Tens of thousands of 'notes to god' cleared from Western wall

A centuries-old ritual, done with quiet reverence. Ahead of the Jewish New Year, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and his team carefully removed tens of thousands of handwritten prayer notes wedged into the Western Wall's ancient cracks — using gloves and disposable wooden tools so as not to disturb the sacred site. The notes, some over 300 years in tradition, are never read; they're bagged and buried in a dedicated genizah on the Mount of Olives, alongside worn sacred texts. It's done twice a year, before Rosh Hashanah and Passover, to make space for new prayers.