His grandfather and namesake, Rav Shmuel Benzion Rabinowitz, was a pillar of pre-state Old Jerusalem. His father, Rav Chaim Yehuda Rabinowitz, is head of the Jerusalem Beis Din. So although Rav Shmuel Rabinowiz, rabbi of the Kosel and holy sites in Eretz Yisrael, is in daily contact with heads of state and international VIPs, he says he’s just another link in the chain, taking encouragement from his own inspiring legacy.
Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz rarely gets private time at the Kosel. Erev Pesach after chatzos Purim night after the Megillah Erev Rosh HaShanah after all the minyanim for Selichos and Shacharis have ended. Then he becomes anonymous alone with his prayers like any ordinary Jew. This is his territory but as the rav of the Kosel and Holy Sites of Eretz Yisrael it’s rare that he can face the stones in private conversation with G-d unaccompanied by a visiting dignitary a bar mitzvah group or a tail of worshippers vying for a few minutes of his time.
“The Belzer Rebbe said to me on several occasions ‘I wish I could come to the Kosel to daven — not as the Belzer Rebbe but as any other Jew so that no one would bother me. I want to be alone with Hashem.’ I too am simply another Jew with his own requests.”
Privacy issues notwithstanding Rav Rabinowitz — who was appointed to the position before he turned thirty — bears his public role gracefully cognizant of the fact that he is just another link in a chain of illustrious public servants. His own lineage is not lost on him nor is the legacy of his grandfather and namesake Rav Shmuel Rabinowitz ztz”l — a pillar of the Old Yishuv in Jerusalem who actually turned down the offer to become … rav of the Kosel.
Rav Rabinowitz has his hands full with contemporary Western Wall politics — Women of the Wall the visit of the pope and gender segregation at secular bar mitzvahs — but he prefers to connect to his past to take his energy from the memories and the history that has shaped his own position.
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