Why there is no place for joint Jewish-Christian prayer at the Kotel and its surroundings

The Kotel and Halachah

A gathering called “24 Hours of Global Prayer” is being planned in Jerusalem, initiated by Christian organizations and involving Christians from around the world. According to the organizers, it will be a 24-hour international prayer event broadcast from Jerusalem, with the Western Wall serving as its central setting. The organizers describe it as a worldwide prayer gathering in which Christians from around the world will unite in prayer for Israel, Jerusalem and the peace of Jerusalem.

I oppose this.

We need Christian friends, especially at a time when antisemitism is once again spreading throughout the world. We appreciate those who stand with Israel and the Jewish people and support us during these difficult times. But friendship does not require us to give up our principles. We can respect our friends and appreciate their support while saying clearly: the Kotel is a place of Jewish prayer, and there is no place for an organized Christian prayer event around it.

If we do not respect ourselves, no one else will respect us.

The Kotel is not simply a tourist attraction. It is a Jewish place of prayer, where Jews from every part of the world come to stand before Hashem. The official Western Wall website describes the Kotel as a holy place used for public prayer and notes that the Western Wall and its plazas are subject to the law protecting Jewish holy places. The official procedures also treat the prayer plaza as a place designated for prayer and state that prayer events are approved sparingly and in accordance with the customs of the site.

For this reason, we should not reduce the issue to a technical question of how many meters away the event will take place. If a prayer event is held on a balcony, a roof, a nearby plaza or a viewing area, while the Kotel is the focus and backdrop of the broadcast, simply changing the exact location does not resolve the underlying issue. The official procedures themselves refer to the wider “Western Wall complex,” including the upper plaza, the prayer plaza, the Western Wall Tunnels, the Strauss House, the Western Wall Heritage Center, and the balconies, roofs and plazas connected with these sites.

There is, however, an important point that must be made clearly: I have no objection to a non-Jew coming to the Kotel and praying to Hashem. Quite the opposite.

We find an explicit precedent for this in the prayer of Shlomo HaMelech at the dedication of the Beis HaMikdash:

“And also concerning the stranger who is not of Your people Israel, who comes from a distant land for the sake of Your Name. For they will hear of Your great Name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, and he will come and pray toward this House. Then You shall hear in Heaven, the place of Your dwelling…” (Melachim I, 8:41–43)

A non-Jew who comes to a holy place and turns to Hashem in prayer is therefore not foreign to our tradition. On the contrary, Shlomo HaMelech himself prayed that Hashem should hear the prayer of the non-Jew who comes from afar and prays to Him.

There are also many stories from earlier generations and from our own time of non-Jews who came to the Kotel, prayed and asked for a yeshuah. We do not need to go into the details of those stories to understand the principle: the fact that someone is not Jewish does not, in itself, prevent him from coming to the Kotel and praying to Hashem.

But an individual non-Jew praying is one thing. An organized joint prayer event involving Jews and Christians is something entirely different.

When Jews and Christians stand together as part of a religious event, recite pesukim together and are presented as participating in one prayer, this is no longer simply two people praying in the same place. It becomes a joint religious event. There is a clear boundary here that we cannot simply erase.

The question is not how Jews and Christians related to one another in the past. The question is what is right today. Precisely today, when we have good relationships with many Christians, when we cooperate on important matters and when many Christians stand firmly with Israel, we also have to know where the line is. There is no place for joint Jewish-Christian prayer at the Kotel.

Even when the words come from Tehillim, saying them together does not necessarily make them one prayer. Dovid HaMelech says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” “Our feet stood within your gates, O Jerusalem,” and speaks of the “thrones of the House of Dovid.” For a Jew, these words are rooted in our tefillah, in Yerushalayim, in the Beis HaMikdash and in Malchus Beis Dovid. When people of another religion use the same words within their own religious framework, they may not be expressing the same meaning. The fact that the words are the same does not mean that the prayer has the same meaning.

Halachah recognizes the difference between working together with people of other religions and taking part in a shared religious setting. We can work together for common goals, help those in need, stand together against antisemitism and cooperate in matters of peace and security. None of this requires us to create a joint prayer service or blur the boundaries between religions.

The Kotel should remain a place where every Jew can come and feel at home. A Chareidi Jew, a religious Zionist, a traditional Jew or a Jew who is not observant—all should know that this is a place of prayer for the Jewish people. Precisely because the Kotel has such meaning for us, we have to be careful about anything that could gradually change its character.

Even if the event is moved to a place referred to as the “Southern Wall” or to another nearby area, that does not automatically answer the question. The exact location can have halachic and legal significance, and the status of a particular area should not be determined without examining its precise boundaries. But beyond the question of meters, there is a more fundamental question: Do we want an organized Christian prayer event, broadcast to the world and presenting the Kotel as its setting and focal point, to become part of the religious reality surrounding this place?

We also have to think about the precedent. If an organized religious prayer event by a Christian group around the Kotel is approved, it could create a precedent that will make it harder in the future to explain why similar requests from other groups should not be permitted. We should not wait until the boundaries have already been blurred before recognizing the danger.

And the potential damage goes beyond the event itself. When the boundaries between Judaism and another religion are repeatedly blurred, a message can gradually develop that the differences between them are no longer important. That can also affect attitudes toward intermarriage and attempts to present it as something natural or legitimate within Jewish life. It would be wrong to claim that one prayer event directly leads to intermarriage. But the boundaries of our people, our faith and our families do not disappear overnight. They become weaker when they are repeatedly blurred.

Anyone who supports this event needs to understand the responsibility involved. In my view, this is not merely support for an event that raises a halachic problem. Supporting such an event can cause tremendous damage. It can gradually change the character of the Kotel, blur boundaries that have been clear for generations, and have wider and unforeseen consequences for religious life, Jewish identity and the Jewish family.

This is not a lack of respect for Christians. We can and should continue our friendship, cooperation and shared efforts against antisemitism. But friendship does not require us to blur our religious boundaries. We respect others, and we must also respect ourselves.

The Kotel is a place of unique significance to the Jewish people. For generations, Jews have turned toward it, poured out their hearts there and asked Hashem for rachamim and yeshuah. Precisely in such a place, we have to know who we are.

This is not disrespect for others. It is respect for ourselves.

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, we should remember: we need friends, we appreciate their support, and we need every bit of support we can receive. But precisely for that reason, we must also know how to stand firm on our principles.

If we do not respect ourselves, no one else will respect us. Jewish prayer and Christian prayer should not be joined together and not at or around the Kotel. We have to safeguard Yerushalayim, the Kotel, the Torah, the Jewish family and the clear boundaries of Jewish life.

Tichleh Shanah uKlaloseha, Tachel Shanah uBirchoseha.