Mid-morning on Tisha B’Av, the hottest part of the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, the crowds had mostly dispersed from the Western Wall, the epicenter of the day’s commemoration and prayer.

The previous night, tens of thousands of people from across the country had come to read the Book of Lamentations and recite the customary Kinnot prayers mourning the destruction of the first and second Temples, said to have been destroyed on the same date in the Jewish calendar, the ninth of Av. And later in the day on Thursday, in the waning hours of the fast before nightfall, many more will end the fast day with songs of yearning.

The First Temple, built by the biblical King Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. The day also marks a number of other historic calamities that have befallen the Jews.

But during the intense midday heat, the people who’d gathered at the Western Wall, the supporting wall of the Second Temple and ground zero of its destruction, were mainly the most dedicated worshipers.

“I’ve been here since last evening, before the fast began,” said Dekel Cohen, an ultra-Orthodox man from Bnei Brak who said he had spent the entire night praying at the wall, sleeping only intermittently. “This is a place that we have been waiting for so many generations for the Holy One to bring us a complete redemption, and when we pray from the depths of our hearts here, we believe that He accepts our prayers.”

Cohen described the flow of traffic at the Western Wall over the previous day.

“Until about a half-hour before the fast, the plaza was almost completely empty,” he said. “But from that time on, the place has been overflowing with people, even through the wee hours of the morning. There are fewer people here now, when it is hot, but people understand that this is the time and place to mourn for the Temple’s destruction and pray for its rebuilding.”

Rachel, a Jerusalem resident, arrived at the Western Wall Thursday morning with her son and daughter.

“Every year, I come on Tisha B’av,” she said. “That’s what my........

© The Times of Israel