Apparently, there is some semi-obscure tradition that God answers prayer requests if they are written down and stuck in the cracks and chinks in a Jerusalem wall. Apparently, even if God is omnipotent and omniscient, he won't see/read/hear your prayers unless you've taken the time and effort to get your request to the proper authorities (Israeli postal clerks, apparently), who will then proceed to deliver them to God (via a wall?)
I don't know -- it all seems a little hokey and contrived to me. Why would letters stuffed in the cracks of a wall (not just any wall, but the crumbling outer retaining wall of Jerusalem's Jewish Temple) be answered?
According to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz, prayers of people all over the world “ascend through this holy place.”
Huh? A prayer said in earnest 10,000 miles away has to travel (apparently on paper) to this wall just to be heard by an omnipresent deity?
I have to wonder if any of the rabbis or letter writers have bothered to think through the implications of their bizzare rituals.
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Those darn Jews sure have bizarred rituals. Of course, many things Jews do are bizarre, aren't the Chuck.
Hint: I thinks someone's antisemitism is showing.
Umm -- did you happen to notice that I consider ALL religious rituals to be "bizzare"? This just happens to be the latest version of it.
Of course, your religious rituals aren't "bizzare", are they? Ritualized cannibalism, for instance?
Ah, so you are a bigot toward ALL religions.
How enlightened of you!
How superior.
How atheist.
So all religious rituals are "bizarre"? Sounds like you are throwing ad homiems around.
So all religious rituals are "bizarre"? Sounds like you are throwing ad homiems around.
Most are. But it isn't "ad hominem" to say that. There is no person involved, only an idea or ritual.
I would bet there are a lot of religious rituals, beliefs and superstitions that you would find not just bizzare, but offensive, repugnant and possibly even evil. Is it wrong to point out that in my opinion, that conclusion applies to Christianity, Judaism and Islam, too?
Can you actually rationally provide a defense and logical explanation of the idea that prayer requests placed in a wall are more likely to be answered?
Or do you, like me, find it a bit ridiculous and bizzare?
No, I can't provide a defense, and I find no biblical basis for it.
But just because something is different in a different culture does not mean it is ridiculous, or bizarre.
Not very UNDERSTANDING of you Chuck, but more like something a bigot would say about JEWS.
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