those who regularly desecrate the Wall, and the light will reject the darkness."