A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.
"Lord — Protect my family and me," reads the note published in the Maariv daily. "Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will."
The paper's decision to make the note public drew fire. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said publishing the note intruded in Obama's relationship with God.
"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," he told Army Radio. The publication "damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves," he said.
Another Israeli paper, Yediot Ahronot, published an article Friday saying it had also obtained the note but decided not to publish it to respect Obama's privacy.
Many visitors to the 2,000-year-old Western Wall leave notes bearing requests and prayers. Obama did so during a pre-dawn visit there Thursday, following a day spent meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Maariv published a photograph of the note, which it said had been removed from the wall by a student at a Jewish seminary immediately after Obama left.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs would neither confirm nor deny the note was Obama's.
The handwriting appeared to match a message Obama inscribed Wednesday in the guest book at Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, and was written on stationery from the King David Hotel, where Obama stayed while in Israel.
The visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories was part of an international tour meant to shore up Obama' s foreign affairs credentials.
At the Western Wall, Obama was greeted by a crowd of curious onlookers and photographers. He donned a white skullcap, listened to a rabbi read a prayer, and inserted a folded white piece of paper between the stones. One hardline Israeli protester shouted, "Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale."
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Comments
I am not going to comment on Obama, but as a pilgrim who always visit the western wall when in Jerusalem, this act by the yeshiva students has trespass the relationship between pilgrim and God. It is absolutely wrong to pick up prayer notes in the western wall. I agree with Rabbi Rabinowitz comments above.
It goes beyond me how Senator McCain never mentions Jesus and many here give him a pass. Senator Obama is not a preacher, but he mentions his faith more often than many politicians. He is not a preacher. The Lord gifted him to be a political leader and not a preacher. He didn't say Jesus wasn't the only way, he said he knew many good people of other faiths. Jesus Christ said something similar when he said that many Gentiles( those without God's laws) would come sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and many Jews would be left out. He has to be president of a country and cannot force his beliefs on others. It's not his calling.
I'm not sure what has possessed some of you but I dare say it isn't the love of Jesus Christ. How can you dissect this man's prayer and call him a muslim because he called the Lord, well, the Lord? I pray to the Lord's prayer everyday. It appears that some of you are looking for any way to persecute this man. Why can't you accept him as the Christian he is? What is this witch hunt? Where is the love and compassion that Jesus Christ teaches us? When will you believe? You wouldn't know a good Christian if Jesus Christ put him in front of your fear mongering, hatred spewing Fox News televised lies. Honestly folks, we need to fix this country. We need folks who aren't corporately sponsered. We need people who think profoundly about their religion and spiritual path.
Can a person be pro-abortion, and still be truly a Christian.? Can a person be pro-same sex marriage, and still be truly a Christian.?
Good questions, someone please answer them for me.
amagoh,
some specifics please.
Can someone who believes that Jesus is not the only way be called a Christian. Simple question.
Answer it please.
I have been reading the posts of others who are discouraged to see the smears and lies about Obama's faith and his Christian beliefs. I will say that Americans will believe what they want to believe based on a series of items: political allegiances, policy differences, religious differences, etc. Therefore, please pray for this nation and ask the Lord to allow the truth to rise above the countless attacks.
"Many visitors to the 2,000-year-old Western Wall leave notes bearing requests and prayers. Obama did so during a pre-dawn visit there Thursday, following a day spent meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders."
It is interesting that something that seemed to be done in the privacy of pre-dawn hours became so openly public.
Who saw Obama place the note into the wall? Is Obama's name on this private note that nobody else is supposed to see? Does God need to see a signature on the note to know who left it at the wall?
Is all of this just great publicity?
And why should my post be stricken down? simply because I pointed out that the term lord, is also widely used by muslims to address allah.
In his speech in Germany, regarding walls that must come down!? Why did he not take an opportunity to make such a speech in Saudi Arabia, or Lybia, or Algeria, or any muslim country where Christians are systematically persecuted?
Why did he comfortably stay in a church who is known to admire farrakhan?
Why is he also a good friend of Odinga(kenya), a fellow (also a Christian)who expressly noted that he would push for sharia law in Kenya if he would have been elected?
Why should my post be stricken down, when I have raised questions that have not been addressed other than with the cliche: he said he is a Christian...
Then tell me what he has said about mohammed, about allah, and the reason he chose Christ instead. Does he believe that Christ is the only way? If he doesnt why is he a Christian and not a muslim?
What he has done to preach the gospel to his family in Kenya who are muslims and greatly admire him?
Has he ever spoken directly to muslims about why he chose Christ and not allah, and why they should also?
I have never said that he was not religious.
I'm going to contact the site manager if these Muslim lies keep coming. Steiner, have you followed all of Barack Obama's public appearances and read his books? What you are saying is an out right lie. He has said Christ is Lord on so many occasions I can barely count. Just proclaiming you are a Christian is stating publicly that you are a disciple of Christ. Not only that he also said "At the same time, he said, "Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square." He also said "Not every mention of God in public is a breach to the wall of separation. Context matters," the Illinois Democrat said in remarks to a conference of Call to Renewal, a faith-based movement to overcome poverty." He also said "It is doubtful that children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance feel oppressed or brainwashed as a consequence of muttering the phrase `under God,'" he said. "Having voluntary student prayer groups using school property to meet should not be a threat, any more than its use by the High School Republicans should threaten Democrats."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/28/AR2006062800281.html