I just got back from a 10 day trip to Israel and it was great. This trip marked my second time traveling in Israel. Last year I was lucky enough to go on Taglit-Birthright (which is such an amazing experience). If you are under 25 and jewish, get your butt on a birthright trip. It's a real no-brainer.
Walking around the old city of Jerusalem (one of my favorite parts of the trip) was really an amazing experience. Not only can you see the way that your ancestors (jews, christians and muslims alike) lived, but you can see where they shopped, ate and prayed. (duh)
But, it's not until you go to the Western Wall or Kotel, that you can appreciate the long and unbelievable history that makes Israel so special. A visitor to the western wall ascends the Western Wall Plaza, separates from the men they are visiting with, and walks towards the grand wall which reaches only 105 feet towards the sky. Upon entering the area I looked around and took in everything that I saw, trying to understand what exactly makes this area so holy.
Please understand that this post is not intended to be in any way an overly religious post. I'm going somewhere related to technology and social media, I promise.
Let me move on to my next point.
What you see in front of you however, are women (or men) praying by themselves. This is a picture of me and my grandma. Sure there are many people praying, but how could jews from long island give up this photo-op?
What astounds me is that for only a few years (since 1967), Jews have been allowed to come to this section of the wall. Considered the holy of the holy, the site of the first temple from the 10th century BCE, today, Jews come from all over the world to the Wailing wall to pray and leave notes (prayers) for god.
Finally, my point.
Jews are people who have been forced to constantly evolve. The story always goes: they tried to kill us, we are still alive, lets celebrate aka eat.
So heres my big question... Why are we leaving all these notes in the wall? And why haven't we found a better way to do this? Why are we leaving scraps of paper at the holyest place there is?
Ding Ding Ding
Can we do this electronically? Have we evolved this far? Has web 2.0 at all affected this practice?
I asked my rabbi who we were traveling with to answer some of these questions, but I what I came across when I returned home was really even more interesting.
This first site, gives a good summary of how and why we started leaving notes in the wall, and how routinely they are collected and buried. Blah Blah Blah, this is the history etc.
However, we have really evolved. This links to a site that I found even more interesting. It really shows just how interconnected we all really are and how internet 2.0 how connected people in more ways then I could ever imagine. It is amazing to think that you can send you note to god half way across the world using the internet, and volunteers will print it out and put it at the wall. Such an unbelievable concept.
Sure it's not the same feeling, but giving people around the world a chance to participate in something cutting edge and new ... sounds pretty savvy to me!
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