The Kotel App and My Jewish Problem

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation recently released an iPhone app. It includes a live webcam stream from the Kotel (Western Wall) and a compass that points in the direction of Jerusalem.

This is great and terrible at the same time... but not (or just not) because you can virtually visit the Kotel rather than experience the real thing.

The problem is the app perpetuates and even promotes some of the largest and most popular myths in Judaism. As Michal Ophir states in the Washington Post: the app "brings the Western Wall to every Jew in the world because it is the heart of the Jewish people. "

But last time I checked, Har HaBayit was the heart of the Jewish people. That's where G-d's presence resides. That's why once a month, I push everything aside and make my way there.

I don't go because it's convenient. I don't even go because I get something out of it (but I do). I go because I want G-d to know that not everyone has forgotten. That I know where He really lives and where the Shekhinah really dwells.

So each month I go. And I try to take my friends and maybe even a "newbie." Then more Jews will know where the heart of the Jewish people really is... or where it should be.