At the end of the 90's I lived in Jerusalem for a year. On the whole I liked it there: every morning I would go for a walk in the Old City through alleyways and narrow streets, usually taking in The Church of Holy Sepulchre, The Western Wall and The Dome of the Rock as well a few other sites here and there. Jerusalem was very interesting back then - as the millennium was imminent the city was filling up with crazies confidently expecting the end of the world. Jerusalem has a high proportion of crazies to begin with (there's an actual psychological condition known as Jerusalem Syndrome where people start hearing voices) but leading up to 1999 it got even better. Religious pilgrims and psychotics started flooding into town from all over the world. There were quite a few Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelicals who gathered on the Mount of Olives on December 31 1991 and I can only imagine their disappointment as morning loomed on January 1 2000 without Jesus riding a donkey through the Golden Gate....
Incidentally, just to be on safe side someone (the Mufti?) has had the Golden Gate bricked up and when my brother and I tried to get near it to take some photographs we were chased, but that's another story and not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the Western Wall, the holiest place in Judaism. What's it the Western Wall of? I hear you ask. Well, it's the Western Wall of the Temple (Solomon's and later Herod's) and is the closest place Orthodox Jews can get to the site of the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant once stood up on the Temple Mount itself. I say Orthodox Jews because anyone can go up to the Temple Mount and visit the Dome of the Rock which is the mosque built over the site of the Holy of the Holies (and a Roman Temple to Jupiter). I went there literally hundreds of times and you really can imagine the Ark of the Covenant resting there on the sacred stones.
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Religious Jews won't set foot on the Temple Mount itself because no one actually knows where the Ark was placed and it would be blasphemous to walk on the ground where the Ark could have been. For most religious Jews the Western Wall is close enough and it itself is a special place, a kind of conduit direct from Earth to Heaven. Many people (not only Jews) leave messages or prayers between the massive stones of the wall in the hope that this "direct telegraph to God" will help grant their prayers. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of prayers are left at the Western Wall every day and it's quite affecting watching people leaving little scraps of paper between the stones.
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For the last decade you've been able to email prayers to Jerusalem and have them placed in the wall. The service is completely free and anyone can do it. But now they've taken it to the next logical step and I'm not sure about this at all. I'm still only vaguely aware of what Twitter actually is, but apparently now you can Tweet God by texting a message to these people and they will place it in the wall for you. Apparently Twitter only permits 140 characters maximum thus encouraging text abbreviations of the LOL variety; word of advice though, if this service actually works, I'd be careful with WTF, OMFG and LMFAO, there is that pesky 3rd Commandment to consider.
21 comments:
Tweet is a stupid word. Makes me think of that cartoon. Actually makes me think of this: imagine St Peter is Tweety Pie (the bird from Looney Tunes) and a new arrival has just asked him how he should act around the Almighty, "Well," says the bird "This is how to tweet God..."
I really don't have any feelings one way or the other about Twitter, even tweets to heaven, but both 'twitter' and 'tweet' lend themselves to the idea that whatever's being said is utterly inconsequential. It seems a funny sort of brand, but apparently I don't know much about marketing.
I knew a little about the Western Wall--or I think I did--is it also sometimes called the Wailing Wall? But I didn't know that about it being as far as Orthodox Jews can go. Wonder how they feel about everyone else tramping all over sacred ground.
I'm speechless.
The idea to 'tweet God' must have come out from either someone who had the best of intentions or someone who certainly found a way of making money from that.
I'm a believer. A Christian. I would like to visit Jerusalem, but it' not one of those things that I MUST do, you know? It puzzles me how you can't go over certain boundaries in the city of all beliefs. Maybe that's why it's a not a priority for me to visit it.
I pray a lot, but not the kind of prayers we are taught at home or at Sunday school. For me, praying is talking to God, and I do it a lot, He probably thinks I'm a pain in the a**, but it's okay. :) All this to say that it's nonsense (I tried other words, but this is the most honest you can read from me).
Well, I don't know, Liliana. It does sound like just another medium by which to talk to God, and whether that's profound or ludicrous probably just depends on one's beliefs.
I did click on through to their website and it doesn't seem like there's any hidden costs for those who want to use it.
Could just be another ad angle for Twitter, of course.
Seana
I agree that the word and style make it seem sort of silly. Britain's foreign secretary occasionally releases important information via Twitter which I find disturbing.
Although apparently it was helpful during the attempted Revolution in Iran a few weeks back - I'm not quite sure how, but apparently it was.
Liliana
It is free, but what message you could send to God as a text I have no clue.
Jerusalem is worth visiting especially around Easter time when it gets very interesting.
I did enjoy my time there and would recommend a visit.
Well, you could send anything you wanted to God, as long as it was no longer than 140 characters. For example, an Orthodox Jew could pray:
God, please reveal exactly where the Ark of the Covenant was placed so I too can walk on the other side of this wall.
I didn't count that out but I'm pretty sure it would fit.
There is a downside though. Twitter has been known to be hacked. Apparently there is or at least was a vulnerablity in password protection. It's bad enough that some kid was able to hack into Obama's Twitter feed. What if the devil hacked into your Twitter prayers? We're talking the risk of eternal damnation here, people. And I am pretty sure Satan knows all our passwords.
Seana
Or we could just find out where the Ark itself is, if that is, it wasn't melted down. The Ethiopians claim to have it, but I'm skeptical about that.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is an odd place. It's so noisy and over the top, you dont quite believe that is both Calvary and the Tomb of Jesus. However, I've looked at the archaeological evidence and I find the alternative sites proposed pretty unconvincing. It may not match our expectations but I think the COTHS is the actual place.
I've never been to Jerusalem, but one of my friends went on some sort of tour, so I know about the over the top aspect of the site of Jesus's tomb. I'll take your word on the evidence.
Speaking of archeological digs, any more word on Anthony and Cleopatra's tomb that you and Liam were both excited about awhile ago?
Since the Twitter Rankings suggest religion is not as popular as Ellen or Britney (on Twitter) I’m sure The Almighty will cope with the additional message traffic. Srinagar must have Twitter potential.
Interesting. If god is all-powerful, why couldn't he just read one's thoughts? Why the need to tweet?
Seana
I think I know what happened in that tomb - after all the hype they found nothing. Seemed a bit weird that Antony and Cleopatra would be buried out in the middle of the desert and not in the city itself.
Anon
That is one disturbing list.
Ellen? Ashton Kutcher? Jimmy fricken Fallon?
Twitter is the mode of communication for the frivolous clearly. Whatever it is, exactly.
Brian
God gives you free will and thus he doesnt know how serious you are unless you take proactive step such as praying or tweeting. Thats my theory.
I've never been able to get my head around the idea of an infinite God however: could an all powerful being create a box that he couldn't lift? If he cant he's not infinitely powerful, and if he does make a box that he cant lift, well then he's not infinitely powerful.
Not that I'm going to haggle theologically with you, I don't even have a defined position on the subject,but what box are you talking about?
Seana
Its more of an infinity problem than a God problem. The set of prime numbers for example is infinite and just as big as the set of natural numbers, yet the set of natural numbers is OBVIOUSLY bigger. Doesnt compute does it?
Can an infinitly powerful being create a box she cant lift? Well if she's infinitely powerful of course she can, but then once the box is created and she cant lift it how is she INFINITELY powerful when there's something she cant do?
Oh--I get what you were saying. I got too hung up on the box.
Of course, you might be too.
Did you ever read Flatland? The story for anyone who might still be following along here is about all these beings who live on a two dimensional plane and can't fathom the dimensions or existence of a being living in three. I think Abbott wrote this book as some sort of religious apologetic, though I don't think most people read it that way anymore. For some reason it did really work for me as a way to think about what we literally can't conceive. It didn't turn me into a believer, but it did reinforce doubt about my assumptions, especially those based on my own very limited perceptions, which I think in general is probably a good thing.
I know that begs the question of logic, but logic might be something like Newtonian physics--it works well enough in its sphere, but is not the whole story.
Seana
Yeah that's a classic get out when you're dealing with infinites. The lsat of logic and physics do break down. Anything divided by itself gives you 1, but infinity divided by infinity gives you infinity or a nonsense answer.
Still I do wonder if an infinitely powerful being could create a box she couldnt lift.
Adrian,
Thank God for the free will He gave mankind, so they could tweet....
But seriously, the box problem IS a problem. One of many, IMHO. And I've also never been able to reconcile the idea that God is an all-powerful, benevolent creature, who for some reason allows children to be afflicted with cancer, or who allows millions of people to die in natural disasters. To me that means if there is a higher power, it is not all-powerful, or it is not benevolent, or it is not all-powerful nor benevolent.
I suppose you could treat the whole box problem as a sort of koan and see if it cracks you open to enlightenment or something, Adrian.
Suffering would be the sticking point for me too, Brian. But I've known a lot of believers who I really admire, so I can't rule their viewpoint out. Even though it's really many viewpoints, not one.
But Brian, you should really hop on over to Peter R.'s blog where there is a lot of golf talk going on right about now. The game needs defending from a certain Venezuelan detractor.
Seana,
Thanks for the heads-up re: golf. Where the sport needs defending, I'll be there...time and work permitting of course :)
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