|
|
June 15, 2007
Kotel rabbi in Canada
Rabinowitz stays optimistic about Israel's future.
RHONDA SPIVAK
"More than 40 years ago, when Motta Gur announced, 'The Temple
Mount is in our hands,' the hearts of all Jews awoke at that moment,"
declared Rabbi Shmuele Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and
holy sites in Israel. "Today, if we want the Kotel to really
be in our hands, then we must connect the Jewish youth of our generation
to all of the previous generations of our people. We must let them
experience the Kotel."
A group of 30 community leaders in Winnipeg met Rabinowitz last
month for a special dinner at the Fort Garry Hotel, organized by
Rami Kleinmann, the Jerusalem emissary for the Jewish National Fund.
"Every person who comes to pray at the Kotel, whether they
are Jewish or not, whether they are religiously observant or not,
is equal," said Rabinowitz.
As rabbi of the Kotel, Rabinowitz receives thousands of letters
from the Israeli postal authority that are addressed to God –
from all over the world, in many languages. He is responsible for
ensuring that all of these notes to God are inserted into the crevices
between the large stones of the Kotel.
Twice a year, when the Kotel is overflowing with notes, they are
taken to be buried on the Mount of Olives. "I make sure that
no one who takes the notes out of the wall reads them, and then
we have a burial ceremony, and we pray that Hashem will hear all
of the prayers," said Rabinowitz.
"Last year, six million people came to the Kotel," said
the rabbi, who came to Canada with Mordechai Eliav, the executive
director of the Western Wall Foundation. The foundation is trying
to raise money from Jews all over the world to assist in bringing
every Jewish child to the Kotel, for such lifecycle events as bar
mitzvahs. "We see the assimilation in the Diaspora and, the
more we can connect people to their roots, the more it will strengthen
their Jewish identity," said Rabinovitz.
"Only 20 per cent of Israeli soldiers had visited the Kotel
as of six years ago," added Eliav. "We asked ourselves
how that could happen. Then we decided that we would start a project
to bring them to the Kotel and its tunnels. Now most soldiers spend
a full day in Jerusalem."
Rabinowitz's family has lived in Jerusalem for seven generations.
"My family purchased buildings in the Old City of Jerusalem
not far from the Kotel a hundred years ago," he said. "In
1967, we found that the Arabs had built a whole neighborhood very
near the Kotel, on purpose to hide it. Every time that we try to
dig in the Old City, the Arabs oppose it, because they know we will
find more remnants of Jewish history and evidence of the Jewish
people in Israel."
Regarding the relationship between the 800 Jewish families that
live in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and the Muslims in the
Arab Quarter, Rabinowitz said, "Jews, Muslims and Christians
in the Old City all want quiet. It's in everyone's economic interest
for there to be quiet. No one wants the markets and shops empty,
with no tourists. Before the second intifada, there were 150,000
people a day who paid $10 each to the Wakf (Islamic religious
authority) to visit the Temple Mount. That means the Wakf took in
$150,000 daily, tax-free.
"From a halachic point of view, I was against visits to the
Temple Mount, but before the second intifada, it was open and the
Wakf has lost a lot of money as a result of its closing. So Arabs
in the Old City don't benefit from there being noise. It's people
in the Islamic movement from outside the Old City who are the ones
trying to make noise."
Rabinowitz said it was also outsiders involved in the recent protest
against excavations at the Mughrabi Gate. "We didn't hear one
word from the Wakf."
Asked to give his assessment of the political situation in Israel,
he replied, "I am a believing Jew. I am sure that Israel will
overcome all enemies who want to hurt her. Through all of our struggles,
we have overcome. On one hand, the economy is impressive, the shekel
is up, foreign investment is up and there is huge prosperity. Practically
every day I meet with top businesspeople from the world, like Goldman
Sachs, who are looking to invest. On the other hand, there are these
grave threats to Israel. The situation appears to be very serious
- but the reality on the ground is giving very optimistic signals."
Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.
^TOP
|
|
