Coronavirus Pandemic Generates Flurry of Letters to God

(Bloomberg) -- “Dear God, please end the coronavirus pandemic,” wrote a boy from Germany. “And please, make my parents buy me a new iPhone and JBL speaker.” 

Covid-19 may have caused tourism to the Holy Land to grind to a stop, but three times the average number of letters sent to God from around the world landed in Israel’s post office over the past 12 months. Many begged for Covid-19 to be brought under control, while others asked for repentance and -- perhaps as the result of virus-related lockdowns -- requested that new friends come into their lives, according to a statement from the post office.

On Aug. 30, the rabbi of the Western Wall will slip each of those notes -- some of them humorous, others desperate appeals -- into cracks between the stones of the remnant of the biblical Jewish temple. The insertion of the notes is a Jewish ritual, and has taken on a greater significance at the post office now that tourists can’t make the trip themselves. 

As the subject matter can vary with the time -- Covid was not an issue less than two years ago -- so, too, have the ways in which the prayers have been delivered. If posted letters were once the norm, as technology developed, fax lines and then online sites have been opened to accept them. 

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