On a very powerful song from yesteryear (on the Journeys Three album), in the song called “Yerushalayim,” the following words were sung by Moshe Yess a”h with such passion and sincerity: “Where else in the world can you find a wall, whenever you touch it, it touches you?!”
The Kosel HaMaaravi... a wall that has within it everything... a history of tears... and of yearning....
But what is this magnetic pull that tugs at literally every Jewish heart, no matter how far he is from HaKadosh Baruch Hu?!
During an incredible shiur from Rav Yisroel Reisman shlita, he shared: The Yerushalayim on This World is situated opposite the Yerushalayim Above; it is specifically because of that placement that there is an automatic pull tugging at the Yiddishe heart when he stands in that very holy and special spot in Yerushalayim shel Matah. And in that spot, the tefillos go straight up to the heavens.
It is not a wonder how many neshamos have been brought back at that exact location? Is it not a marvel to behold how people the world over are pulled magnetically to this very precise area, time and time again? This, then, is part of the secret pull that brings everyone there.
But what was it in our parashah that brought about this principle? The Torah tells us that when Yaakov Avinu came upon the mountain of Har HaMoriah, he stated that he did not realize upon which mountain he was standing!
The question on this comment is very great. When Avraham Avinu saw Har HaMoriah, he saw the cloud hovering upon it; he felt the holiness of that spot. When he asked Yishmael if he, too, saw that cloud and felt its kedushah, he said he did not.
But if Avraham felt it, then why didn’t Yaakov? Rav Reisman explained beautifully: Rashi tells us an amazing thing. Because Yaakov bypassed Har HaMoriah in his journey, HaKadosh Baruch Hu made a great miracle and brought the mountain to him! Therefore, that means that the holy place of Yerushalayim in This World was not opposite Yerushalayim Above at that time! Thus, the inherent holiness and magnetic pull were missing then, and that is why Yaakov Avinu did not feel it!
While writing this, a very glaring question came to me from the pesukim that follow. For after he awoke, Yaakov Avinu exclaimed that the place where he had slept is the House of Hashem, and this is the gate of heavens. Rashi explains that the Beis HaMikdash on This World is opposite the Beis HaMikdash above.
Seemingly, then, this pasuk is a contradiction to the vort above. Perhaps we can answer it as follows: Yaakov was expressing that the place he slept upon was truly the place of the Beis HaMikdash, as that mountain itself would hold the Beis HaMikdash one day. But then, when he says, “and this is the gate of heaven,” perhaps there he is referring to the place where the mountain was usually found, for it is there and only there that the gate of heaven is!
Besides the beautiful analysis of the pesukim and the precise commentary of Rashi on each and every detail, the lesson from the above is very powerful. The Kosel is not a simple place, and there’s a reason that a person should be thinking about it when he begins Shemoneh Esrei. The greatest place of holiness on this planet is that incredible place, and the more one can connect himself to it, the more he can absorb its greatness.
May Hashem allow us to merit the final rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash, so that we can be zocheh to see and feel that kedushas hamakom in a way that we have surely never felt prior, speedily in our day.... B’Siyata DiShmaya.
