Obama's prayer pried from wall
JERUSALEM -- A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in a crack of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asks God to guide him and guard his family, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.
''Lord -- Protect my family and me,'' reads the note published in the Maariv daily. ''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.''
AP
The paper's decision to make the note public drew fire. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said publishing the note intruded on Obama's relationship with God.
''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,'' he said. The publication ''damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves.''
Another Israeli paper, Yediot Ahronot, reported Friday it had also obtained the note but decided not to publish it to respect Obama's privacy.
Many visitors to the 2,000-year-old Western Wall leave notes bearing requests and prayers. Obama did so during a pre-dawn visit there Thursday.
Maariv published a photo of the note, which it said had been removed from the wall by a student at a Jewish seminary.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs would neither confirm nor deny the note was Obama's.