{"id":48697,"date":"2026-03-27T01:29:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T08:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48697"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T01:19:09","slug":"pesach-cleaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/pesach-cleaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Pesach cleaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_48699\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48699\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mar-27-toc.27.Kotel-note.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48699\" src=\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mar-27-toc.27.Kotel-note.jpeg\" alt=\"photo - The notes are carefully removed from the Kotel\" width=\"260\" height=\"390\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mar-27-toc.27.Kotel-note.jpeg 260w, https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mar-27-toc.27.Kotel-note-200x300.jpeg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-48699\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The notes are carefully removed. <em>(photo from Gil Zohar)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Kotel \u2013 the last remaining part of Herod the Great\u2019s vast Second Temple complex \u2013 got a spruce up ahead of Passover. As is tradition, volunteers took to the Western Wall in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City to remove hundreds of thousands of the small prayer notes to God tucked into the cracks of Judaism\u2019s holiest site. The papers are ceremonially buried at the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The cleaning tradition is repeated at Rosh Hashanah, to keep the Kotel from becoming too cluttered. The notes are carefully removed using sticks that have been dipped in a <i>mikvah<\/i> (ritual bath), the whole process overseen by the Wall\u2019s official rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. This year, there were no worshippers or visitors at the Kotel due to restrictions on gathering in large groups amid the US-Israeli war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p><b>Gil Zohar <\/b><i>is a journalist and tour guide who lives in Jerusalem.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kotel \u2013 the last remaining part of Herod the Great\u2019s vast Second Temple complex \u2013 got a spruce up ahead of Passover. As is tradition, volunteers took to the Western Wall in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City to remove hundreds of thousands of the small prayer notes to God tucked into the cracks of Judaism\u2019s holiest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[781],"tags":[4330,5329,400,5330],"class_list":["post-48697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-israel","tag-kotel","tag-passover","tag-western-wall"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}