By Rabbi Michele Brand Medwin
During the last week of February 2009, I had the privilege of attending a rabbinic conference in the holy city of Jerusalem, in Israel. There is no other city like it in the world, containing holy sites of the three main religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem is an amazing city, blending the modern and ancient side by side. There are small stone homes built hundreds of years ago, nestled among tall office buildings. There are ancient ruins that date back over two thousand years. There is a special stone wall in the center of the Old City that is the only remnant left standing from the Second Temple, which was destroyed in the year 70. This wall, referred to as the Western Wall or Wailing Wall, is considered holy. It is a long-standing tradition to place personal notes in the cracks of the Wall, feeling that in such a holy place, perhaps you are a little closer to God. When President Obama visited Jerusalem, the media had videos of him putting his own note in the Wall.
Before I left for Israel, I invited the students at The Family Foundation School to write personal notes that I would bring to Jerusalem. Despite the cold, rainy and windy weather, I was determined to place their notes in the Wall. Fighting the rain and wind, and my umbrella turning inside out, walking through the streams of water in the cobbled stone streets, I finally made it through the Old City to the Wall and place their prayers among the millions that are left there each year.
God hears prayer everywhere, but someone in Jerusalem, perhaps God hears them just a little bit louder.
