Kotel Introduces Kvitlach With ‘Confirmed Read’ Notification

The “HaK’tav V’HaKabbalah” initiative is expected to improve efficiency at the site.

Jerusalem, January 29 – Religious authorities at one of Judaism’s holiest sites will roll out a new feature this week, allowing worshipers to receive online notification when the notes they have placed between the stones of the Western Wall have been read by the Almighty, a spokesman for the body that administers the site announced today.

Rabbi Ishhur Mesirah, an assistant to “Kotel Rabbi” Shmuel Rabinovich, told reporters that starting this Wednesday, visitors to the Western Wall can request a return receipt for the “kvitlach” in exchange for a small fee. Notification that God has received and read the message will be sent to the e-mail address, Facebook profile, or other online means of the petitioner’s choice.

The “HaK’tav V’HaKabbalah” initiative is expected to improve efficiency at the site, a portion of the retaining wall of the compound that housed the Holy Temple until the shrine’s destruction in the year 70 CE. The Kotel is the last physical remnant of the structure, and has for many centuries served as a pilgrimage and prayer site. Given the Kotel’s proximity to the Holy of Holies, at the western end of the Temple sanctuary, it has long been considered one of the most auspicious and efficacious locations for prayer. Since at least the eighteenth century, visitors have placed kvitlach between the Herodian stones of the wall, to the tune of approximately a million per year, in the belief that such prayers are heard more readily by the Lord.

Given the volume of such petitions, explained Rabbi Mesirah, many visitors harbor concerns that theirs might get lost in the shuffle. “We clear out the crevices of the Kotel twice a year and bury the notes in a dignified manner – that means more kvitlach than can be accurately counted,” he observed. “It’s only natural for people to worry that God doesn’t get around to reading theirs. HaK’tav V’HaKabbalah, as its name indicates – ‘the writing and the receipt’ in modern parlance – is aimed at providing reassurance to visitors that their request has been divinely received and processed.” For five shekels per kvitel – less than US $ 1.50 – visitors can monitor the progress of their petition.

Commentators welcomed the program. “It’s good to see a religious institution adopting some modern sensibilities,” remarked Chaim Levinson of Haaretz. “But I expect there to be some oversight. There has to be a way to guarantee that the prayers with confirmed-read tracking are answered at least as often and in as timely a fashion as those without.”

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