A Soulful Journey

A man came into a bookstore on the Lower East Side. She wanted to buy a siddur for his grandson. The shopkeeper brought him siddur after siddur but the man said, “No, that is not it. That's not what I want.” All the while, his eyes were searching the shelves. Finally he pointed to a siddur and said, “That’s the one I want.” The storekeeper took it down, a big fat siddur with perushim (commentaries) and halachot.  The storekeeper was truly impressed. He said to his customer, “Your grandson must be going to a Yeshivah.” The customer eyed him coldly and said, “No sir. he is only two years old.” The storekeeper, shocked and surprised said, “Then excuse me, why are you buying him in Otzar ha-tefillot?  Why don’t you buy him one of these?”  And he pointed to a little siddur used in the first year of school.”  The customer explained, “You see at the age of two what does a child do when you give him a book? He tears up pages, page after page. If I were to...

A disciple asked his rabbi what difference it made how he uttered the prayers since the words in the siddur were the same, no matter whether they were said with great difference or indifferently.   His rabbi replied, “A statue can be cast from a mold; but one can pour gold into it or lead.   In form, the two statues will be identical but obviously the golden one is more beautiful.   So it is with prayers.   Outwardly they have the same form but it is the inward devotion that determines their beauty.” -Hasidic Pray like you mean it!

An 8 year old was attending services at the time he was receiving his first siddur, prayer book. The rabbi spoke to the young man who happened to have one of the names of Jacob’s children. The rabbi expressed the hope that the boy would have a “Life of dedication to your brothers, the people of Israel.” The youngster replied at the top of his voice, “I ain’t got no brothers.” Yes, he does. And the sooner we all come to accept this fact the safer we will all be.