Obama's Western Wall prayer

When I first heard that Barack Obama's prayer at the Western Wall had been retrieved and published, I was somewhat upset at the classlessness of the Jerusalem newspaper, Ma'ariv, that did so. Then I learned that someone had retrieved that prayer note and had, apparently, given it to Ma;ariv. Then I learned that another paper had also been given the note (presumably a Xerox) but had refused to publish it.

Then, frankly, I got suspicious. No one retrieved McCain's prayer note when he visited there in March. In fact, I can't remember any public figure's prayer being published.

So the circumstances of the prayer's retrieval and disclosure simply do not pass the smell test for me. Some people met Obama at the Wall with Obama campaign posters - for a supposedly unannounced visit - and then, quite by accident, apparently, someone grabbed his prayer note and passed it off to at least two newspapers.

All accidental? Coincidental? Really? [Update, 7/28 - I am now highly skeptical that the Obama campaign was complicit in the publication of the prayer. See Obama's Western Wall prayer plot thickens and Obama campaign denies approving prayer for publication.]

Some background: The Western Wall is the only extant remnant of the Temple Mount of ancient Jerusalem, where King David located the first Temple to be built, although David himself did not build it. In 70 c.e., the Temple was destroyed by two Roman legions fighting Jewish Zealots in The Jewish War, as the Romans called it. The Temple was looted, burned, and its walls thrown down.

Remains of the Temple Walls - stones thrown down by Roman soldiers 1,938 years ago. These stones lie today next to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, a few hundred meters from the "Wailing" Wall, part of the Western Wall.

This is the part of the Western Wall that includes the prayer wall. Note that there is a public plaza in the foreground that is always full of people. The dark band just above the heads of the people in the shot is the top of a barrier (more like a screen, it's not a security barrier) beyond which is the prayer plaza.

The prayer plaza is segregated, men only on the left and women only on the right. To pass beyond the barrier men must wear a kippa, or Orthodox-style head covering (see Rabbi Jackson's post), women must cover their head, usually with a shawl or scarf. For those arriving without a kippa, as I lacked when I took these pictures last October, the administrators conveniently provide stacks of kippas made of cardboard at the entrance through the barrier.

The "tourist" kippa is functional and that's all. It absolutely marks you as just passing through. When I return to Jerusalem next June, my co-author and close friend, Rabbi Jackson, has promised to provide me with a decent kippa, probably to avoid being associated with a rube Gentile who would simply pluck one from the stack. (Which is what Obama did, unlike McCain last March, who brought a real kippa of his own.)

Just under my shirtsleeve, above, you will notice white fillings in the cracks between the stones. Those are prayer notes left by that's day's visitors. I was standing to the far left of the prayer wall for the picture. Moving to the right the wall was crowded and the cracks were stuffed solid with prayer notes.

At the end of each day, a team removes all the notes left that day, after which they are ceremoniously burned, "so that the prayers may rise to God" symbolically, through the smoke. According to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz, "the rabbi of the Wall who accompanied Obama on his visit there,:

"the notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them." Ma'ariv's decision to publish the note "damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves," he said.

I honestly cannot believe that one of the Jews keeping the Wall, who are among the most devout in the country, would have violated this very basic theology of the prayers at the Wall. So someone else removed Obama's prayer note. Who and why? Ah, that's the question.

Now, on to Obama's prayer itself. Here is the photo of the prayer published in Ma'ariv.

One correspondent emailed me to ask what did I think about writing the prayer on hotel notepad. Actually, I don't think I used paper that good, so I can't throw stones at Obama. You can bet that thousands of prayers written on hotel stationery or not that fancy get crammed into the wall every day. Besides, I would say that true prayer is written upon the heart, anyway: "A broken and contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise," wrote King David. So I can't make big deal out of the paper itself.

As for the prayer itself: Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, offered this observation:

This was supposed to be a private benediction, and it was extraordinarily improper for someone to take this prayer and sell it to the media. On the other hand, in the world of paparazzi, the exposure of the prayer was predictable, and Obama apparently constructed the prayer for public consumption. Like everything else about his visit, this was a carefully crafted statement, designed not to ruffle very many feathers. And like this prayer, there was nothing extraordinary about Obama’s visit. As you would expect from a politician, he tried to be all things to all people. And he probably succeeded.

Can't disagree with that.

Is the prayer too self centered, "all about me," as some have commented? Again, my prayer, which was much shorter, was almost exclusively about me. To go to the Wall, especially for the first time, is a very "focusing" event. It was, for me, a place of deep confession and contrition before God. I was made aware of my own helpless inadequacy before my Creator. I knew I was (and still remain) nought but a beggar for grace, with no standing before God on that day to bring grand petitions. "First, take the log from your own eye, then worry about the splinter in your neighbor's eye," a certain famous, ancient rabbi said. So I prayed for myself, and apart from myself only for the people of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

I would also note that there is not much room to cram a big piece of paper. I prayed with my lips much more than I wrote on the paper. Did Obama also? I cannot know, but must presume that if he approached the Wall with a modicum of faith, he did.

But the written record, (of which the circumstances of disclosure stinketh, I repeat) strikes me as a fully appropriate prayer, one that I would be more than willing to pray myself. There is not a single problematic sentiment. And it ends, "Make me an instrument of your will." How can anyone possibly pray or wish otherwise?

Update: Whited Sepulchre, who has "a deep spiritual kinship with the Senator," tries to "reconstruct the more honest prayer he may have slipped into the wall before this one."