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Good Shabbes…
My daughter and son want an upgrade. No, not on their parents, though truth be told, I think that there are indeed times when they would like to “trade us in” for newer more up-to-date models. Rather, they want an upgrade on their cell phones. They are not due yet for their upgrades, but being the loving and sacrificing parents we are (and it not being really so relevant to us – who needs a new phone every year?), Ava and I will be giving them our upgrades eligible this month.
According to our kids, it’s important for them to be able to stay in touch with us through all manners of communication – phone, text, email. I marvel at how we are all attached so wirelessly to one another. But even before cell phones, Jews have been wirelessly connected…to God.
“Prayer is the wireless message between man and God.” These are the words of Herbert S. Goldstein in his, A Letter on Prayer. Goldstein writes, “What bread is to the body, prayer is to the soul. Prayer is the food of the soul. The spiritual glow of one prayer lasts until the utterance of the next, even as the strength derived from one meal lasts until the next one.”
“Religion brings the soul back to God, and prayer is the means which it employs to do this. Every day we send the wireless message of prayer to God, renewing thereby our constant friendship with Him. Those who make prayer a rare practice are only acquaintances but not friends of God.”
“Prayer serves not only as a petition to God, but as an influence upon ourselves. Our sages, centuries ago, voiced the thought echoed by the great poet, George Meredith, who declared, ‘He who rises from his worship a better man, his prayer is answered.’ Prayer has the double charm of bringing God down to man, and lifting man upward to God.”
“Prayer distinguishes man from the brute. The cattle get up in the morning, are fed, and sent out to the green pastures. In the evening they are brought back to the barn, given some food, ruminate and have their bed of straw made and then go to sleep. Are there not many of us today who, like the cattle, rise in the morning, swallow our food quickly, hurry downtown, the pasture for the day, back home in the evening, ruminate in some movie house, them home again to bed, just as the beast without a word of prayer, of thanks-giving for the life God daily renews within us?”
“The conviction of all believers in prayer is that they are speaking to one who hears and cares for them. This is one of the strongest evidences that the quest for God is real. When one prays to God, it is, as the Rabbis put it, ‘Like a man who talks into the ear of his friend.’”
“At times we get discouraged and seem to think that God is angry, and does not answer our prayers. We have asked for money, for success, for strength, and yet we have not been blessed with any of these things. God may show His kindness to us, my friends, in denying us some of the things for which we prayed and longed. But just as the parent does not and should not fulfill every wish of the child (maybe I need to reconsider giving my upgrade to my kids), so does the All-wise God deny us for our own good some of our petitions. The poet put it, ‘Not what we wish, but what we need, Oh, let Thy grace supply; the good unasked, in mercy grant; the ill, though asked, deny.’”
“It may be that we seldom say a word of prayer. We have lost the habit, or perhaps were never taught it. We are like a home with a beautiful piano in the parlor, which is never played. We who do not pray are like that piano. We do not give forth the fine, clear notes of the spirit that lies mute and dormant in our souls.”
“The Reverend Doctor H. Pereira Mendes had this to say on prayer:
‘God give us much.
Should we not give Him some time?
Let no day pass without one prayer.
Better one prayer than no prayer at all.
Prayer should be the key to the morning and the bolt at night.’”
I hope you’ll join me in prayer on Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bob Silvers
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