‘Obama’s Pilfered Prayer Note’

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The New York Sun

‘Obama’s Pilfered Prayer Note’

Hillel Halkin is incorrect in stating that aspiring to be an instrument of God’s will is indicative of “dangerous” pride [Oped, “Obama’s Pilfered Prayer Note,” July 29, 2008].

Indeed, as part of the Jewish liturgy with which Jews throughout the world usher in the Sabbath each Friday evening, we sing the beautiful liturgical poem “Yedid Nefesh” (“Beloved of the Soul”), in which we ask God to “draw your servant to Your will.” Does not such a desire necessarily involve the sublimation one’s own will?

In a world that so urgently needs fixing (“tikkun” in Hebrew), being “an instrument of [God’s] will” would seem to be a very noble thing.

DAVID KERNER
Brooklyn, N.Y.

I don’t understand why Hillel Halkin would have a problem with Senator Obama or anybody praying that they be an instrument of God’s will.

I don’t believe that such a prayer is a manifestation of dangerous pride. As I see it, the prayer just expresses the hope that an individual’s decisions approximate as much as possible what would be decided if God were to make the decisions for us.

There is implicit in this prayer the recognition that individuals on their own may make wrong decisions, but that with God’s help we may aspire towards making better decisions.

At the end of his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln expressed essentially the same idea when he stated “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”

I happen to be a Republican supporter of Senator McCain, but I can find no fault with Mr. Obama’s prayer. I would hope that any potential president would humbly seek God’s help as he or she seeks to do what is right.

JAMES BERNSTEIN
New York, N.Y.

I disagree with Hillel Halkin’s cynical comments about Senator Obama’s note which he placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Mr. Halkin finds disingenuous or insincere Mr. Obama’s request that God protect his family, keep him from sin, and give him the wisdom to do what is right and just.

Mr. Halkin thinks that Mr. Obama should have asked God: “I’d sure like to be President and would appreciate any assistance you can give me.”

To me, Mr. Obama’s request strikes me as very simple and personal — it was personal until egregiously leaked to the Israeli newspapers.

What struck me particularly, however, was how Mr. Halkin described the intensely personal notes that women left in prayer books in Rachel’s tomb intended as prayers to God which he and his then 5-year-old daughter read 30 years ago to find out what people ask for.

After stating that he feels no guilt about removing these notes from the prayer books, he pokes fun at what was requested: one person asks that her daughter in law should get pregnant, another that her husband be cured of illness, yet another that she be able to lose 30 pounds and finally, a request that a woman’s sister pass the driver’s test — all deeply human and very personal — nothing surprising at all about these requests.

It is very disturbing that the placing of a Kvittel (note) in the Kotel or leaving a note in Rachel’s tomb is subjected to ridicule.

I am confident that the hundreds of thousands who have left such deeply personal and heartfelt notes in times of despair and heartache did so with the utmost seriousness and sincerity.

MARK MEIROWITZ
New York, N.Y.


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