מועדים לשיחה; מהדורה משפחתית, יום כיפור, מעשה שהיהCeremony and Celebration Family Edition, The Hagim, Yom Kippur, It Once Happened
א׳
1One Yom Kippur, the Baal Shem Tov was praying together with his students, and he had a worrying sense that the prayers were not getting through, and that the harsh heavenly decree against the Jewish people was not being overturned. As Ne’ila approached, and with it the final opportunity for the Jewish people to avert this harsh judgement, he and his students increased their fervour and passion in their prayers, but to no avail.
ב׳
2As the Ḥazan began the Ne’ila service, a simple shepherd boy wandered into shul to pray. He could barely read the letters of the Alef-Beit, let alone say all the words in the maḥzor. Feeling helpless, he opened the first page of his siddur and recited: alef, beit, veit, gimel, dalet. He said to God in his heart: “This is all I can do. God, You know how the prayers should be pronounced. Please, arrange the letters in the proper way.”
ג׳
3Louder and louder, with more and more intensity he recited the letters. Heh, vav, zayin, Ḥet…. The people around him began to mutter, complaining that he was disturbing their prayers. But the Baal Shem Tov immediately silenced them, and declared for everyone to hear that “because of this boy’s prayers the gates to heaven are wedged open for the last few minutes of Yom Kippur, allowing our prayers in.” So it was on that Yom Kippur that the simple, genuine prayers of a young shepherd boy who couldn’t read resounded powerfully within the heavenly court and saved the Jewish people.
ד׳
4❖ Points to Ponder
1. Is it important to know that the boy was a shepherd boy?
1. Is it important to know that the boy was a shepherd boy?
ה׳
52. Why do you think the boy chose to say the Alef-Beit in the form of a prayer?
ו׳
63. What message can you take from this story for your Yom Kippur?