A cobbler came to Rabbi Isaac of Ger and said, "Tell me what to go about my morning prayer. My customers are poor men who have only one pair of shoes. I pick up their shoes late in the evening and work on them most of the night; at dawn there is still work to be done if the men are to have their shoes ready before they go to work. Now my question is: What should I do about my morning prayer?"
"What have you been doing till now?" the Rabbi asked.
"Sometimes I rush through the prayer quickly and get back to my work - but then I feel bad about it. At other times I let the hour of prayer go by. Then too I feel a sense of loss and every now and then, as I raise my hammer from the shoes, I can almost hear my heart sigh, 'What an unlucky man I am, that I am not able to make my morning prayer.'"
Said the Rabbi, "If I were God I would value that sigh more than the prayer."
Anthony de Mello
"What have you been doing till now?" the Rabbi asked.
"Sometimes I rush through the prayer quickly and get back to my work - but then I feel bad about it. At other times I let the hour of prayer go by. Then too I feel a sense of loss and every now and then, as I raise my hammer from the shoes, I can almost hear my heart sigh, 'What an unlucky man I am, that I am not able to make my morning prayer.'"
Said the Rabbi, "If I were God I would value that sigh more than the prayer."
Anthony de Mello
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