[Avodah] Kvitlech

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Allan Engel _allan.engel at gmail.com_ (mailto:allan.engel at gmail.com) 

Does anyone  know the earliest recorded instance of people putting Kvitlech
in the Kosel  Ma'arovi?
And why do people doing this believe that the RBSO needs a written  reminder
of people's prayers?


AD Engel







>>>>
Do we even need to daven at the Kosel?  Can't Hashem hear our tefillos  
wherever we are?
 
The lavona on top of the lechem hapanim is called the "azkara" -- Rashi  
says because it is the only thing from the shulchan that is burnt on the  
mizbeach -- the bread is all given to the kohanim to eat -- and the lavona is  
the azkara, "the remembrance" or "reminder" -- because when it is burnt it  
reminds Hashem of the bread that was given to the kohanim.  Like Hashem  
needed a reminder?
 
The shofar is blown to arouse Hashem's mercy because it sounds like the  
sound of crying.  Like He needed the shofar to arouse His mercy?   Another 
reason for blowing the shofar is actually mentioned in the Torah as  "zichron 
teruah" which Rashi explains as reminding Hashem of Akeidas Yitzchak by  
reminding Him of the ram that was sacrificed instead of Yitzchak. Again, He  
needed a reminder?
 
Here's one, even more poignant -- I just learned this last week when Rabbi  
Zohn (the famous expert on chevra kadisha laws and minhagim) was here for 
an  all-day Chevra Kadisha conference, which I attended -- and by the way, 
even  after many years of doing taharos, I learned a lot of things that I had 
not  previously known.  And here is one:  if a Jew dies al kiddush Hashem,  
that is, if he is murdered by goyim, he is not washed, not given a  tahara, 
and not dressed in tachrichim -- rather, he is buried in the  bloody clothes 
that he was wearing when he lost his life -- and that  is how he will 
appear before the Kisei Hakavod -- to arouse Hashem's mercy on  His people.
 
Hashem didn't see the murder when it was taking place?
 
Since we are physical people -- and even in our Afterlife there is an  
aspect of "bodily-ness"  -- WE need concrete objects and concrete  actions.  WE 
do not live a disembodied life of pure mental abstraction, and  we cannot 
approach Hashem in a purely mental disembodied way.
 

--Toby  Katz
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