Millions of people a year visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem -- one of Judaism's holiest sites -- and leave written prayers on pieces of paper wedged into the cracks of the ancient stones. The Western Wall's chief rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, oversaw the clearing-out of the old "notes to God" from the ancient structure on Wednesday, making room for new ones, ahead of Passover. "We are now cleaning the stones of the Western Wall, we're collecting the notes, notes from Jews and non-Jews from Israel and abroad that were inserted in the past six months in the cracks of the wall, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of notes if not more, if not millions, we as you can see are ensuring that no one can open these notes. We'll collect them in bags and then we'll bury them, God willing, in the Mount of Olives," Rabinowitz said. As rabbi of the Western Wall, it is up to Rabinowitz to make sure there's room for future paper wishes. Twice a year his team collects hundreds of thousands of notes and bury them on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. A handful of men using sticks and brooms to extract thousands of small notes from the cracks in the wall so as not to harm the ancient stones of the holy site, revered by Jews as a perimeter wall of the Biblical temple. They never read the notes and have never counted the number of scripted prayers, but in each collection there are enough to fill about 100 shopping bags, each with thousands of notes, Rabinowitz said. Some letters are sent to the wall by fax or email -- often for a small fee. Rabinowitz said he places hundreds of letters a year received by the post office addressed simply to "God in Jerusalem." Leaving notes of prayers and pleas has been adopted by members of many faiths around the world. It is very common for Christian pilgrims travelling through the Old City of Jerusalem to stop by the Western Wall and leave a note, the rabbi said.
Credit: Reuters
