The public battle currently being waged over the Kotel is political, not faith based. The groups are slugging it out over who will merit religious legitimacy. But both sides are fighting over a water-less pool. While it is true that the Kotel is full of religious sentiment, it is no holier than the Jerusalem Convention Center, for example.
The truly holy place – the place chosen by G-d – is the Temple Mount. Both the Haredim and Reform Jews are united in their estrangement from it. Religion was created on the day that the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed – as a tool for preserving Jewish identity in the exile. Longing for the Temple Mount is the continuation of the Return to Zion. It stems from the will to restore Judaism from the religious dimension to the cultural dimension – in which G-d dwells among us with no intermediaries. In other words, the Temple Mount threatens religion and its institutions no less than it threatens secularism. And that is why the Reform and Haredi are united in their estrangement from the Temple Mount.
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