Wailing Wall - mens section

Bar Mitzvah - Young man reading from the Torah.

WAILING WALL - The Wailing Wall is a high wall in Jerusalem. It is also called the Western Wall, because during Biblical times it formed the western wall of the courtyard of the Jews' holy Temple. The wall is about 160 feet long and about 40 feet high. Archaeologists have discovered that 19 rows of stones extend about 20 feet underground. The lower part of the wall contains stones said to be from Herod's Temple.

Beginning in the 700's, the Arabs permitted Jews to assemble at the wall on the evenings before their Sabbath and before their feast days. In services at the wall, the Jews recalled their traditions and sufferings.

Jews continued to use the wailing wall after the British won control of Jerusalem during World War I. In 1948, Jordan captured the section of Jerusalem where the wall was located, and prohibited Jews from the new state of Israel from using it. But the Jews regained access to the wall when Israel captured the Jordanian section of Jerusalem in the Arab-Israeli war of June, 1967.

BAR MITZVAH, bahr MIHTS vuh A Hebrew term that is appled to the religious ceremony in which a Jewisn boy celebrates his 13th birthday. The boy himself is called a bar mitzvah. At the age of 13, a Jewish boy becomes a member of the adult Jewish community and assumes the responsibilities of an adult Jew. The term bar mitzvah means son of the commandment.

A boy celebrates his bar mitzvah at a special religious service in the synagogue (in this case, at the Wailing Wall). Following the service, the bar mitzvah's parents honor him with a party attended by the boys friends and relatives.