“Dear God, please bring an end to Corona, and have my parents buy me a new iPhone and a JBL speaker,” writes Aron Mecklen, a young boy from Germany.
Amber from Texas thanks God, and sends greetings to her dead spouse Philip, and other deceased friends: “Thank you for caring for my deceased family and friends,” she writes. “To my dear Philip, we got the best turkey for the holiday. I have no one to quarrel with over the turkey breast! How much you loved the white meat.”
Sylvia from Ecuador asks for family unity. “Forgive me, Father, for receiving many favors and not repenting. If you could just take care of the soul of my husband above and us down here too.”
Anna, a single mother from Canada, asks for peace in her family. “God, please bring new friends into my life and tell my family to help me because I have no one to talk to.”
Matanu from Mombasa, Kenya attached a pay slip from his work, along with a number of names and key addresses of people from the government and police in his country.
These letters and hundreds of others were placed this week in the Western Wall, in a ceremony performed by the Israel Postal Service with the Rabbi of the Western Wall on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and the biblical holidays that fall during the Jewish month of Tishrei.
Israel Postal Service CEO Danny Goldstein and Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Places, Rabbi Rabinowitz, planted among the Western Wall stones the hundreds of letters that came from all over the world, intended for the One who sits on High. The letters come from people of all beliefs and religions from a wide assortment of countries: Kenya, Spain, India, Belgium, the United States, Japan, Canada, Ecuador, Denmark, Germany, France, Poland, Russia and more. Some of the letters were directed to God, others to Jesus (Yeshua), and they all have the same thing in common – prayer, petition and supplication, each individual in accordance with his or her faith, and even requests for peace and messages to deceased relatives.
The letters are received throughout the year and kept at the Lost and Found Department of the Israel Post, and as mentioned, are placed once a year at the Western Wall. As a result of the coronavirus many tourists have not come to Israel in the last year-and-a-half, and sending the letters is a way for them to convey a message to the place where they feel God is most close. They are sent by people of all ages, from children to the elderly, on postcards, notebook paper, both long and short messages, some clear and some less legible, on all kinds of paper, from cardboard to worn out cartons, using a pen, a marker or a brush. There are funny letters, others beseeching, and some even tearful. There are requests for healing, a good income, a perfect mate, peace of mind and game consoles, a friendly divorce and even success for a favorite sports team. This year, in most letters and depending on the time sent, the senders focused on requests and prayers to eradicate COVID-19, for personal and family health and the desire to return to a normal life.
Israel Post CEO Danny Goldstein: ”This is an exciting project in which we take part every year on the eve of the Jewish festivals. It is a tradition for us and we guard these letters with reverence since their delivery is a responsibility and mission and a tremendous privilege. Each letter embodies within it the entire lives of people who turn to God with requests, words of thanks and forgiveness. The Corona period has caused many to turn to God for health and well-being for themselves and their families, and to return to the routine of their lives, each in his own home and country. We wish and pray with them for the fulfillment of all the senders’ requests. Shana Tovah [a good year] and good health for all of us.”
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