From the Western Wall to King David
Recently, I heard of a ‘segulah’ from the great Tzadik of Yerushalayim, Rav Yitzchak Meir Morgenstern shlita. He says that after davening at the Kotel, one should then go to the grave of King David on Mt. Zion to daven as well. The combination of these two holy places is a good recipe that can help for the acceptance of our prayers. On a basic level, both of these are great places associated with prayer. The kotel is the outer wall of the Beis Hamikdash, which is the “house of prayer for all nations”. And the grave of King David is the resting place for the author of Tehillim, the most popular book of prayer ever written.
Now, while many of us go to daven at the Kotel, not as many people come to visit the grave of Dovid the king of Israel. In the past 15 years, though, there has been a bit of a resurgence and more people have started to come. So let us look briefly at the history of the Jewish connection to the site.
Before we begin, though, it should be clarified that the kever of King David on Har Tzion is not only the grave site of King David but also of almost all of the Davidic kings such as Kings Solomon, King Ezekiah etc There is no other place that has ever been associated with as being the resting place of these greatest kings of Israel.
In Melachim 1 ( 2:10) it says that King David was buried in the City of David. Now, it first needs to be clarified that there is a bit of a distinction between the “City of David” and Yerushalayim. For example, in Melachim (8:1) it says that they brought the Aron from the City of David to Yerushalayim, implying like we said, that there is a distinction between the two. Also, Josephus who lived during the end of the second temple era writes ( Chapter 94 ) that after Titus captured Yerushalyim he then went to Mt Zion and captured the City of David, again suggesting that they are two distinct places.
So, the tradition of the Jewish people in all generations was that the grave of King David was on Mt Zion. The great 12th century Jewish traveller, Rav Binyomin of Tudella who visited Yerushalyaim in 1170 mentions this in his work “Travels of Rav Binyomin”. He also mentions that there are halls underneath where the kings are actually buried. And of course who is greater than the great Arizal, who was blessed to have the spirit of Hashem rest on him regularly, and also attested to this ( mentioned in the sefer Parshas Eihle Maasei pg 15 by Rav Moshe Chagiz). The palace that was recently discovered near the kotel is probably not from the City of David but a different palace that perhaps was built by King Solomon for his wife Cleopatra as it says Divrei Hayamim 2 ( 8:11) that King Solomon built for her a palace outside of the city of Dovid.
However, here is another very important point to consider. There exists a number of authentic testimonies from a number of people who said that under the gravestone of King David ,that we go to today, there actually is a staircase that leads to a number of elaborate halls ( confirmed recently with ultrasound evidence) that actually contains the graves of most of the Davidic dynasty . There was an American gentile archaeologist named James Barkley whose daughter came with him to Israel and actually went to the underground halls and drew a detailed picture of them back in 1854. Also in 1892 there were two Jewish painters who were hired by the sultan of Turkey ( who ruled Israel at the time) to paint the tomb of King David, which is also a very holy sight for Muslims ( they call him the Prophet Daud). These two painters were Aryeh Leib and Yosef Porath ( the grandfather and great grandfather of my great Uncle Joe Porath who was married to the youngest sister of my great grandmother Sarah Porath) . For different reasons, the Sultan did not allow the painters to explore the sight and even sent armed guards to ensure that they did not wander around. However, one day there was a muslim holiday and the guards did not show up. So our two painters, who knew where the staircase was, decided to explore. The following information is from a letter that was written by Rabbi Haim Yitchak Rappaport who along with Rabbi Yehosua Leib Diskin, who was the Rabbi of Jerusalem at the time, heard direct testimony from the two painters, Uncle Joe’s grandfather’s who were considered to be very reliable people. ( Today the original letter is owned by the Ben Tzvi Institute).
The two painters began to explore the site. As they went down, they saw a sign in Hebrew that said “Graves of the Davidic Kings”. As they proceeded they saw a hall embroidered in silver and gold. And then they were approached by a room with a great light ( testimony that was also confirmed by the daughter of James Barkley).In this room,there was a golden bed with a golden ark embroidered with a star of David that said David in gold. They also saw a crown studded with diamonds. Blown away by what they saw, they quickly said some Psalms and fled the place. Afterwards, they gave their testimony to the great Rabbis of the city. The son and grandson of the painters was Rabbi Israel Porath ( the ‘mechutan’ of my great Grandfather Rabbi Mordechai Scheinberg and late Rabbi of the synagogue I belonged to back in Cleveland, Heights Jewish Center). In a letter published in the Hebrew publication Tzefonot (13) Rabbi Porath says that he remembers hearing this story from his grandfather Yosef Porath. He says that Rabbi Diskin was greatly interested in what his grandfather saw. Rabbi Porath adds that his grandfather told him that he also saw the grave of King Solomon and a Torah Scroll on top of one of the graves ( this is consistent with the Talmudic tradition in Baba Kama ( 17 A) that a Torah Scroll was put on top of the grave of King Ezekiah) . In 2017, Aruzt Sheva ( a well known Israeli media site ), had an interview with Cheftzi Ba Cohen SIkli from Alon Shvut, a descendant of Rabbi Porath, who confirmed that the story is well known in the family and completely reliable.
The Yetzer Hara has recently been exerting some great forces in order to prevent people from coming to daven at the grave of King David . Hashem should help us that we should overcome these forces and merit to daven at this holy place. So next time you go to the kotel, make sure you also take a ten minute walk to the grave of King Dvid and the many other great kings on Mt Zion. With the more Jews that come to this site, the more salvation there will be for the Jewish people.
-Ariel
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This article is dedicated as a zechus for my mother Katia Bolotin and my aunt Joy Schwartz in honor of their upcoming birthdays. May Hashem bless both of them with health and much blessing in all matters.
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