Obama's Prayer and Western Wall Etiquette
Friday July 25, 2008
Steven Waldman concludes his post on the publication of Barack Obama's Western Wall prayer note, with a request for responses to the candidate's prayer. So here is mine: It's a perfectly appropriate spiritual offering which even reflects many poetic formatics...
Filed Under: casting stones, hebrew prayer, herod, jerusalem, mishpat, obama, prayer, temple, tzedek, wailing wall, western wall
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About Windows & Doors
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula. More About Brad
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Composed privately, through cmpaign advisors, or straight from St. Francis of Assisi, Obama placed a prayer in the Wall. Prayers placed in the cracks of the Wall, any supplications made at the Wall, are a direct stream between the individual and G-d. They are sacred, as the Wall is sacred. How dare students take a prayer from anyone? They have desecrated the holiness of the event and the place.
The person who took Obama's prayer out of the WAll had no respect for the tradition of the Wall. It is a sacred location and the prayers inserted into it are to be known only to the author and their God. The paper that published it also has no respect for Obama or the Wall's tradition.
Stealing a prayer from the Western Wal is wrong and publishing it is more wrong. When I read this prayer on the Internet I am reminded how little respect Jews have for historic preservation of true facts. For example the Israelies have scale models of the temple they will build after they tear down the Dome of the Rock which was built in 678 AD. Does the United States need a president who is going to help the Israelis forget the Dome of the Rock?
Obama is not to be trusted by the jews. Coming from a moslem heritage, he will turn against the jews as fast as he got there. His visit to Israel is just a political ploy. We shall not trust him.
TO PAUL DAHAN-we know he did this for politics-we are not stupid.
That is also why we will place no value in what you said about his heritage and his future actions.
If he WAS a person who once had or does have family who do not share his Christian faith so what-and if it was Muslim that MIGHT make him more likely to bend over backwards to help Jewish causes to prove his
not being prjudiced and help get him more votes in Congress and help get him re-elected.
I do not know exactly how the prayer came to be known. It could have been by someone on his staff who just knew what the prayer would be.
IF IT WAS STOLEN-SHAME ON THE PERP.
As a believer, I am praying that we will finally have a President who has a real relationship with the Lord. Not someone who is stuck in dumb idealogy like the Pharisees of old. Barack H. Obama, Next President of these United States, Lord I truly pray.
PD, Obama isn't a Muslim and his father who left when he was 2, wasn't a practicing Muslim. In fact, he was a confirmed atheist. His step-father was Muslim but apparently was more Hindu than Muslim.
His Mom was not a fan of organized religion but had been raised as a Christian and saw the value in teaching him about different ones. She took him and his 1/2 sister to different houses of worship...Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant etc. From what I have read, I would classify Obama as a liberal Christian. He himself said he is a Christian.
It is tradition and respect to visit the wailing wall while in Jerusalem. The prayer being removed is blasphemy to that tradition, regardless of whose it is. When, pray tell, did he ever state that he would "help the Israelis forget the Dome of Rock"? That is simply asinine, as is that he is "moslem". You people know nothing about this guy other that the neo con garbage you read. Going to Israel and connecting with middle east leaders is a pro-active diplomatic move. Don't blame them for all the problems you perceive in the world and then discount gestures to resolve them.
Wonderful, on a Jewish blog we have anti-Semitic comments like "Not someone who is stuck in dumb idealogy like the Pharisees of old.". (Jews are the descendent's of the Pharisees Shedee - you just insulted the entire Jewish people)
Why is Eileen's comment that Jews have no respect for humanity allowed to stand on a JEWISH BLOG, but my calling her out is not?
At the wall Obama use what he had been taught from the old Testament to be aware of judism. All christians are relate to Judism through the old testament teaching.
I think it is horrible of the Jewish student to steal a private prayer from a holy site and for the media to publish the prayer. Both are unthinkable and horrible. I believe the religious leaders should speak out on the actions to prevent future occurences.
Joe M. Thompson
Heathsville, Virginia
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