Ma’ayan
Sands- A Parable
This
offering was originally written as a final project for a class in
Tefillah. I don’t know why I was drawn
to offer a home woven parable…about prayer, no less?! What I realized is that I’m not sure it is
possible to transmit a story about prayer.
Isn’t praying itself what we do when we can’t transmit our feelings in a
story? I don’t think my offering is a
successful parable but I’m pretty sure that my quest for a parable about prayer
IS itself, the parable about prayer.
משל: (a parable) Once upon a
time, not so long ago and not so far away, there lived a man. He lived alone in a humble house in a small neighborhood
outside of the city. His house was
surrounded by trees. The air was
constantly filled with the noise of birds calling to each other. In the
fall the woods became messy with fallen leaves.
But the man never noticed anything or anybody around him. Near his house was a small, pond with fish
swimming in it. The stillness of the
woods was annoying to him. The birds made too much noise and the silvery orange
fish in the pond were too silent. He
never felt excited by the possibility of something unexpected happening. His heart was never stirred. He was numb to everything and everybody. He never worried that something bad might
happen. Nothing ever happened.
There
was a synagogue in the neighboring town.
The rabbi was a kind man who was learned but not wise. The man dutifully went to pray at the
appointed time every day. He put on all of his prayer paraphernalia just as he
had learned from his father and he never missed saying the appropriate
blessings. He praised God according to
the words on the page, he asked for the needs of the community exactly as they
were written in the prayer book and he sang of God’s greatness respectfully,
saying the words as they were written with the rest of his community. His heart was never stirred. When he was blessed with an Aliyah he always
gave an appropriate contribution to the shul.
On one particular Shabbat when he was given an Aliya he became aware of
feelings unfamiliar to him. He felt a twinge of excitement. He was aware of his heart beating and he felt
a twinge of excited anticipation. His
prayer also felt different as the time for his Aliya approached. The man next to him was also given an
Aliya. When he glanced at his neighbor,
that man glanced back. Briefly, the man
felt that he shared something with the other man. They were somehow connected in a way that
they hadn’t been before. The man felt
that he was part of something bigger than himself.
As
the next Shabbos approached, the man began to think about the feeling of
excitement he had when he and the man next to him had glanced at each
other. He had liked it. Maybe he would feel that connection again
this Shabbat. . He wanted to observe a bit more of the world
around him and decided to take a longer route than his usual direct walk to the
shul. His heart and mind felt more open and
stimulated than they had before. As he approached the center of his town he saw
a man staggering down the sidewalk. As he watched the man
tripped over the curb and fell into the street. He had been holding a brown paper bag in his
hand. When he fell, the bottle inside
broke and the liquid spilled across the sidewalk. “He’s drunk” the man thought. He felt distain until…two girls rushed from across
the street and cried: “It’s Daddy! Please help!
He’s ill.” The man felt an energy
that was not familiar to him. He and
several others near him, rushed to the girls and their Dad lying on the ground. The man crouched down near the man’s
head. He told him to lie still that help
was coming. The man looked into the eyes
of the man lying on the ground-who looked back at him. The man felt connected. He felt grateful that he was able to help. He looked around at the other people who had
stopped doing what they were doing, took a detour from where they were going
and were working together to help the fallen man and his daughters. He looked back at the fallen man who seemed both
afraid and also comforted by the caring of the man and the others. The police took the fallen man to the
hospital. Our friend lingered. He was aware of the power of the feelings
that were flowing through him. And he
felt his heart stir. He had been able to help. He was part of a small community
of people who cared enough to stop and help a stranger. Our friend slowly stood up. He looked around him. His surroundings felt different from
before. There was a magical feeling in
the air. Without thinking about it, the
man silently looked up and uttered thanks for having been in that place, at
that time. As the man walked toward his
shul, he felt open; a small but significant part of a whole that was greater
than all of them together. The “Aliya friend” came and sat next to him. They exchanged a warm smile. That morning his
experience of prayer was very different for him. When he blessed and praised God his prayers
come from a deep place within him. He
felt gratitude to God. He stood a little
taller and sang a little louder. He felt
embraced.
The
man walked home from shul that day through his woods. As he entered them, he was aware of how alive
his woods were. He felt embraced by the
energy of nature around him. He heard
the chirping birds who seemed to call out their desire to connect with each other,
with the trees and… with the man. He was
available to them. He took a few minutes
to watch the fish. He saw with his heart
that they were not silent as he had thought, but engaged in a gentle
conversation each one with the other. The
man had been touched by Torah-a living Torah and it transformed him. The eyes of another plus gratitude had exposed the spiritual
resource door within our friend. The
Divine had been awakened within him. Nothing was the same as it had been the
day before.
