In preparation for the new year and according to tradition, the removal of the prayer notes buried between the courses of the Western Wall was held this morning (Tuesday). The notes are collected using disposable wooden tools to the designated storage facilities. The notes were collected in special sacks and will be buried together with the holy books that are transferred to the genizah on the Mount of Olives.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places, personally accompanied the evacuation as every year and offered a prayer for the thousands of visitors who buried their prayers.
The custom of burying the notes at the Western Wall was already documented about three hundred years ago by the Holy Light of Life. The prayer notes are buried along the entire length of the Western Wall and can also be found between the courses of stones, which were exposed in the tunnels of the Western Wall.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of notes are placed by visitors and worshippers. In addition to this, in the last year about thirty thousand notes were sent through the website from countries around the world, including: USA, Slovakia, Brazil, South America, Colombia, Germany, Holland, Canada, England, Russia, Venezuela, Ukraine, India, Mexico, Argentina, Taiwan.
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation said: “On New Year’s Eve 2018, we see a welcome increase in visitors from Israel and the world coming to the Western Wall, as well as to the new route in the tunnels of the Western Wall and the new visitor center Chain of Generations, as well as an increase in the amount of prayer notes, which have been buried in the last six months between the stones of the Western Wall. This is a record period as the Western Wall has never known before.”
Photo: The Western Wall Heritage Foundation