Barack Obamas Prayer to God

Arutz Sheva is reporting that the publication of the prayer Barack Obama left in the Kotel (the Jewish name given to the Western Wall in Jerusalem) was a PR stunt. The publication of the prayer has caused a furor in Israel.

Here is an excerpt of the article publish in Arutz Sheva:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama's campaign seems to have purposely leaked the contents of the note that he placed in the Kotel, web magazine Israel Insider wrote Tuesday. While Israel's Hebrew newspaper Maariv came under fire for publishing the note, "it now appears that Maariv had collaborated with the Obama campaign in getting the 'private' prayer, with its 'modest' supplication to the Lord, out to the public, buffing his Christian credentials and showing his "humility," the web magazine said.

Last Friday, on the morrow of Obama's visit to the Kotel, Maariv published a close-up picture of the note written by Obama to G-d, supposedly after a yeshiva boy took it from the crack between the Kotel stones in which Obama deposited it. Maariv's competitor Yediot Acharonot slammed the paper for violating Obama's privacy.

In a statement issued following the public outcry over the leak, Maariv said that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put it in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem." A third newspaper, Haaretz, quoted Maariv as saying that "Obama submitted a copy of the note to media outlets when he left his hotel in Jerusalem."

Apparently unaware that the leaking of the note was coordinated by the Obama campaign and Maariv, Kotel Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz called the publication a "sacrilegious action" which "deserves sharp condemnation and represents a desecration of the holy site." He stated: "Notes which are placed in the Western Wall are between the person and his Maker; Heaven forbid that one should read them or use them in any way. The custom of placing notes between the stones of the Western Wall is ancient and is used as a means of expression by a person praying to his Creator."

If this report is true and Obamas prayer was a PR stunt, then, I have to conclude that he forgot the words of Christ:

And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly (Matthew 6:5-6).

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

UPDATE:

Zvika Krieger, in a blog posted in The New Republic said that the story is false. I am quoting the blog in its entirety for the sake of fairness and balance:

Obama Vindicated

Yesterday, I posted an item about an accusation from Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv that the Obama campaign had leaked a copy of his Western Wall note to the foreign press (rather than Ma'ariv having bought it from some yeshiva kid who stole it out of the wall). After some additional reporting last night, I noted that the story sounded a bit fishy--not only has Ma'ariv not offered any tangible evidence to support this claim, but they also have only made the claim via a spokesman to various Israeli papers rather than printing the accusation in their own paper.

I just got off the phone with a Ma'ariv spokesman who says that the accusation is "completely false," and that he has no idea who these papers were quoting from Ma'ariv. "No official spokesman for Ma'ariv told this to any of the papers." I've got some calls in to these papers to find out where they got the quote. (I'll update here when I hear back.) He told me definitively that "the Obama campaign did not give us a copy of the letter or approve it for printing."

UPDATE 1: I just spoke with an editor at one of the four publications who quoted the alleged "Ma'ariv spokesman." This editor broached the possibility that Ma'ariv was trying to deflect criticims of it by releasing these spurious rumors about the Obama campaign, but upon realizing that they'll have to back up those accusations, is now disavowing them. This editor is going to look into this alleged "Ma'ariv spokesman" they quoted in his publication so we can try to ascertain if this is a Ma'ariv cover-up. I'll update here when I hear back from him and if I get anything interesting from the other publications who also quoted this alleged spokesman.

--Zvika Krieger

I want to thank Iyov for calling my attention to this update.

Tags: Barack Obama, Kotel, Prayer, Wailing Wall