Category: Ethnic Stories
TALKING TO THE WALL
A journalist was assigned to the Jerusalem bureau of his newspaper. He got an apartment overlooking the Western Wall. As the weeks went by he realized that whenever he looked at the Wall he saw a certain old Jew praying vigorously. The journalist wondered whether there was a publishable story here. He went down to the Wall, introduced himself and said:
“You come every day to the Wall. What are you praying for?”
The old Jew replied:
“What am I praying for? In the morning I pray for world peace, then I pray for the brotherhood of man. I go home, have a glass of tea and I come back to the wall to pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth.”
The journalist was taken by the old Jew's sincerity and persistence.
“You mean you have been coming to the wall to pray every day for these things?”
The old Jew nodded.
“How long have you been coming to the wall to pray for these things?”
The old Jew became reflective and then replied:
“How long? Maybe twenty, twenty five years.”
The journalist was flabbergasted.
“You mean you have been coming to the wall for all those years to pray for these things?”
The old Jew nodded. The amazed journalist finally asked:
“How does it feel to come and pray every day for over twenty years for these things?”
The old Jew replied:
“How does it feel? It feels like I’m talking to a wall.”
