Wailing-place, Jews': a section of the western wall of the temple area, where the Jews
assemble every Friday afternoon to bewail their desolate
condition (Ps. 79:1, 4, 5). The stones in this part of the wall
are of great size, and were placed, as is generally believed, in
the position in which they are now found in the time of Solomon.
"The congregation at the wailing-place is one of the most solemn
gatherings left to the Jewish Church, and as the writer gazed at
the motley concourse he experienced a feeling of sorrow that the
remnants of the chosen race should be heartlessly thrust outside
the sacred enclosure of their fathers' holy temple by men of an
alien race and an alien creed. Many of the elders, seated on the
ground, with their backs against the wall, on the west side of
the area, and with their faces turned toward the eternal house,
read out of their well-thumbed Hebrew books passages from the
prophetic writings, such as Isa. 64:9-12" (King's Recent
Discoveries, etc.). The wailing-place of the Jews, viewed in its
past spiritual and historic relations, is indeed "the saddest
nook in this vale of tears." (See LAMENTATIONS, BOOK OF
T0002235.)