Shalom all!
I prepared this short blog post to show you, in pictures, how the prayer-processing looks on my end. Hope you enjoy:
1. Printing: After the prayers have been received, the next step is printing them. Fortunately, I posses the amazing one-of-a-kind prayer printer!
2. Rolling: When the printer has finished printing (or, the toner ran out), the pages are cut to strips using a utility knife. Then the strips are rolled into small scrolls. Here’s how it looks like when we’re just getting started:
And a good few hours later:
3. Driving: Now that the prayers are ready, it’s time to go to Jerusalem!(I should mention that this road-sign was photographed while I was at the passenger’s seat 
):
4. Getting inside the Old City: We have arrived in Jerusalem. The Old City has a wall surrounding it, and the Jaffa Gate is the nearest place to go through:
We have reached the Western Wall – the Kotel! Here’s a picture of a wooden box filled with prayers with the Western Wall in the background:
Here’s a picture of me standing on a chair, sticking my hand inside the Wall:
And eventually…
These are just some of the prayers that were placed. At the end of the day, all the prayers from the box found their final resting place in the Western-Wall.
You can also watch the entire process on a video report Reuters made about me & TweetYourPrayers (Link).
This Monday I went to Jerusalem with a filming crew and France2 reporter Bernard Lebrun. He did a story about me and TweetYourPrayers that was aired yesterday at the mid-day news. From the first phone call I had with him I had the feeling he is a very nice man. He was very patient as I spoke broken french with him and it sounded like he was very happy to speak with me despite my poor verbal skills in French (J’oublie Français a l’École mais malheureusement je n’ai pas parle la langue depuis la lycée).
When he came to Tel-Aviv to meet with me he proved he really is a nice man. He really loved the simplicity yet importance of my idea and was happy to report it.
After filming at the Kotel, Bernard and I waited on the balcony for the camera-man Mossi to bring in another battery for his camera. We had an interesting talk, since he leads an interesting life as a reporter. He was also in Beirut and Tehran, and we obviously talked about peace between Israel and the arab states. He told me something very special and insightful, it was short, but it’s the most important thing that I’ll take with me from the France2 experience.
What he told me that he is optimistic there will be peace one day. When young people in Tehran and Tel-Aviv use the same medium to change the world in their own way, these people speak a common language. Because of technology, the young will bridge the differences and make peace.
I hope he’s right.
(I must say though that I don’t think what I do changes the world. I think it helps a little, and is very important to the few thousands I served so far, but it’s nothing compared to what happened in Tehran).
Anyway, I’ll leave you with a picture I took on that balcony of Bernard closing up his story.
Bernard Lebrun in front of the camera with the Kotel in the background.
(click to enlarge)
This past monday I was at the Western Wall. I put in all the prayers received until that morning. I also put in a note I wrote.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Free Gilad.
