6.st
vt, tli00 Keeping A Personal Relationship With God

By MARY KORETZ

I don't recall the existence of a
synagogue in Chelsea, Mass.,
although I was born and lived dortn
until the age of 6. This, chotsh I
retain a klor, visual image of the
town. At any rate, even if there had
been a synagogue, we wouldn't
have attended.
My father had an bayzer
concept of God. He would declare
passionately, "Afile if there was a
God, I volt nit worship to Him. How
could He derloybn so much
suffering to exist?"
I vays nit what my mother felt.
She didn't farentfern with my father.
She cheerfully hot gebentsht the
candles every Sabbath ovent. The
odors of the esenvarg, that we were
about to enjoy, was genug to
tsetreibn any anger my father felt.
When we moved to Detroit, my
life teetered helplessly. I felt that the
nayt for someone to lean on for
support. My eltern were farnumin
with providing material needs for
themselves and their three techter.
I established a personal and
bsodik relationship with God. I
didn't go to a shul or pray. I didn't

"I established a
personal and bsodik
relationship with God. I
didn't go to a shul or
pray. I didn't think of
Him teglich. As a matter
of fact, I only thought of
God when my need
appeared to be greser
than I could leidn. Then,
I could call Him out of
my secret seld and
share my grief or
moyre."

think of Him teglich. As a matter of
fact, I only thought of God when my
need appeared to be greser than I
could leidn. Then, I would call Him
out of my secret seld and share my
grief or moyre.
Sometimes, I would make
deals with Him. "God, if you will
bashitn me, I'll be so good." Once,
in desperation, I hob tsugezugt that
I would devote my gants life to
serving Him in a convent. With a
dershrokn start, I realized, that Jews
didn't gehat convents. I was

frustrated, not visn what Jews hobn
gehat to offer that would match
such a gesture.
The deals hobn oyfgehert but
not my personal relationship with
God. He makes no demands on me
or me on Him. He is bloyz there for
me to say, "Oh, God," when I
receive shlechte news. We enjoy an
easy companionship. He does not
judge or reject me. He farshtayt my
weaknesses.
I have met people — not many
— like that. They're the people I lib
and respect iber. I don't gloyb that
God can be less.

Vocabulary

dortn
chotsh

there
although

klor
bayzer
afile
volt nit
derloybn
vays nit
farentfern
hot gebentsht
ovent
esenvarg
genug
tsetreibn
lebn
nayt
eltern
farnumin
techter
bsodik
shul
teglich
greser

clear
angry
even
would not
permit
know not
argue
blesses
evening
food
enough
dispel
life
need
parents
occupied
daughters
secret
synagogue
daily
greater

leidn
seld
moyre
bashitn
hob tsugezugt
gants
dershrokn
gehat
visn
hobn gehat
oyfgehert
bloyz
shlechte
farshtayt
lib
iber
gloyb

endure
self
fear
protect
promised
entire
frightened
possess
knowing
did have
stopped
just/only
bad
understand
love
all
believe

Mary Koretz of Oak Park has taught
both children's and adult classes in
Yiddish at the Workmen's Circle.

Thinking Of Praying? 'Just Do It!'

By RABBI DANNEL I. SCHWARTZ

A mother listening to the
evening prayers of her sleepy
3-year-old was astonished and
amazed to hear her say in a very
serious way: "Now I lay me down to
sleep, I pray 0 Lord my soul to
keep. When he hollers let him go.
Eenie, Meenie, Miny, Mo!"
Just before the time for silent
prayers at a recent service in a
Conservative synagogue, a
youngster turned to his family and
asked: "I'm going to say my prayers
now ... anybody want me to ask
for anything special?"
The Chasidim tells a story of an
illiterate man who walks up to the
bimah of a local shul in the middle
of a Shabbat service and opens the
ark while reciting the alphabet at
the top of his lungs. The onlookers
were at first astonished by the
man's behavior: as he continued,
they became mortified; and by the
time he reached the middle of the
alphabet they were enraged. "What
is he doing?" asked one. "It's
blasphemy!" declared another.
"Throw him out." yelled a third.
"0 Lord of the Heavens and
the Earth," the man intoned in
Yiddish. "I am sorry that I cannot
read the prayers, for I cannot read. I
am sorry I do not know them by
rote but I never learned them. The
only thing I know in Hebrew is the
alphabet. 0 Master of the Universe,
You know the words that are in my
heart, so take the letters I have
given to You and make them the
words of my prayer."

All three stories are
manifestations of the same
principle. Is just saying the prayers
important, even if they have no
meaning to the person who recites
them? Is prayer to be used as a
kind of long distance order form for
all requests big and small? Lastly,
what is more important: the form
your prayer takes, its substance, or
the substance of the heart and soul
that is behind the prayer in the first
place?
I personally agree with the
school of thought which believes
that first you have to say the prayer

All that matters is that
you take the first step or
. "Just Do It." The
concept here is that the
mitzvah will make the
mood.

or do the mitzvah. It doesn't matter
whether you understand it, feel it or
internalize it right now. All that
matters is that you take the first
step or as the sneaker ad says ...
"Just Do It." The concept here is
that the mitzvah will make the
mood. First you have to put the
prayer in place and then you can
modify it or give it more meaning
later.
For example, it is a mitzvah to
give candlesticks as a gift in order
to prompt someone to light the
candles and say the prayer. It is a
mitzvah to show someone how to

use tefillin, so that, not only will the
act of putting them on no longer be
foreign, but will prompt its user to
do it again. The idea is that if the
act of prayer makes you feel more a
part of the spiritual, it will help build
for whatever might follow.
There are others who believe
strongly that prayer is effective in a
very practical way as well. The
Almighty answers all of our requests
through prayer but sometimes the
responses are the same kind that a
parent uses when replying to the
pleas of a child with "Not just now,"
or "We'll see," or "I'll have to think
about that for a little while."
The late Rabbi Morris Adler
summed up a third point of view
when he said: "All prayers are
answered not when we are given
what we ask, but when we are
challenged to be what we can." Or
put in a different way, after saying
your prayers at night, you have to
get up the next day and do
something to try to make them
come true.
Perhaps the most meaningful
reason for prayer is the one that is
recounted in the Midrash. The
legend tells us that prayer is a tool
that gives us a path to the fifth
direction. As everyone knows there
are four directions to which we are
slaves. Each direction leads to a
different place in the universe ...
North, South, East and West. The
fifth direction is the one that leads
inside us ... to the soul.

Rabbi Schwartz is spiritual leader of
Temple Shir Shalom.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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