Singing to the Holy of Holies in the Kotel Tunnels

Entry 7: Thursday June 26th

When I walked the underground passages of the Kotel, I stopped for a period of time at the Holy of Holies. There is no sign, no such pomp and circumstance, no neon arrow pointing to this truly awesome place (and consequently, many who are not “in the know” just walk right past). I stood underground, in a passageway, facing a wall, and on the other side, also underground, under the current mosque that is built on the platform of the ancient Kotel, is the foundation rock, the rock on which Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac. This is how it works: Israel is the center of the Jewish world, and at the Center of Israel is Jerusalem, and at the Center of Jerusalem is the Kotel (the 2nd Temple which was destroyed in A.D. 70) and at the Center of the Kotel is the Holy of Holies where only one Cohain Priest would enter on Yom Kippur, with a rope tied around his leg so that, G-d forbid if anything were to happen to him, like if he were to combust from the intensity of communing with Hashem, then the other priests could drag him out) and AT THE CENTER OF THE HOLY OF HOLIES IS THE FOUNDATION ROCK. And I sang the Shema to the foundation rock. It’s not like anyone invited me to sing such a thing, I just intuitively decided. Well, first I sang the Ashrei, from a few feet distance (the tunnel is maybe only 6ft wide). Then I had the impulse to directly approach the wall and sing directly into it. I read the first line of the Shema silently. When I sang the second line aloud with my eyes closed, cradling the sedur, my lips inches from the stone wall separating me from the Holy of Holies I experienced something incredible. On certain words, actually on certain syllables, actually on certain unifications of word and melody, there was this other worldly resonance, a reverb, that COULD have been due to the angle of the sedur and the crannies of the rock, but it occurred only on these notes/words which I think is too perfect to be coincidence:

[The capitalized portion is where the incredible reverb occurred]
Shma YisraEL AdonAI EloHAYnu AdonAI Echad.

EL AI HAY

What does it all mean? I’m unsure, I should consult a scholar or Rabbi on this one. In passing, one of the knowledgeable trip organizers mentioned those were all names for G-d. And if you sing the Shema, you’ll notice that whoever composed the melody understood the importance of emphasizing those syllables because they all reach the highest note. Though I explained the importance of the Holy of Holies in terms of concentric circles (at the center of Israel is the Kotel…etc), one could also think of this three dimensionally as a kind of upward spiral, and when one makes Aliya (when one immigrates to Israel), one is actually ascending, because the translation is “going up.” And when one goes to the bema to read from the Torah or recite a blessing he/she is does an “Aliya” because though the bema is physically raised, he/she is ascending spiritually when doing this act. Ah, interconnectedness—the high notes, the altar of the Kotel, the bema, is essentially the Holy of Holies. And I got as high as physically possible. It was totally surreal. When I sang the Shema it sounded like angels, like two other divine voices were joining me. I felt the vibration in my head, in my heart, in the space surrounding my entire upper torso, I felt it behind my eyes, deep into the center of my skull. Yoffi!