Jerusalem's Western Wall's chief rabbi on Sunday cleared notes sent to God by worshipers, making room for new pleads-on-paper to be shoved into the cracks of the ancient stones.

Millions of people visit the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, every year, leaving written prayers on pieces of paper wedged into the cracks of the ancient worship site.

As Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall, it is up to Shmuel Rabinowitz to make sure there's room for future paper wishes. Twice a year his team collects hundreds of thousands of notes -- ahead of the Jewish New Year and ahead of Passover.

"We remove these notes at the eve of the (Jewish) new year, with the massage of 'let this year and its curses end, let a new year and its blessings begin'. There are millions of notes here between the cracks of the Western Wall. There is also a very large increase in the (number) of notes. More visitors to the Western Wall mean more notes in the Western Wall and we clear them in order to allow people to place new notes," Rabinowitz told Reuters.

A handful of men using wooden sticks so as not to harm the ancient stones, extracted the thousands of small notes from the cracks in the wall.

They never read the notes and have never counted the number of scripted prayers, but in each collection there are enough to fill about 100 shopping bags, each with thousands of notes, Rabinowitz said.

Some letters are sent to the wall by fax or email -- often for a small fee. Rabinowitz said he receives hundreds of letters a year received by the post office addressed simply to "God in Jerusalem".

At most hours of the day the Western Wall is lined with people deep in prayer. Many lean forward and touch their foreheads to the stones. With eyes closed, they whisper their wishes and kiss the wall when they have finished praying.

Leaving notes of prayers and pleads, has been adopted by members of many faiths around the world. It is very common for Christian pilgrims traveling through the Old City of Jerusalem to stop by the Western Wall and leave a note, the rabbi says.

The Western Wall is believed to be a remnant of the compound of the Second Temple that was destroyed in 70 AD. It stands today beneath a religious plaza known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The entire wall stretches about 500 meters, although much of it is concealed underground. The exposed part where people gather to pray is about 50 meters long and about 15 meters high.

Israel captured the Western Wall together with East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.

Reuters