Pilgrims and Pilgrimages
By DR. HARRY RABINOWICZ
(A Seven Arts Feature)
The purpose of a religious pil-
grimage is to visit and worship at
a shrine where a unique manifesta-
tion of Divine activity occurred. At
a time when the worship of the
nation was centered around the
Temple, "every male Israelite was
required to visit the Temple three
times a year" with appropriate
offerings. The three festivals, Pe-
sah, Shavuot and Sukkot, are
known as Shalosh Regalim, mean-
ing literally, the three pilgrim
festivals. They were of agricul-
tural, religious as well of polit-
ical significance. The pilgrimage
served to unite the people in a
common cultural and religious en-
tity, while at the same time bene-
fiting commerce and industry.
The measures of Jeroboam I to
establish rival sanctuaries at Beth
El and Dan show how powerful
the central attraction of the Tem-
ple had become. He attempted to
counteract its influence by chang-
ing the place and time of pilgrim.
ages. The 15th of Av was later
proclaimed a holiday in order to
commemorate the day when Jero-
boam's guards, stationed to pre-
vent the Israelites from reaching
Jerusalem, were removed.
After the building of the Second
Temple, Jerusalem the Holy City
was without rival the objective of
Jewish pilgrimage. Visiting Jeru-
salem became a fond dream and
sacred obligation of faithful Jews
In the Dispersion. Jews journeyed
thither from Mesopotamia and
daily prayers for rain were post-
poned until 15 days after festivals
"in order • to grant time for the
last of the Israelites to return to
the Euphrates without being in-
convenienced by the rain."
The Talmud relates that King
Agrippa once desired to take a
census of the pilgrims. He ordered
the priests to take one .hind leg
of every pascal lamb and they
counted 1,200,000 legs. Josephus,
too, tells us in his "Jewish War"
that Gesius Florus (44-66) counted
256,000 pascal lambs at one fes-
tival. The fact that sufficient ac-
commodation was found in an area
of 2,000,000 square yards is listed
by the Mishna as one of the minor
miracles associated with the Tem-
ple.
After the destruction of the Sec-
ond Temple, conditions changed.
Pilgrimages ceased to be an obliga-
tory act. It assumed a personal
and emotional character. Pilgrims
to the Temple site now came prin-
cipally to mourn and to pray for
the restoration of Zion and they
were not always welcomed by the
non-Jewish population of the land.
By the 4th Century, Jews were
allowed only once a year to enter
the Temple site. "All Jews come
once a year to this place," writes
the Pilgrim from Bordeaux in the
year 333, "weeping and lamenting
near a stone which remains of the
Holy Temple." The Christian the-
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THE DETROIT_ JEWISH NEWS _ •
_ friday, _ September 20, 1968-51
ologian Jerome (342-420) in his
commentary to Zephania writes:
"Up to this very day the faithless
inhabitants are forbidden to enter
Jerusalem, and it is that they may
weep over the ruins of their state
that they pay a price."
At around, this time Jewish lit-
erature begins to refer to the
sanctity of the Western Wall. "The
Divine presence has never depart-
ed from the Western Wall," says
Rabbi Aha who lived in the first
half of the 4th Century. "The
Western Wall of the Temple," state
our rabbis, "will never be de-
stroyed because the Shehina is in
the West."
During the first Moslem occupa-
tion of the Holy Land (637-1099)
the Jews were allowed to enter the
sacred area, "to make rounds of
the Temple gate and to pray there
with a loud voice." They were
even permitted to build a house of
prayer near the site. From the
10th Century onward s, regular
services were held not only on
fast-days and festivals but also
every Friday afternoon. Here gen-
erations of pilgrims would chant
the sorrowful verses of the Book
of Lamentations.
Many medieval travelers corrob-
orate this ancient Jewish custom.
Maimonides who visited Jerusalem
in 1165 writes, "I entered the
great, and holy house
•
and prayed
there." Benjamin of Tudela, writ-
ing in 1167, says: "They call it the
Gate of Mercy; thither all the Jews
go to pray before it."
Five hundred years later, in
1688, the Karaite, Rabbi Benjamin
Yerushalmi ben Elijah, noted:
"Afterwards we went to the West-
ern Wall to pray . . . If anyone
desires to go every day to th
Western Wall the Ishmaelites per-
mit him to go and pray." A pre-
scribed ritual was already in use
at the time. The first printed "rit-
ual" is dated 1601. It indicates
that the Jew would take off his
shoes as he approached the Wall,
kiss the stones and recite a spe-
cial prayer. The Bodleian Library,
Oxford, has a copy of such a
prayer book, printed in Venice in
1702,
In the 19th Century, there is a
plethora of evidence regarding
pilgrimages to Holy Sites. Sultan
Abdul Majid issued in 1841 a de-
cree according the Jews the right
to pray there without interference.
Sir Moses Montefiore in his report
to the board of deputies wrote in
1866: "The governor of Jerusalem,
Izzet Pasha, kindly gave me per-
mission to erect an awning for the
'Wailing Place' so as to afford
shelter and to protect from rain
and heat pious persons visiting
this sacred spot."
Jewish pilgrims not only visited
Jerusalem but also the graves of
Biblical figures, Tannaim, Amor-
aim and Mystice. Parental merit
occupies an important position in
Judaism. Since 'he earliest days
men have vi
the graves of
sages to pray
5uch intercession.
It is said that Caleb, one of the
12 scouts who were sent by Moses
to explore the land of Canaan, first
visited the graves of Patriarchs.
"My Fathers, pray on my behalf
that I may be delivered from the
plans of the spies," were the words
of Caleb.
The pilgrimage to Meron on Lag
b'Omer has been carried out for
centuries. Men and women, Ash-
kenazim and 'Sephardim, Hasidim
and Mitnagdom, Sabras and Ye-
menis, converge on the white-
dombed tomb of Rabbi Simeon bar
Yochai and his son Eliezer. The
pilgrims dance as they pray and
pray as they dance, fired by re-
ligious ecstasy, hithlahabut, not
riotous revelry.
Though in Jewry, pilgrimage has
never become a vocation or a way
of life, successive generations of
Jews have never- missed the op-
portunity of paying reverence to
the many hallowed sites in the
Holy Land.
Before another year passes, an
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