The Chief Rabbis of Israel and the Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites have demanded a fallen stone from the Western Wall be returned to its sacred resting place.
The Rishon LeZion and Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Yosef, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Kalman Ber, and the Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz demanded in a letter that fallen stones from the Western Wall be returned to their burial site alongside those from the destruction of the Second Temple.
The furor erupted after the Israel Antiquities Authority moved a five-ton stone from the Western Wall that fell during the destruction of the Second Temple, to an exhibition at Ben Gurion International Airport. The stone, which was previously displayed in the Knesset, was taken for use as part of a historical display, an act considered a desecration of the holy stones.
MK Avraham Betzalel submitted a proposal in the Knesset plenary demanding that the Israel Antiquities Authority return all Western Wall stones currently displayed at Ben Gurion Airport, the President’s Residence, the IDF’s Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv, the Israel Museum, and the Israel Antiquities Authority’s storage facilities to their proper burial site alongside the fallen Western Wall stones.
Speaking on behalf of the government and Acting Minister of Heritage Haim Katz, Minister Amichai Chikli said the state would act in accordance with the decision of the Chief Rabbinate.
Subsequently the Rishon LeZion and the Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, announced in an official letter that, according to Jewish law and the position of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel throughout generations, ‘these stones are sacred, and we have no right to use them. They must be buried. Their proper burial site is alongside the fallen stones from the Temple Mount’, which are currently piled up on the southern side of the Western Wall.
The Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel joined the call, emphasizing that according to Jewish law, these stones cannot be used as museum exhibits that can be moved from place to place as if they were ordinary artifacts.
