Legends of the
Dome of the Rock:
17 / SIGHS FROM THE TEMPLE SITE
Rabbi Joseph, an inhabitant of Jerusalem, in his
Hebrew book Kessef Razuf (Pure Silver) reports: "When I was in the
Holy City, in Jerusalem, may she be built and established, sitting quietly and
peacefully at home, I heard it said that on the eve of the ninth day of the
month Ab, a voice of mourning and sighing goes forth from the Temple that all
may hear.
"I wanted to hear for myself, so after prayers on
the eve of the ninth of Ab, I sat down at my window which overlooks the Wailing
Wall. And then I heard the noise of great lamenting issuing out of the Temple,
and my hair stood on end, and I was seized with much weeping until I
fainted."
In a letter sent by the heads of the Eastern Jewish
communities, it is related: "Let your brothers tell you of the signs of
our redemption in words that are good and consoling and faithful, that in the
year 5214 after the creation of the world [1454 c.e.], one night in the month of Ab — may God turn the sorrow
of Ab into happiness! — we heard many loud voices from the mountain on which
stood the Temple. And the Arabs, too, heard them and were greatly frightened,
for never had they heard any like them. Many Jews understood the message in
these voices, and they said that they heard in them the words of Isaiah the
prophet: 'Awake, awake, put on strength, /Awake, as in the days of old. The generations
of ancient times
/ Awake, awake, Put on thy strength, O Zion; / Put on thy beautiful
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.' "
Sources: Josef
ben Josef, Kssef Razuf, 1926, p. 169b; Ha-Ma’amer (ed. Lunz),
III, 1920, p. 107; Isaiah 51:9, 52:1. .
Culled
from: Zev Vilnay: Legends of Jerusalem, Jewish Publication Society,
1973.
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