Telushkin’s book begins with the question, "What is your first reaction when you're talking with a friend and your conversation is suddenly interrupted by the wail of a siren...?" Do you say a prayer, hoping that the emergency vehicle gets "there" in time or do you go on with your conversation, perhaps annoyed by the interruption? Not a metaphorical alarm. Not bells and whistles going off in your head - an actual siren, indicating that a person nearby is in distress. What do you do?
Do you take the opportunity to say prayer for a stranger, as a way to connect. With God. With the stranger. It is a place to begin. A prayer for a stranger. In our siddur, Mishkan T’fillah, there is a poem found at the beginning of the Amidah. In it, the pray-er says, “Prayer may not fix a broken bridge or water a parched field…” I have wondered recently, “But what if it does.” Not in the God’s Hand Reaching Down From Heaven kind of way - but in the way that a prayer might inspire someone, or a community, to fix the bridge or water a field. Perhaps that is the miracle of prayer - it can focus and energize a personal, or communal, call to action.
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