Why pray at the Kosel? We have Har HaBayis!

What's your feeling when you see so many people praying down by the Western Wall?

Extremely disappointing, and it gives me a great deal of sorrow and grief, because what happens is, once we start changing the mitzvot, what we do is we deviate from the way of the Torah, and we start violating our halachot.

We're davening at the wall which was built by Herod.

Herod wiped out the Chasmonaim!

How is it possible that we're davening at his wall?

And people call that wall kodesh?

That's, in simple English, fake news.

People went to daven when it was under the Muslims.

We couldn't go onto Har HaBayit.

There were terrible restrictions.

So they began to daven at any place that gave them a feeling of remembrance of Har HaBayit.

Now we have Har HaBayit.

Now we have the place where Shlomo says, "this is the place to be mitpallel," (this is the place to daven).

But the people, because we deviated from the path of the Torah, we find ourselves with a substitute.

Once you leave a mitzvah, you begin to be involved with actions that are contrary to the Torah.

And the biggest proof is the Chet Ha'Egel.

When Moshe Rabbeinu was gone, for a short time, he was late, people began to panic.

They didn't know what to do, and they built the Chet HaEgel.