The Western Wall Heritage Foundation

Bs"d

Erev Rosh Hashana, 5768

This greeting for a good year is being lovingly sent to you from the heights of the holy city of Jerusalem and from the Western Wall – the remnant of our Temple.

May this year coming upon us be one of joy for our country and merriment for our cities; let there be peace in our precincts, serenity within our palaces. There ends a year and its maledictions and a new one begins with its blessings.

We are all equal when standing in front of the Western Wall where every Jew senses his Judaism – often for the first time, without knowing why. Here, we all connect to our chain of generations.

Especially during the High Holidays, we must emphasize that which unites and connects us to each other; not that which separates us. The perfect place for this is here, in front of the Kotel. Everything is written on these stones. Everything we’ve absorbed and collected over the years is etched in these holy stones that have human hearts.

This year, we marked forty years since the reunification of Jerusalem, the city that joins everyone together. We have again been given the privilege of clinging to the stones of the Western Wall, as it says in Psalms 102: "For your servants take pleasure in her stones and love her dust".

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation aspires to bring every Jewish boy and girl from Israel and around the world for a visit to the Western Wall to connect to the chain of generations. Excavation work reveals stones along with roots. At the foot of the Western Wall, more than at any other place, the past memories of the Jewish nation mingle with our hopes for the future.

Our prayer: May we be remembered and inscribed in the book of life, blessing, peace and good sustenance, we and all the House of Israel, for a good life and for peace.

With wishes of Ktiva VeChatima Tova,

Shmuel Rabinowitz
Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites
Jerusalem - Israel