American Spectator contributing editor, Jay Homnick wins the award for the pot calling the kettle black. He charges Barack Obama with inappropriately “politicizing” the Western Wall and somehow violating its sanctity:
“The Jewish tradition invests it (Western Wall) with a unique sanctity. It is said to have been the westernmost barrier of the Temple campus,” states Homnick.
“As children, we were all taught the Midrash that says it was built exclusively from the donations of the poor. For this reason, God’s presence always hovers there and it can never be destroyed by human hands. But, it apparently can be brought down a few pegs of dignity by being used as a prop for a political photo-op.”
Homnick describes himself as a commentator and humorist. There is nothing funny about his observations, and the only meaningful commentary which I can find in his comments is his concern about the abuse of a religious tradition for particular partisan ends — which is precisley what he is guilty of doing! I guess that’s why he is so sensitive to Obama doing just that.
Mr. Homnick provides a shining example of the pot calling the kettle black. And he is not even getting his Jewish history right. The massive expansion of the Temple compound during the reign of King Herod the Great, was one of the largest politically motivated public works projects in the entire Roman Empire. So for better or worse, the oldest tradition of the Western Wall is that of marrying politics and religion. Sorry, Mr. Homnick. But even if they never told you that part of the story, that’s just the way it was.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted July 27, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Despite a good-faith effort to follow the reasoning here, I confess to being mystified.
How could I be said to be abusing a religious tradition for partisan ends? I criticized Obama and his team for crass behavior and I demonstrated the basis for the complaint. How is that partisan? And how is that abuse?
It is instructive that you do not mention the issue at hand; namely, the hanging of huge political posters in the Square in front of the Wall.
This is a “shining” example of the pot calling the kettle black? That is your fair-minded judgment?
And what is your second paragraph maintaining? That the Wailing Wall should not be viewed as a holy place that inspires the Jews of the world? This essay leaves me utterly befuddled.
posted July 28, 2008 at 10:46 am
Well Jay, I love that you read the post and hope that you will see this as well. Even more, I hope that you read and comment regularly.
Your “abuse” of the tradtion (admittedly a harsher term than one which I would normally use, but fair in this case because it wasintroduced by you to the conversation), comes in the form of sharing an isolated midrash to prove a particular political point. There is a midrash to “prove” anything, which is a strength of rabbinic literature, but a fact which demands greater modesty on the part of those who use it.
And while I appreciate your saying that you are “befuddled”, we both know that is not true. You are far too smart for that. What you are is poorly informed about Jewish history. You assume a false dichotomy between “a holy place that inspires Jews” and one which can be used, as it always has been, for politcal purposes.
Not to mention that you keep insisting that it is a place of inspiration for Jews, suggesting that it can be one others as well. That too is disturbing but for other reasons and to be discussed at some other time.