In a village there lived a very wealthy man who thought that he should be chosen to lead the congregation in prayer because of his importance to everyone in the village. No one in the village was pleased with the idea, but on the other hand they were afraid of what might happen to them if they were to challenge the powerful wealthy man. So they put their troubled heads together and decided to send a delegation to ask the holy rabbi who lived in a nearby town for some advice. The holy rabbi suggested that the wealthy man, the self-appointed prayer leader should come to him for a blessing.

When in due course the self-appointed baal tefillah (prayer leader) of the village came to the holy rabbi to receive his blessing before under­taking the weighty responsibility of leading his community in prayer, the holy rabbi asked him’ “why should you lead the community in prayer?” The wealthy man took a deep breath and began to explain how he gave a lot of tzedakah (charity), he had built many homes in the village and that he employed most of the villagers.

 The holy rabbi listened and then explained, “As you know, the Torah speaks of three kinds of prayer.

There is

‘the prayer of Moshe Rabbeinu’ (Moses our Teacher);

There is

‘the prayer of King David’; and

There is

 ‘the prayer of a poor man.’

Now Moshe Rabbeinu was indeed ‘slow of speech and slow of tongue.’ (Exodus 4: 10) — but he was the father of the prophets and the teacher of all Israel. King David — why, he is called ‘the sweet singer of Israel.’ (2 Samuel 23:1) And as for the poor man, his heart is humble, and we know from Psalms that ‘a broken and contrite heart, O G-d, You will not despise.’ (Psalm 51:17)

“Now the baalei tefillah of our days who lead their congregations in prayer likewise fall into these same three categories. There are those who are not very musical, but they are righteous — so their prayers are ac­cepted like ‘the prayer of Moshe.’ Then there are those who are perhaps not quite so righteous, but in their melodiousness they ‘exalt God with their throats’ — so their prayers are accepted like ‘the prayer of David.’ Finally, there are those who are neither righteous nor musical, but since they are poor and their hearts are humble, their prayers are accepted like ‘the prayer of a poor man.’

“Now as for you,” concluded the tzaddik, “we cannot say that you are especially righteous; nor can we say that you are musical; and neither (thank G-d) are you a poor man. So if you want to lead your community in prayer. I will have to pray that you now merit to fit into one of these three levels. There is no need for me to explain to you that to ask heaven to make you a tzaddik a sweet singer all of a sudden would be a vain prayer. The only way I can help you, therefore, is by asking heaven to make you poor, and then at least your prayer ‘the prayer of a poor man’…”

No, sir!” exclaimed the wealthy man in alarm. “I definitely don’t want to lead the prayers anymore!”

May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)

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