Is the Kotel Off-limits?

Rabbi says Western Wall cameras desecrate Sabbath
The Associated Press
Wednesday, December 15, 2010; 7:28 AM

JERUSALEM -- A leading Israeli rabbi has declared the Western Wall off limits to the faithful on the holiest day of the week because of security cameras that he says desecrate the Sabbath.

The trouble at Judaism's holiest prayer site is with the technology, says Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, a 100-year-old rabbinical authority widely revered among ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Devout Jews strictly adhere to the biblical commandment to refrain from work on the Sabbath. Eliashiv says those coming into view of the closed-circuit surveillance cameras activate a light inside the devices, violating the Jewish prohibition on operating electronics on the Sabbath.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspaper in Israel published the rabbi's warning to the devout last weekend. He says Jews should not to visit the site on the Sabbath until the technology has proper rabbinic supervision.


The rabbi overseeing the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said he and the Jerusalem police were working to fix the problem.

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said if rabbinical authorities propose a technological solution, "we will happily consider it."

The Western Wall, located in Jerusalem's Old City, is a retaining wall of the compound where the biblical temples stood 2,000 years ago. Devout Jews and tourists pray in front of the outdoor site and stick small prayer notes between the stones of the wall.

It is Israel's most-visited site.