Shabbat Shuvah—Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
The following story appears in Elie Wiesel’s Souls on Fire, a collection of stories about the early Hasidic masters:
A woman begged the Maggid of Kozhenitz to pray for her; she wanted a child.
“My mother was as unhappy as you are, and for the same reason,” he told her. “Until the day she met the Ba’al Shem Tov. She presented him with a cape. I was born the following year.”
“Thank you,” the woman said, beaming. “I’ll do as your mother did. I’ll bring you the most beautiful cape I can find.”
The Maggid of Kozhenitz smiled: “No, that won’t help you. You see, my mother didn’t know this story.”
I love this tale because it so neatly captures the dreams and disappointments we can experience on Yom Kippur. Who among us hasn’t desperately prayed for something? Sometimes our prayers are answered, but often they are not. And the idea that giving someone a cape could guarantee us a baby is so tempting—both to us, and to the woman in the story—even if we know the world doesn’t work that way. We can be left wondering at the point of all the words in the mahzor (High Holiday prayerbook).
But this story teaches us that if we simply mimic another’s path, we should expect nothing in response; we each have to find our own path to prayer. And it teaches us that acts of kindness must be done for their own sake; if we give in order to get something in return, we will emerge with nothing. But if we act out of selfless love, we will reap much more than we sow.
Shabbat shalom and g’mar hatimah tovah—may you be written and inscribed for a good year, a year of learning, growth, heartfelt prayer and deep kindness.
Rabbi Jonathan Berger
Head of School
Questions for the Shabbat table:
1. In your own words, what was the Maggid of Kozhenitz trying to say?
2. What are you praying for this year? How might you make yourself more worthy of God’s blessings—keeping in mind that worthiness is no guarantee?