You think cleaning a kitchen for Passover is tough? The Associated Press reports on the removal of thousands of notes from the Western Wall:
Poking into crevices between the ancient stones of the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, a senior rabbi and his helpers on Tuesday removed thousands of handwritten notes placed there by visitors who believe their requests will find a shortcut to God by being deposited at Judaism’s holiest site.
The operation is carried out twice each year: before the Passover festival which begins this weekend and at the Jewish New Year in the fall. …
“Millions of people place notes here at the Western Wall with their requests, we take them out in order that more people can place these notes,” said the site’s rabbi, Shmuele Rabinowitz. “So that these notes are not defiled and don’t fall out, we collect then in a seemly and respectful way and bury them on the Mount of Olives,” just across a valley from the Old City.
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