Prayers from the Heart
A holy rabbi once taught that unless we believe the holy One ,blessed be He renews creation every day, our prayers grow habitual and tedious. Sometimes we need to step back and reflect if our prayer is from the heart or is it from memory, by rote.
There was once a shepherd and did not know how to pray. Yet every day he said: “L-rd of the Universe! You know full well that if You have beasts to herd and were to give them to me I would tend them without charge though everybody pays me; for I love You.”.
On one occasion a learned rabbi passed that way and found the shepherd praying. “Fool,” said he, “do not pray like that!” “And how should I pray?” asked the shepherd. At which point the learned man taught him the order of the blessings, and the “Hear, O Israel” prayer and the other prayers, in order that he should no longer say what he had been familiar to say. But after the rabbi went away, the shepherd forgot all that he had been taught and could not recite it. He was also afraid to say what he had formerly said, because the learned man had warned him not to.
Now in a dream at night the rabbi heard a voice that said to him: “If you do not tell him to say what he was accustomed to say before you met him, and if you do not go there, then know what evil is awaiting you. For you have robbed Me of one of those who is assured of the World to Come!” The rabbi went at once and told the man.
Now here there was neither knowledge of the Torah nor good deeds, merely one who thought to be good. The Holy One, blessed be He regarded this as a great thing, for the Merciful One always seeks the heart.
Sefer Chasidim
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