Another 2000 Year Claim

A report:-

(JTA) – Ten longtime members of Women of the Wall are protesting the organization’s agreement to meet at Robinson’s Arch if certain conditions are met.
In a public statement Friday, the protesting members said the Women of the Wall board betrayed the group’s fundamental mission with its decision earlier in the week.
“We remain committed to the Kotel, the place sanctified by the memory, prayers, and hopes of Jews for 2,000 years,” read the statement, using the wall’s Hebrew name. “We remain unalterably committed to the right of all Jewish women to pray together in the ezrat nashim [women’s section] at the Kotel with tallit and tefillin, reading from the Torah scroll.”

What 2,000 years?

According to Yehuda Yitzhak Yechezkel in Zion, 3, 1929, the Western Wall only became a site of regular prayer in the 9th century CE, some 1150 years ago.  Before that, Jews came to all the other walls, to the Mount of Olives and also to the Temple Mount.  (Another contribution of his to the subject)ץ

In the 14th century, Ashtori Ha-Farhi does not specifically mention the Western Wall but rather notes that Jews attempted to approach any of the walls to pray although evidence from the Cairo Genizah notes an 11th century prayer at the Western Wall.

Ladies, your devotion is admirable but let's get the historical facts straight.

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