What I Learned at the Western Wall

The Western Wall — let's first correct any false assumptions — the wall was NOT part of the Temple that stood in the days of Jesus.  It is a retaining wall that supports one end of the Temple Mount, which is a human-constructed platform that leveled out the natural topography. The Temple itself was a separate structure that stood closer to the center of the platform. 



The Western Wall earned my Least Met Expectations Award. 🥉  I would stop short of calling it a total bummer, but my up-close-and-personal visit headed toward that end of the scale.  Before I explain why, I want to show my favorite picture, which pulls back and, I think, offers a better context.

From this height, archeological digging can be seen going on right in front of the Western Wall plaza. When down in the plaza, you're almost totally oblivious to this action because you see only a dark nondescript back wall with some advertising signage on it.  In the background of this photo, trees are growing on the Temple Mount. The three very distinct and separate environments are packed in side by side, and a fourth, the Old City, seen as a sliver on the left, continues around and behind.

And don't overlook the crane. Construction cranes were all over Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and every other sizable city we visited. Someone joked that the cranes should be nominated for Israel's national tree.  [FYI, since September 2007, that's officially been the olive tree.]

All in all, the new abutting the old, old ways of looking at the new, and new ways of looking at the old, they all fit in here. It is a place where life carries on and the fact that you are steeped in a modern world of ancient history seems pretty... normal!

Which might be a partial explanation as to why the Western Wall seemed so dead. Dead is my word for it.  I guess that I'd expected a place with such a history to be more of a telecommunications portal, a place where living prayers were taking the shortest route to the courtrooms of heaven, filing petitions, and dispatching adjudications. It wasn't like that. Not even close.

One of the first things I was struck by was the discoloration of the limestone by the oils of human hands. It faded out at the level most people could reach. (🤔Apparently I am not as short as I thought I was, when compared to the masses of the world.) One of the next things I noticed was a few men shuffling white plastic chairs around in the women's section. The men's section does not have chairs,* and somehow, the fact that the women did felt condescending—and that is a fairly rare emotion for me. I am not a feminist. I normally like special attention from men, but... no, this was like an unstated lower status judgment. That is not my imagination going wild. And I am rebel enough that you'd have had to pay me a considerable amount to sit in one of those chairs!

But mostly, once I was down at the wall, I could sense spirits of loss and sorrow. I think they hung out there; seriously. I think it would be possible to come away worse than you arrived if one of those things attached itself to your soul. It was not a place of joyful praise. (Well, I did the joyful praise thing, but then, I'm American and not all that typically a wailer.)  As I said earlier, the wall seemed dead. No living stones. Just rock. And not even clean rock.

They offered tours of the tunnels behind the wall. And I bring you this next picture at great personal sacrifice, because I could have been shopping! Joking. Shopping was an option, but choosing the tunnels was better.  A labyrinth of stone archways, tunnels and vaults run behind the wall. It is a first-century version of the pipes, cables, and conduit that run beneath modern cities.

At the bottom of this picture, what looks like a lumpy bench is actually a covered aqueduct, plumbing if you will, which carried water to the mikvah (ritual bath) and for other use.

The rectangular cutouts in the stone and the corresponding protrusion, which our guide called a hinge, had something to with how these massive stones were transported here in the first place. Unfortunately, I'm not quite clear on that, but another place we visited showed how stones were moved by hooking up ropes and pulleys, so maybe they were places to attach them? Anyway, today people stick prayer requests in the niches. 

Some of the vaults were used as cisterns. Rain water was collected and funneled in for later use.  In this picture a catwalk has been added for tours, and the water level is controlled with monitors to prevent flooding during heavy rain. But when they were used as functioning cisterns, the water might reach nearly to the ceiling in the rainy season. 


What I learned at the Western Wall is that the part that is easily seen and highly touted is just that: easily seen and highly touted.  Although it wasn't as miserable a disappointment as going to Disney World, yeah, it came pretty close. What I learned at the Western Wall is that the out-of-sight, less accessible parts are far more intriguing.
That's not a new lesson. It is confirmation of ancient wisdom.

Jeremiah 6:16
This is what the LORD says: Stand by the roadways and look. Search out, ask about the ancient paths: Which is the way to what is good? Then take it and find rest for yourselves. 
But they protested, "We won't!" 

To which I can only say, Duh! Why wouldn't you?


* If an elderly or handicapped man needed a chair, they would be available, but I did not see any in use at the time. 


EXTRA ~ 
Here is a chronology of the Temple area that will help sort out the sequence of many Bible stories that you may already be familiar with:
~ 2000 BC Abraham is challenged to sacrifice his son Issac on an altar. A ram is substituted at the last minute, but the altar's location on Mt. Moriah would be the future home of the Temple Mount.
~1440 BC Moses is instructed to make a Tabernacle for worship. This portable building has a floor plan that will be adapted to construction of future Temples. After the times of the judges when Israelites conquer the Promised Land, it eventually ends up in Jerusalem.
~ 1000 BC King David  returns the Ark of the Covenant to the tent-like Tabernacle in Jerusalem and desires to build a stone & wood Temple as a permanent structure. But God says that job will have to be done by David's son because David had been a man of war. So David purchases Araunah's threshing floor on Mt. Moriah as the site for the Temple.
950 BC King Solomon employs 183,600 workers for seven years to build the First Temple.
910 BC The Temple is plundered by Shishak of Egypt. Over the next 324 years, there is serial plundering, restoration, and stripping of the temple vessels and furniture to pay extortion threats. 
586 BC, 9th of Av. Nebuchadnezzar burns the city, and destroys the Temple. The Temple vessels that are left are shipped off to Babylon. (The Second Temple was also destroyed on the 9th of Av.)
539-538 BC Cyrus captures Babylon and issues an edict allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem.
538 First return to build the Second Temple and lay the foundation, then a 16-year construction delay.
515 BC Second Temple completed but vulnerable to attacks.
458 Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem in late summer and rebuilds the walls of the city in 52 days.
Another 300 year period commences where Jerusalem is repeatedly attacked, besieged, or captured. But in  166 BC, the Maccabean Revolt regains Jerusalem. Temple is cleansed and sacrifices are restored. 
38 BC Herod the Great begins a massive reconstruction and refurbishing project of the Temple and courts, expanding to the city and city walls. That continues another four decades, throughout his lifetime.  The massive stones of the Western Wall date to this time.

Pigeons in the Pan

The title probably won't make sense until the end.
The Pigeons are real birds; they are in the final photo below.
The Pan is the caprine (goat-like) god of the ancient Greeks.
I have to lay a lot of background before connecting the dots; fortunately it's not too boring. 

Unlike most Grecian gods who had temples dedicated to their worship, Pan was a bit on the wild side and was usually worshiped—and sacrificed to—in caves or grottoes. In Greek art, he is usually depicted with horns, playing pipes that resemble a harmonica made of reeds, and walking upright on his goat hindquarters. 

For now,  I am going to ask you to accept without proof something that both my childhood Sunday school teachers and my high school Latin teacher probably would have disagreed with: Pan was/is not wholly a myth. He is based on a real spiritual entity of the fallen sort, a lower-case-g god who was created immortal.  This is different than a demon, but that technical distinction is not critical here; just realize that Pan is real in the spiritual realm, and not a figment of mythology.

 The picture above was taken at Hermon Stream Nature Reserve in northern Israel. You are looking down the rock wall of a natural cliff. Paved courtyards were built at the foot of the cliff during the time of Roman occupation of Israel. In the foreground is what's left of the red and white paving stones from the  Court of Nemesis, goddess of vengeance.

Further back and more intact is the stepped Courtyard of Pan & the Nymphs. In mid-picture is an artificial cave or niche carved into the rock. A statue of Pan was once placed there. Later, other niches, five in all, were carved to hold a sculpture of Echo, a mountain nymph, and Hermes, (other small-g gods associated with Pan).  At the far end is a natural cave, the Grotto of Pan. (In this photo, two tourists are looking down into the grotto from the observation rail.)

The cave and one of the niches are also shown below in this head-on view taken from the trail head:

 Here you can get a better sense of the size of the cliff. The opening of the grotto is roughly 20 meters wide. The trees are growing around the nearby Banias Spring that forms the headwaters of the Jordan River.

I will get to the pigeons' story shortly, but it is important to establish the setting.¹ The first reliable written history dates to 200 BC when the Selucids and Ptolomies fought for control of the area. By the end of the first century BC, the Romans had annexed this area to the kingdom of Herod the Great, who began building a temple to Emperor Augustus near the springs, and built temples to Pan and Zeus in front of the existing niches in the cliff.  These were relatively new and still standing in the days of Jesus. After the death of Herod, his son Phillip renamed the place after himself: Caesarea Phillipi. The worship of Pan was still going strong.

Jesus was in the vicinity of this place when he made the statement about building His church, which was recorded in Matthew 16:17,18, 

¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

... well, for me, matching this place with Jesus' statement was like the sounding of a gong.

[Science Time Out — Most percussion instruments, when struck, have an initial sharp sound that then diminishes. A high quality gong, however, as the energy is distributed across its curved surface, develops sympathetic vibrations with a sound-on-sound effect whereby the volume builds in a rolling crescendo before it falls. Similarly, I experienced a building intensity of revelation that multiple levels of "stuff" was happening simultaneously. It's a different sensation than having a light come on all at once.]

In Matthew 16:16, Peter had just declared, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!"
A coming messiah had been prophesied for years. Mary must have sensed Jesus' messianic qualities at some level, especially in light of her direct meeting with Gabriel in Nazareth before she became pregnant, and Joseph's subsequent dream with the angel of the Lord where each were told what to name him. Jesus himself had been fulfilling scripture and dropping clues that are obviously messianic in hindsight.  But now, Peter's statement, replete with full-assurance faith, counted for the first time that a Man-being proclaimed, "Jesus is the Christ," and those words from the lips of a human ripped into the unseen realm.

I have a sense that this is what Jesus had been waiting and watching for—a sign from his heavenly Father. The Father had revealed Jesus' true identity to mankind; Peter's realm-ripping announcement was the green light that Jesus had been looking for. It was Show Time for the Church Age.  

(Is it too much of a stretch to imagine Jesus with a Clint Eastwood swagger: Go ahead, Make my Day!  Hmm... you decide. But when Jesus went back Jerusalem, he'd be riding that donkey home in his Triumphal Entry.)  

Anyway, here at the base of Mt. Hermon in the midst of goat-god worship, Jesus says, "On this rock I will build My church."  (a) There is a literal, physical rock that can still be photographed. (b) There is revelation knowledge from the Father to Peter; revelation so profound that Jesus made a pointed issue of calling Simon son of Jonah by the name Peter, [Πέτρος, Petros, Greek for rock or stone]. (c) There is Jesus speaking a new Creative Word, not unlike words spoken at the foundation of this world, a new foundational rock on which He will build His church. (a) body, (b) soul, (c) spirit.
Pretty Awesome Stuff.  

Jesus did not make this declaration during his moment of dazzling transfiguration. He made it in the enemy stronghold of pagan worship.  'Probably a foreshadowing of what he'd do in Hades after the crucifixion. The thing to remember is that it's all real. As I said earlier, Pan was not a figment of mythology. Jesus was addressing more than the eye could see. 

♦ ♦ ♦

And so, when I was there at Banias (Hermon Stream Nature Reserve), taking in this multi-dimensional history, two pigeons flew into the Grotto of Pan. There is nothing overly remarkable about that. Pigeons are common in that area. They were a little bluer than the grey ones I commonly associate with bespoiling city fountains and plazas, and a bit more playful in their interaction, but nothing out of the ordinary. Except that in the English version of the printed literature published by Israel's Nature and Parks Authority,² they are not called pigeons; they are called Rock Doves.

Pigeons are Rock Doves. That puts a new spin on things.

First, there is the Rock part. I've already mentioned the foundation quality of rock, solid to build upon.  And although these are obviously not the same rock doves that were flying over Pan's altar 2000 years ago, their descendants are still active here and not crumbling in the ruins. That's endurance.

Secondly, Doves have symbolism that filthy pigeons just can't live up to! It was the dove that Noah sent out to see if the waters were abated from off the earth. It was the dove that the psalmist of 55:6 alluded to in his quest for finding a place of rest. 
Okay, maybe Hosea wasn't so complimentary, calling doves "silly" and "without heart." (7:11)

But all four Gospels redeemed that foul fowl reputation when a dove was used to describe the Holy Spirit's descent upon the newly-baptized Jesus.  
Today, and consistently since Greco-Roman times, the dove has been a symbol of peace.

So my takeaway from this pair of rock doves showing up, these pigeons in the cave of Pan, was that despite the heavy history of the place, life continues. God's plan is still rock-solid. The Holy Spirit still desires to perch upon mankind's hearts, and the light of peace is still meant to triumph over darkness.






Footnotes
¹ This information is paraphrased from the Hermon Stream brochure published by Israel Nature and Parks Authority
² Banias Nature Reserve website (English) the web version differs from the print edition, calling them rock pigeons instead of rock doves. Either way, the family is Columbidae.