$100,000 Check “Found” in Kosel Turns Out to Be a Hoax

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kosel-cleaningThis week, various chareidi media outlets reported a story about a yeshiva bochur who claimed to have found a $100,000 check between the cracks of the Kosel Hamaarovi. The boy, according to the reports, told his father about his find, and the father then handed the check to Rav Shmuel Rabinovitch, rov of the Kosel and the mekomos hakedoshim in Eretz Yisroel. The $100,000 check was given to Rav Rabinovitch’s office yesterday.

A subsequent investigation revealed that the boy has a habit of opening personal notes placed in the Kosel. The father claimed that his son was davening at the Kosel at 3 a.m. when he found the large U.S. check made out to “the Kosel Hamaarovi

Following the report, Rav Rabinovich responded that he and the others who oversee the Kosel pay special attention to ensure the privacy of those who place notes in the wall and that this incident, if it was true, was a rare occurrence.

However, Matzav.com has learned that the story was, in fact, a hoax. The boy had apparently placed the check in the wall himself and then went on to make believe like he had found it.

Rav Rabinovich had already transferred the case for investigation by the Israeli police.

As reported here on Matzav.com back in July 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama placed a prayer note in the Kosel which was later removed by a teenager and sold to the Maariv newspaper, which printed it, prompting widespread from many, including Rav Rabinovitch, for violating people’s privacy.

As for the most recent hullabaloo, a representative of the Western Wall Foundation said that “It is not clear what would bring a young boy to pull off such a joke, particularly during the Nine Days.”

Thousands of notes and prayers are stuffed into the cracks of the Kosel. In recent years, The Western Wall Heritage Foundation opened a fax hotline and a website where people overseas can send their prayers and have them printed out and placed in the Kosel. The Kosel is emptied of its notes several times a year and they are buried, like shaimos.

{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}


6 COMMENTS

  1. some people are soo desperate for kavod & respect that they are willing to pay any amount just for a little honor & respect.

    FORGETTING THE FACT that honor, pride & the want to seek respect turns a person right off the derech (pirkei avos)

    LET THEM SEEK HELP FROM A PSYCOLOGIST & have a REFUA SHLEIMA

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