From communicating with God to messaging the world
When up close, another image appears: small blotches of white in the Wall’s lower section. These are some of the over a million letters or messages that visitors from different religions and from all over the world leave each year in the cracks – all addressed to “our Creator”.
A seal impression of King Hezekiah (727–698 BCE) unearthed in the Ophel excavations at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount, conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology under the direction of Dr. Eilat Mazar. (Courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar; Photo by Ouria Tadmor)
Known as the Kottel, the Western Wall was erected over 2000 years ago as part of the expansion of the Second Temple by Herod the Great. This was long before Islam came knocking at the Gates of the Old city in 636 not to deposit messages in what was then called the “Wailing Wall” but brandishing weapons of war. After a four-month siege, Jerusalem surrendered to the Muslim conquerors under Caliph Umar.
Conquerors have come and gone through the millennia, but the Western Wall stands today as testimony of Judaism’s solid connection to the city of Jerusalem, which President Trump on behalf of the USA in December 2017 recognised as the capital of Israel. This is in sharp contrast to the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voting in July 2017 declaring to the world that Israel was “occupying” the Western Wall. This was like UNESCO defying “there is no gravity”!
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon tweeted at the time a photograph of himself praying at the Western Wall with the message he inserted into a crevice that read:
“Jerusalem is our only, eternal capital, with or without ridiculous decisions like that of UNESCO.”
The message of the Finance Minister follows a long tradition that goes back in time and will continue into the future in Judaism’s most holy Wall.
Messages in Masonry
The popular custom of placing notes among the stones of the Wall is believed to have been imported from Europe in the 19th century, although there is evidence of its much earlier practice. Rabbi Gedaliah of Semitzi, who visited Jerusalem and the Western Wall in 1699, is believed to have written the first recorded evidence of prayers left between the cracks of the Wall.
Generally, special scribes would help those who needed to write their notes in Hebrew, and thereafter placed in the cracks. At regular intervals, the notes would be removed, gathered in a sack, and buried in genizahs (a designated storage area in synagogues or Jewish cemeteries for worn-out religious Hebrew-language books and papers).
Heaven’s Postbox
Twenty-seven-year-old Elad Dvir from Kfar Saba recalls placing a message in the cracks just before his Bar Mitzvah. He would not reveal specifically the wording of his message – “it’s a private matter between God and me” – but hinted it concerned a general appeal for “a life of health and happiness”.
The practice of communicating with God at the Wall – not through paper messages but by direct markings on the Wall – already prevailed centuries before. Starting in the early Middle Ages, pilgrims would write their names on the stones of the wall alongside short blessings. Others would rub their hands in paint and make palm prints on the Wall, or engrave their names in the stones with a penknife or blade. There were also residents who hammered nails into the wall as a sort of good-luck ritual before traveling abroad.
“In pictures from the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century, the Wall appears to be decorated with inscriptions … nearly every place a human hand could reach,” wrote historian Dr. Yair Wallach in an article entitled “The Hebrew Inscriptions on the Stones of the Western Wall.”
Early in the 20th century, protests began against defacing the Wall as evidenced by historian Joseph Klausner who described the condition of the Wall following his visit in 1912 as: “Blasphemy unparalleled anywhere in the world”.
To protect and preserve the integrity of the Wall, a decree by the British Mandate Authority in 1931 prohibited the custom of writing on the face of the Wall and today, only the leaving of messages is permitted.
Off the Wall
One of the many stories connected to the custom of ‘posting’ messages, tells of a Jewish tourist who visited the Old City after it was recaptured during the Six-Day War in 1967 and noticed people writing notes and then stuffing them into the cracks.
“Good idea,” he thought, and took out a slip of paper, wrote a message, and placed it tightly in a crevice, hoping it would enjoy eternal longevity. On his return to Jerusalem five years later, he went in search of his note and found it, but to his surprise, “it was higher up than where I left it.” He believed “Here’s my note making its way upward toward the Creator of the universe” wholly unaware that since his first visit, work had been done to lower the level of the plaza, so that his message only appeared to be higher up the Wall!
Token of Reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Jewish People. John Paul II placing the “Note” with his message between the stones in the Western Wall in 2000.
From Popes to Presidents
Pope Francis posting a letter to God in May 2014
Pope Benedict XVI (in 2008 and again in 2009) placed notes in the Western Wall crevices
While the Western Wall has been a place of veneration for Jews for two millennia, today it is “a must-experience” for most visitors to Israel. Foreign diplomats and dignitaries visiting, make a point of “experiencing” the Wall and although it is considered one of the holiest places in Judaism, people of all faiths, including Pope John Paul II (in 2000) and Pope Benedict XVI (in 2008 and again in 2009) placed notes in its crevices.
When US President Barack Obama was running for office in 2008, he visited the Wall, and placed a note – written on hotel stationary – in a crevice. It read: “Lord, protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”
Twice a year, before Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and again before Pesach (Passover), the notes on the Wall are removed to make space for the constant stream of pleaders.
The Western Wall’s chief Rabbi, together with his support team, first immerse in a mikveh (ritual bath) to cleanse themselves, and then work to carefully take the notes out of the Wall with brooms and wooden sticks so as not to harm them. The notes are then placed in bags, and buried in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives to the East of Jerusalem’s Old City. These slips of paper are treated the same as pieces of Torah scrolls or damaged prayer books and are forbidden to be destroyed.
In 2011, today’s Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, then a New York City Public Advocate, visited Jerusalem and placed a prayer note in the Western Wall.
Presidential candidate, Hilary Clinton posting a message in the Western Wall
Other prospective US presidents who placed entreaties in the Wall were Mitt Romney in July 20012 and US Senator Hilary Clinton in 2005. One does not know what they wrote but neither of them attained the high office they sought!
One wonders if Israel’s third State President, Zalman Shazar, wrote and deposited a note or prayer when he visited the Western Wall on his first visit to the Land of Israel in 1911. He most certainly was taken up with the experience as evident in this written account:
“You will go down through the narrow alleys of ancient Jerusalem and arrive at the Wall and stand there. Then you will not only see with your eyes but you will also feel with your entire being the single eternity in our past … And when your feet enter the courtyard of the Wall, here you feel and experience the re-weaving of your soul into the eternal fabric of 2,000 years … Into the space at this remnant of the Wall the sighs from all the ends of the earth and all eras penetrate … The Wall does not differentiate between lands and eras. The tears have all flowed from the hearts of one people, they have all come from one source and they will all pray to One.”
The Postman Rings Twice
At least twice a year – before Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Pesach (Passover) – people afar, arrange for others to post in the Wall their messages to God.
What letter did Bill Clinton post when visiting Western Wall.
Prior to this past Rosh Hashanah in 2017, hundreds of letters were addressed to “God,” c/o the Israel Post Director General Danny Goldstein who then, personally, handed them over to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz the Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites who then ‘posted’ the letters between the cracks in the Wall.
Written in many languages, the letters came from countries around the world, including Russia, China, France, Nigeria, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Messages To The World
US President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem’s Old City on May 22, 2017.
While President Trump made history on 6 December declaring US recognition of Jerusalem as “the capital of Israel”, he made history earlier in the year as well, when on the 22 May, he became the first serving president to walk in reverence to the Western Wall.
President Barak Obama placing his note written on King David Hotel stationary in the Western Wall. (Note on the right)
Whatever ensues in his turbulent presidency, the US president made monumental history for the revived Jewish nation when he stood alone at the Western Wall, black kippah (skullcap) on his head – swaying a little and perhaps praying a little – 50 years after Israel recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem that King David ruled over 3000 years earlier.
From over a million messages posted to God every year in the Wall’s crevices, the US President’s visit to the Wall in May 2017 and his statement of Israel sovereignty of Jerusalem eight months later, are 2017’s two most significant messengers as modern Israel prepares to celebrate its 70th birthday in 2018.
They were addressed to the world and affirmed the Biblical prophecy of Isaiah of “the return of the exile people of Israel to Jerusalem”
**View the Western Wall, on line, through live cameras: https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/israel/jerusalem-district/jerusalem/western-wall.html (Also embedded in first paragraph).
