God Does Exist at the Western Wall
This is a true story that has been told by a good number of Eric’s friends. It tells of how Eric Behar, a very young Jewish man who originates from Boston, MA, visits Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall following the demise of his father.
His father was one of those who survived the holocaust and he ardently practiced the Jewish faith. Eric had however chosen to not follow his father’s faith and this created a rift between them for a while. This led to him blaming himself for his father’s death and it left him felling very remorseful and guilty.
Eric had chosen to travel to India and he hopped from one guru to the next while there. He did this in the hope of finding another religion that could be the alternative to his father’s Hebrew religion. However, he never really got anything that fulfilled or satisfied him spiritually. This led him to go back to Israel and back to the one religion he had before rejected. In Israel, he noticed people writing notes on small paper pieces and putting them inside the Wailing Wall.
He inquired from one young man that he met there why this was being done. The young man explained to him that those were petitionary prayers. People held the belief that the stones were extremely holy to the point that each and every request placed in them would be extremely blessed.
Eric then decided to also write a petition and he addressed it to his father. It read something like this; Dear Father, I sincerely ask you to forgive me for all the pain that I brought into your life. I had a lot of love for you and you will forever remain in my memory. Please know that all you taught me was not in vain. I promise to never betray the deaths that have happened in your family.
Eric then looked for an empty crevice in the wall where he could put his petition. The walls were however so full of notes that there was no space for him. After looking around for an hour, he finally got one crevice into which he placed his note.
As he was inserting his, he accidentally removed another that had already been put there and it dropped onto the ground. He picked it up but as he was about to return it, he was overwhelmed by the temptation to read it and see what others are praying for. So he went ahead to open it.
The note read; Eric, My Dear Son, in the event that you ever decide to visit Israel and you somehow stumble upon this note, I would like you to know that the love I have for you has never faded away, even when you hurt me. You are and will forever remain my loving son. Please know that I truly forgive you for each and very thing and I sure hope that you can also be able to find it in your heart to forgive your old man.
Signed, Nathan Behar, Boston, MA
