Seeds for Sanctuary

Wow!

Seeds XII, 27

Seed: Wow!

Rabbi Marc Gellman of Temple Beth Torah in Long Island sounds like a real character to me. He’s part of the God Squad team on cable television. Over the next four weeks, we are going to explore his four kinds of prayers.

Gellman was quoted, “There is no prayer harder than suburban Jewish prayer,” he said. “Evangelical Christians, Pentecostals, they go to church to pray. Why else would they be there? But Jews are different. People come to temple to identify with other Jews, or socialize. The writer Harry Golden once asked his father, who was an atheist, why he went to services every Saturday. The old man told him, ‘My friend Garfinkle goes to talk to God, and I go to talk to Garfinkle.’ There’s a lot of that.”

I’d heard that before, but what I hadn’t heard was this: “Really, when you come right down to it, there are only four basic prayers.” One of them is “Wow!”

Gellman calls these prayers of praise and wonder at the whole of creation. I know, I know, we are sometimes stopped by wonder. Pink clouds at dusk. A mournful birdsong. The slink of a puma. But what about the everyday parts of creation?

Wow! The sun’s up. Wow! I woke up before the alarm. Wow! I found my toothbrush. Wow! There’s toothpaste too. Wow! Running water. Wow! A clean towel! Wow! Morning. Wow! Tea. Wow! Coffee. Wow! Breakfast. Wow! My car started on the first go. I know you take my point.

Wow! I’m alive. Wow! So are you. Praise the Wow, and pass the butter please.

Be passion,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

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