Over the centuries, Jews made pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the holiday of Shavuoth, as they had on the Passover and Sukkot holidays. On Shavuoth, there was also the custom to visit the grave of King David, whose Birthday and Yartzeit are on this day.

When Shavuoth arrived in 1948, a month after the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews were denied access by the Jordanians (1948-1967), but the pilgrimages to King David's grave on nearby Mount Zion continued. From there the Jews could peek across the border and see the Temple Mount from afar.

On the morning of Shavuoth, June 15 1967, after the liberation of Jerusalem following the Six Day War, the Old City was officially opened to the public. For the first time in almost two thousand years, masses of Jews visited the Western Wall and walked its cherished streets. Each Jew who ventured to the Western Wall on that unforgettable day represented the realization of their ancestor's dreams over the millennium.

It was a rare euphoric moment. Late at night, thousands streamed toward the Zion gate eagerly awaiting entry into the Old City. At 4 A.M., the accumulating crowds at Mount Zion were allowed to enter the Western Wall area. The first minyan began. Fifteen hundred people shared that unprecedented moment. As the sun rose, a steady flow of thousands made their way to the Old City. Two hundred thousand Jews visited the Western Wall that day, the first mass Jewish pilgrimage in two thousand years, since the pilgrimages for the festivals in Temple times.

"Every section of the population was represented. Kibbutz members and soldiers rubbing shoulders with the Neturei Karta. Mothers came with children in arms, and old men trudged steeply up Mount Zion supported by youngsters on either side, to see the Wall of the Temple before the end of their days. Some wept, but most faces were wreathed in smiles. For thirteen continuous hours a colorful variety of all peoples trudged along in perfect order, stopping patiently when told to do so at each of six successive barriers set up by police to regulate the flow." (Jerusalem Post, July 15, 1967, 1)

“I've never known such an electric atmosphere before or since. Wherever, we were stopped, we began to dance. Holding aloft Torah scrolls we swayed and danced and sang at the tops of our voices. So many of the Psalms and songs are about Jerusalem and Zion and the words gave us new life. As the sky lightened, we reached the Zion gate. Still singing and dancing, we poured into the narrow alleyways beyond.” (“Voices of Jerusalem-Crowd of Tears,” Hadassah Magazine 77, no.9 'May 1996': 23.)

On the day of Shavuoth 3,320 years earlier, the Israelites stood at Mount Sinai and felt the gravity of the moment as they formed a unique relationship between themselves and their Creator. On the Shavuoth following Israel's amazing victory, multitudes ascended to the western wall in their ancestors footsteps to celebrate the holiday near the Temple Mount. They too, felt the magic of the moment.