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Obama's Prayer Excavated from Cracks of Western Wall and Published in Newspaper
After Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, left a written prayer in the cracks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a Jewish seminary student dug it out and the newspaper Ma'ariv published it (assuming of course that the note is the correct one).
The note Ma'ariv published -- written on stationery from the King David Hotel, where Obama stayed -- states: "Lord - Protect my family and me. 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."
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz, the rabbi of the Wall who accompanied Obama on his visit there told Israeli Army Radio, per the AP, that "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.
On his plane Thursday morning Obama declined to tell reporters what he had asked of the Lord in his note.
